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

Interpretation

What is Clarissa's first reaction to Septimus's death?
Clarissa gets angry with the Bradshaws because they talked about death at her party, so her first reaction is to walk away in another room.

What is her view on death?
Clarissa thinks that death is defiance, an attempt to communicate, an embrace, and rapture.

What is Clarissa's view of Sir Bradshaw?
Clarissa thinks that William Bradshaw is a great doctor without sex or lust, extremely polite to women but capable of some indescribable outrage. She thinks that he might influenced Septimus.

What struggle characterises Clarissa's life?
Clarissa realizes that he has never been happy because her life is too fast and she has lost herself growing up. So her life isn't how she wanted: she was never wholly admirable.

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?
She suddenly realizes that she isn't thinking about her life and so she can going on. Septimus's death doesn't influence her life.

Can you link the two quotations from Shakespeare to Clarissa's moods?
"If it were now to die, ‘twere now to be most happy": Clarissa wonders if the young man plunged holding his treasure, his happiness.
"Fear no more the heat of the sun": Clarissa realizes that she can going on even if the young man has killed himself and the old lady has put out her light.

Focus on the language. Can you explain why many sentences are "loosely constructed", with lots of repetitions and conjunctions?
The text's writing style is typical Modernist, in fact sentences "loosely constructed", lots of repetition and conjunctions are characterises of Virginia Woolf's technique called "interior monologue".

Analysis

"What an Extraordinary Night!" is an extract from "Mrs Dalloway" by Virginia Wolf, written in 1925.
It is composed of eight paragraph in which is analysed Clarissa's feelings' development through the evening of her party, when a guest talked about the death of a young man. So there is the main character's interior monologue (it is suggested by the language, too).
In the first paragraph William Bradshaw and Mrs Bradshaw (guests) have just started talking about the suicide of Septimus Warren Smith. Clarissa's reaction is to walk away in another room, because she didn't stand they talked about death at her party, and there, she started to reflect about death and her life.
In the second paragraph there is Clarissa's view of death: she thinks that death is defiance, an attempt to communicate, an embrace and rapture. She reflects about life and death making a sort of list about their obscure characteristics.
Going on the third paragraph, there is a Shakespeare's Othello's quotation: "If it were now to die, ‘twere now to be most happy". It reflects Clarissa's mood.
In the fourth paragraph Clarissa imagines the meeting between Septimus and Sir William Bradshaw, a great doctor without sex or lust, extremely polite to women but capable of some indescribable outrage. She thinks that he might influenced Septimus with his power and way of thinking about life.
The following three paragraphs are about Clarissa's feelings for the development of her life. First she talks about the difficulty of living serenely her life, but she immediately realizes she has the support of her husband. Secondly she contrasts her easy and successful life with the death and suffering of other people and thirdly she thinks of her happiness at Bourton and of the pleasure one derives from the activities of day-to-day life.
In the last paragraph there are some Clarissa's contrasting emotions. First she looks at the sky out of the window and it is not as she imagined it, like as her life. Then she sees an old lady in the hause in front of her. It is when the old lady puts out her light going to bed that Clarissa realizes she can going on even if the young man has killed himself and she doesn't pity him. So at last She decides to go back to her party.