The Prologue

(The Hours, by Michael Cunningham)

Literal analysis :

PRO- means “in favour of” (from Latin)

-LOGOS means “the word, the speech” (from Greek)

The prologue is a speech in favour of something.

The prologue has the function to introduce the content of the novel and to create curiosity to the reader.

The prologue of The Hours deals with Virginia Woolf’s suicide. The narrator describes the events from Mrs Woolf’s leaving from her house till the moment of her death in the river.

The reader can know all the emotions and the thoughts Mrs Woolf feels and thinks because they are illustrated with particular attention by the narrator. Furthermore, the reader is asked to image what it will happen after this scene or what it happened before it.

This prologue has got the function to make the reader see Virginia Woolf’s story from the perspective of her death.

It also anticipates the main topic of the novel, which will be developed through the intersection and the analysis of three different stories: Mrs Dalloway’s, Mrs Brown’s and Mrs Woolf’s.

The central topic is the dissatisfaction of life.