Comprehension

1. Clarissa is told of Septimus's death and imagines him throwing himself from a window
2. She reflects on life and death
3. She contrasts her easy and successful life with the death and suffering of other people
4. She imagines the meeting between Septimus and Sir William Bradshaw
5. She Thinks life can be difficult, but she has the support of her husband
6. She walks to the window
7. She parts the curtains and sees an old lady looking at her
8. The sky is not as Clarissa had imagined it
9. She thinks of her happiness at Bourton and of the pleasure one derives from the activities of day-to-day life
10. She watches the old lady going to bed
11. She thinks Septimus again but does not pity him
12. She decides to go back her party

Interpretation

What is Clarissa's first reaction to Septimus's death?
Clarissa is angry with the Bradshaws, because they talk about death to her party, and thinking to Septimus's death, she doesn't know why he did it, so her first reaction is anger and sadness.
What is her view of death?
Death was defiance, it was an attempt to communicate, in fact people feel the impossibility of reaching the centre which evaded them, closeness drew apart. In death there is an embrace.
What is Clarissa's view of Sir Bradshaw?
Sir Bradshaw is a great doctor, extremely polite to women, but capable of some indescribable outrage, in fact he has a great power in impressing people.
What struggle characterizes Clarissa's life?
The struggle which characterizes Clarissa's life is that she had to live her life even if she doesn't want to. She was never wholly admirable, because she wanted success.
In the last paragraph Clarissa is at the centre of the contrast between her social life and the world outside. Then suddenly a new thought comes to her and she experiences a "moment of being". What does she suddenly realize?
Clarissa realizes that she is not living the life she would have lived, and seeing the old lady, she is surprised by this discovery.
Can you link the two quotations from Shakespeare to Clarissa's moods?
1 )"if it were now to die, twere now to be most happy";
2)"fear no more the heat of the sun".
Focus on the language. Can you explain why many sentences are "loosely constructed", with lots of repetitions and conjunctions?
Virginia Wolf uses a inner monologue to write "Mrs Dalloway", proper of Modern and Postmodern writers. So this way of writing allows the writer to use lots of repetitions and conjunctions.

Analysis

The extract "What an Extraordinary Night" from the novel "Mrs Dalloway" written by Virginia Wolf is organized into seven paragraphs.
In the first paragraph the writer introduces the situation and thoughts of Clarissa about what they guests are talking about. They are talking about Septimus's death, a close friend of Clarissa. The second paragraph deals with death, and what Clarissa thinks about it : she thinks that death is an open disobedience or resistance, it may be considered an attempt to communicate.

The third paragraph is made up of three lines, in which Virginia Wolf quotes some lines from Shakespeare's Othello to underline Clarissa's thoughts and moods.
The fourth paragraph is a description of one of Clarissa's guest, Sir Bradshaw, a great doctor, with an obscure side, with a impressing power.
The last three paragraph deal with the sense of life, and how Clarissa realizes that her way of living was not as she would it like to be. And watching the old lady  that she can see from her window she realizes that she is not living her life.
This extract makes use of  an interior monologue, the narrator is in third person and it's omniscient. Virginia Wolf uses quotation from Shakespeare, in order to underline Clarissa's thoughts and moods.