What an extraordinary night's exercises

COMPREHENSION:

>>What is the passage about? Put thefollowing in the right order:
The passage is about Clarissa's reaction to Sir Bradshaw and his lady's mention of Septimus Smith's suicide.
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 images 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. She parts the curtains and sees an old lady looking at her
9. The sky is not as Clarissa had imagines it
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?
Her first reaction to Septimus's death is the imagination of the fact. It is totally created in Clarissa's mind. Maybe she feels pity and fear.

>>What is her view on death?
Her view on death is that it is defiance and an attempt to communicate. What's more it is the feeling of the impossibility of reaching the centre.

>>What is Clarissa's view of Sir Bradshaw?
Clarissa's view of Sir Bradshaw is that of a great doctor, polite to women, but capable of outrage/impress people.

>>What struggle characterizes Clarissa's life?
Clarissa's life is characterized by her terror of life. It is difficult and it has to be lived to the end and walked with serenely.

>>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 death is a relief and it is inevitable.

>>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?
I think that the loosely construction of sentences are a way to make the intelligent reader understand psychology of Clarissa's mind and how her thoughts work

>>Go back to the extract from the essay "Modern Fiction". Do you feel Virginia Woolf's style manages to convey "life" in a way traditional novels do not?
Yes, she manages to convey "life" in a way traditional novels do not. The reason is that her style is not the usual one, she does not respect any convention: the plot consists of Clarissa's thoughts mixed with events of only one day. Very often she moves from a thought to another without an easy link between them, as people's mind really does. In addition loosely constructed sentences, with lots of repetitions and conjunctions reflect the typical human being's brain process. In the same way, as Virginia Woolf says: "life is not a series of gig-lamps symmetrically arranged". It means that there are not any usual standards and conventions.

"What an extraordinary night" is a passage of Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway",a modernist novel. Clarissa Dalloway organized a party and now it is in full swing. At one point Sir William Bradshaw,a psychiatrist, and her lady arrive and they talk about the suicide of one of W. Bradshaw patient, Septimus Smith. The extract that I am going to analyze is about Clarissa's reaction to the doctor and her lady's mention.

The extract is organized into 8 paragraph, each containing a different Clarissa's thought.It is told in third person narrator,who adopts her point of view and through interior monologue.

The first paragraph is about Mrs Dalloway's surprise to their mention and her wondering why he commetted suice.

She is annoyed because they talked of death at her party and this feeling is marked right from the first line, which consists of a question: "What business had the Bradshaws to talk of death at her party?" and it is supported by the repetition of the words: "talk of death at her party". According to her the discussion ruin the atmosphere of the party.

In addition the piece of news evokes the image of Septimus' suicide in her mind.

The narrator focuses the attention on her thoughts and on how her body reacts to the mention: it burns, as the dress too, she feels the rusty spikes through her body. Therefore she experiences Septimus's death physically. It follows that senses' impressions make the reader see and feel the scene of his suicide.

Virginia Woolf adopts a poetic style: she uses onomatopeic sounds (as "thud") and many repetitions ("thud", "talk of death at her party"). 

 
In the second paragraph external and internal reality live together in the narration. Clarissa remembers the adolescence (when she had thrown a shilling into the Serpentine and he had flung it away) and she reflects on life and on death and she defines the meaning of this last. The fear of it is hidden by chatter,corruption and lies and according to her, death is defiance and an attempt to communicate. What's more it is the feeling of the impossibility of reaching the centre,that is the sense of life, which human being usually searches. In front of it human being feels alone, because of difficulty of life.That is a typical modernist idea.

In the third paragraph she asks herself if the young man who had killed himself had plunges holding his treasure. Her question means if the man, before suicide, had reached the life's goal, happiness. She answers herself with a Shakespearean quotation: "If it were now to die, 'Twere now to be most happy", that means that If she died now, she would be completely happy.

In the fourth paragraph Mrs Dalloway express her idea about Sir Bradshaw: he is a great doctor, polite to women, but capable of outrage people, it means that he forces the soul to say something that people would not say. That could be the reason why Septimus decided to kill himself: maybe he was so impressed by the doctor, that he may have thought that men like that and their treatments  made his life intolerable. It is the reason why Clarissa starts to think Bradshaw is a evil.

The fifth paragraph consists of Clarissa's belief on hardness of life. She fights an interior struggle, which is characterized by terror. She is afraid of incapacity to be lived to the end and to be walked with serenely. She reckons life such as a bundle, that has to be carried out. Luckily she has the support of her husband and, differently from Septimus, she can carry on leaving. That is the proof people react differently. 

In the sixth paragraph Clarissa thinks Septimus' death as a punishment to her. She was never wholly admirable, therefore as the man sinks and disappears because of death, she sinks in profound darkness (different from deep: the word "profound" creates an enormous difference.She also perceives the double faces of her life.

In the penultimate paragraph she thinks of her happiness at Bourton (place where she had lived when she was young) derived from the activities of day-to-day life. She compares her delight of these activities to the sun rose as the day sank. The idea of the sky reminds her the time spent to look at the sky and as a consequence she walks to the window.

The last one is about her change of idea of death. As soon as she parts the curtains, she sees an old lady looking at her. Clarissa watches her going to bed and she notices that the sky is not as she imagined. That marks a turning point: she understands that death is not as she thoughts. She does not more pity the man who had killed himself, on the contrary she felt glad he had done it. The reason is made available from another Shakespeare's quotation: "Fear no more the heat of the sun", that means death is a relief and it is inevitable. The extract ends with Clarissa's return to her party and the exclamation: "what an extraordinary night".