MRS. DALLOWAY- What a morning!

Virginia Woolf

COMPREHENSION

>>Where is Mrs Dalloway going?

Mrs Dalloway is going to buy some flowers for her party in the coming evening.

>>What is her mood?

She feels in the same mood as she felt when she was eighteen.

>> 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 day in which Clarissa wants to make a party and the description of a past morning, when she was eighteen, and Clarissa remember this morning with nostalgia, so she missed her childhood.

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

I think that Peter Walsh could be a man who was in love with Clarissa but she has refused him, indeed she got married with another man.

Clarissa remember a morning in which she was looking out of the window and Peter asked to her if she was looking to the vegetables.

>>What does Scrope Purvis think of Clarissa?

Scrope Purvis thinks that Clarissa is like a bird,  blue-green, light and vivacious .

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

While walking through the streets in Westminster Virginia thinks that people love life, she felt positive. She also thinks about London and about what she loves of this city.

INTERPRETATION

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

-3^rd person narrator;

-omniscient;

- reliable;

- not coincide with the main character;

- intrusive.

>> Focus on style. Critics have often used the term “poetic prose” with reference to Woolf’s style which features an abundance of:

-REPETITIONS:  What a morning! What a lack! What a plunge!

-SIMILIES:  Like a flap of a wave.

-IMAGERY: The kiss of a wave.

-LISTS:  the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men…

-ALLITERATIONS:  before Big Ben strikes.

>> Focus on character. How is Clarissa’s character created?

Clarissa’s character is created through: statement by the author, Clarissa’s behavior, thoughts and feelings and the writer’s use of imagery and symbols.