COMPREHENSION

Where is Mrs Dalloway going?
Mrs Dalloway is going to buy the flowers herself.

What is her mood?
She is happy and exicted because the morning is fresh and amazing and it brings good memories in her mind.

The passage mixes two different time dimensions. Which are they? What sound evokes the past in Clarissa's mind?
The passage mixes the present morning in which she's going to buy flowers and a past morning in which she was eighteen years old and she was looking out a window. The little squeak of the hinges evokes the past in Clarissa's mind.

Who do you think is Peter Walsh?
I think Peter Walsh is an admirer of Clarissa. Maybe he wanted to marry her but she refuses him, but he's still writing letters to her.

What does Scrope Purvis think of Clarissa?
Scrope Purvis thinks Clarissa is: a charming woman, a little like a bird (a jay), over fiftyand grown very white since her illness.

What are Clarissa's thoughts while walking through the streets in Westminster?
Clarissa's thoughts while walking through the streets in Westminster are: people's feelings before and after Big Ben strikes, why people love the Big Ben, love of people for life.

INTERPRETATION

Focus on the point of view. What kind of narrator is used?
It is used an omniscient, reliable and intrusive narrator.

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 alliteration. Find at least one or two examples of each.
Repetition: "How fresh, how calm..."
Similes: "Like the flap of a wave..."
Imagery: "The leaden circles dissolved in the air." "fresh as issued to children on a beach"
List: "His eyes, his pocket-knife, his smile, his grumpiness..."
Alliteration: "The rooks rising..."

Focus on character. How is Clarissa's character created?
Clarissa's character is created through her thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

The painting below is by Virginia Woolf' s sister, Vanessa Bell, an artist who was at the centre of the avant-garde Bloomsbury Group. Can you see any similarities in the way the two sisters portray characters?
I think that the two way of describing characters have in common the absence of physical features. Both artists describes characters through personality, actions and behaviour.