VIRGINIA WOOLF – MRS DALLOWAY

COMPREHENSION

Where is Mrs Dalloway going? 

She's going to the florist shop to buy the flowers herself.

What is her mood? 

She is immersed in his thoughts and she is happy because it is a fresh morning as if "issued to children on a beach".

The passage mixes two different time dimensions. Which are they? What sound evokes the past in Clarissa's mind? 

The passage mixes the description of the morning of the day in which Clarissa will hold a party and the remembering of a morning when Clarissa was eighteen years old. The squeak of the hinges evokes in Clarissa's mind the past. She associates the sound to the burst opening of the windows and to the landscape she viewed outside the windows.

Who do you think is Peter Walsh? What does Clarissa say of him?

In my opinion Peter Walsh is old and close friend of Clarissa. Maybe he was in love with Clarissa but she refused to marry him. Richard Dalloway, her current husband was richer and more well-mannered than Peter Walsh. The thought of Peter, who seems not to have forgotten her because he still writes letters addressed to her, accompanies almost every day Clarissa while she is walking through the streets in London.

What does Scrope Purvis think of Clarissa?

“A charming woman, Scrope Purvis thought her, a touch bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, light, vivacious, thought she was over fifty, and grown very white from his illness”.   

What are Clarissa's thoughts while walking through the streets in Westminster?

She thoughts about her life, she questions life’s true meaning, she reflect on her choose and she reflects on his life choices and while walking the streets of Westminster think about what's going to happen: enjoy the moment when you switch from spring to summer. Beside firstly she describes the feelings suggested by the Big Ben strikes then she wonders why people love it so. She reaches the conclusion we love time because we love life.

INTERPRETATION

Focus on the point of view. What kind of narrator is used?

The narrator is omniscient but she is not intrusive. The novelist uses the stream-of-consciousness technique to connect the thoughts of her characters because she knows her character because she in omniscient.

Focus on style.

Critics have often used the term “poetic prose” with reference to Woolf's style which features an abundance of repetitions, similes, imagery, lists and alliterations. Find at least one or two examples of each.

abundance of repetitions → - was that it?- … - was that it?-

similes → as if issued to children on a beach

imagery → like the flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave..

lists → .. his eyes, his pocket-knife, his smile, his grumpiness

alliterations → What a lack! What a plunge! ; How fresh, how calm..

>> Focus on character. How is Clarissa's character created? Through (more than one answer is possible):

- statements of the author

- Clarissa's thoughts and feelings

- Clarissa's behaviour

- the writer's use of imagery and symbols

Where does Clarissa's stream of thoughts starts? How different is Virginia Woolf's technique, also called “interior monologue”, from Joyce's “stream of consciousness”?

Clarissa's stream of thoughts starts when she hears a little squeak of the hinges. While Joyce uses the technique of “stream of consciousness” that is a free representation of a person's thoughts as they appear in the mind; Virginia Woolf uses the “interior monologue”: presents the character's thoughts in a direct way, imitating character's mind style.

The painting below is by Virginia Woolf's sister, Vanessa Bell, an artist who was at the centre of the avant-garde Bloomsburry Group. Can you see any similarities in the way the two sisters portray characters?

The similarity it can be found is the absence of any interest to describe the subject’s physically. Both sisters' purpose is to describe the personality of the subject without giving any information about how she looks like.