The present extract is taken from the first part of Mrs. Dalloway, is a novel by Virginia Woolf published in 1925, that details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional high-society woman in post-First World War England.

Moreover, the extract tells about Clarissa’s decision of buying flowers herself for the party she is hosting that evening instead of sending a servant to buy them.

In addition to that, it represents an example of interior monologue, which enabled Virginia Woolf to explore memories, desires, dreams of her characters, who could be observed in their external and interior appearance. 

The expression “ What a lark! What a plunge!” is useful to  the narrator to go back in time and tell a story of her childhood— the freshness of the air takes her back to the beach, which in turn reminds her of childhood memories there.

During the flashback, the sentence “his letters were awfully dull; it was his sayings one remembered” underlines Clarissa’s propensity to reflect back and think about  her feelings about Peter Walsh: she thinks his letters are dull but yet remembers his sayings are a kind of paradox. 

In conclusion, the technique of the interior monologue is fundamental in the extract, in order to let the reader know the interiority of the character and explore her feelings.