Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
FComelli - Mrs Dalloway. Analysis
by - (2009-02-03)
Up to Modernist Literary Output. From V. Woolf to T.S.Eliot to J. Joyce
In this short essay I'm going to analyse an extract from the novel Mrs Dalloway, a novel written by Virginia Woolf in 1925.
As I said before the text is a novel but it is only organised into 5 paragraphs. In these paragraphs are describing actions, the reason why Mrs Dalloway doesn't want her mind to do some works, some Mrs Dalloway's reflections, Clarissa's remembrance about Bourton, Scrope Purvis's Point of view and described Clarissa and last but not least Mrs Dalloway's point of view and reflection about time.
The story is set in two places: Westminster, where Mrs Dalloway lives and Bourton, where Clarissa lived when she was a child.
In the text we have other three characters: Lucy that is Mrs. Dalloway's maid, Peter Walsh an old friend of Clarissa and Purvis Scrope a neighbour.
Virginia Woolf uses two different techniques to narrate: the third-person narrator and the interior monologue to tell Clarissa's thoughts and memories.
In conclusion the narrator is interested to show the characters thoughts and to study their psychology.
The extract speaks about Mrs Dalloway's decision to go to buy some flowers for her evening party. The weather and the "squeal of the hinges" remind Mrs Dalloway to her adolescence in Bourton. She remembers the sensation of the fresh air there, the idea that something awful was about to happen, her standing at the window looking the trees, the flowers and the rooks flying and Peter Walsh (a name that reminds in her mind one of the boring letter he has sent to her, in which he sad he would be back (from India) in June). Then she makes a short digression about remembrance. While Clarissa is thinking, she is waiting for Durtnall's van. In that moment Scrope Purvis sees her and he begins to think about her. Finally Clarissa considers the importance of time and underlines its irrevocability.
As I said before the text is a novel but it is only organised into 5 paragraphs. In these paragraphs are describing actions, the reason why Mrs Dalloway doesn't want her mind to do some works, some Mrs Dalloway's reflections, Clarissa's remembrance about Bourton, Scrope Purvis's Point of view and described Clarissa and last but not least Mrs Dalloway's point of view and reflection about time.
The story is set in two places: Westminster, where Mrs Dalloway lives and Bourton, where Clarissa lived when she was a child.
In the text we have other three characters: Lucy that is Mrs. Dalloway's maid, Peter Walsh an old friend of Clarissa and Purvis Scrope a neighbour.
Virginia Woolf uses two different techniques to narrate: the third-person narrator and the interior monologue to tell Clarissa's thoughts and memories.
In conclusion the narrator is interested to show the characters thoughts and to study their psychology.
The extract speaks about Mrs Dalloway's decision to go to buy some flowers for her evening party. The weather and the "squeal of the hinges" remind Mrs Dalloway to her adolescence in Bourton. She remembers the sensation of the fresh air there, the idea that something awful was about to happen, her standing at the window looking the trees, the flowers and the rooks flying and Peter Walsh (a name that reminds in her mind one of the boring letter he has sent to her, in which he sad he would be back (from India) in June). Then she makes a short digression about remembrance. While Clarissa is thinking, she is waiting for Durtnall's van. In that moment Scrope Purvis sees her and he begins to think about her. Finally Clarissa considers the importance of time and underlines its irrevocability.