V. Woolf – Mrs Dalloway – Incipit – Analysis

The text is the incipit of V. Woolf’s novel entitles Mrs Dalloway. It contains the introduction of the first character who is the protagonist of the novel. The name of the character is reported by the title of the extract and gives the reader an initial information about the figure. The protagonist is a woman: the noun Mrs. is the contract form of lady. It also makes the reader understand that she is married.

The text is made up by three paragraphs: the first one contains one single statement: the second one is three lines long; the third one is the biggest one and comprehends the remaining part of the text. The first paragraph/sentence opens with the repetition of the surname of the novel’s protagonist. The repetition focuses the reader’s attention on the woman, on her actions and her thoughts. She would buy the flower’s herself: the character is presented through her decisions. She wants to buy the flowers means that she can make a servant go to buy them; the first sentence allows the reader understand that Mrs. Dalloway is a rich woman.

The second sequence continues the character’s presentation the narrator refers some character’s worries. The narrator is a third person one and the technique used to report Mrs. Dalloway thinking is the interior monologue. The first sentence report the thinking of the character in an indirect speech (had her). The second one does not contain the narrator mediation but relates directly what the character thinks. The third sentence of the paragraph contains a direct speech introduced by the narrator (thought Clarissa Dalloway). The last statement gives the reader another information about the woman: her proper name is Clarissa. The name Clarissa is used in its Italian version; it comes from the Latin clarus and brings the idea of a virtuous and cheerful person. The choice of the name contributes to the creation of the character features.

The morning is fresh, is compare to the water of the sea in summer. This metaphor gives the reader information about the writer: V. Woolf loved the sea and inserted in all of her novels the element of the water and of the sea. The water can be also seen as a metaphor for the inner world of the character. V. Woolf saw the inner world of the person as the real life and it constantly changes because of the events of the concrete life of the one.

The third sequence continues the report of Clarissa’s thoughts and go on with the metaphor of the sea. The air of the early morning is similar to a wave, to the kiss of a wake. The image of the kiss underlines again V. Woolf’s love for the sea and points out Clarissa’s love for open early morning air. The biggest part of the paragraph is made up the character’s memoires. The narrator maintains the use of simple past so the reader initially is not able to understand the beginning of the flashback. The past of the events quoted is made clear by the sentence in parenthesis (as she then was). The time of the novel is not a chronological one but a subjective one, an inner one and follows the mind of the woman. The same part of the third sequence introduces another character: his name in Peter Walsh and he is not one of the two protagonists. His presence in the novel is only an excuse to continue the remembering. The dialogue with the man that she met for the first time when she was young is reported in a direct way and introduced by the third person narrator. The answer of Clarissa to Peter’s question contains one of the most important elements of V. Woolf philosophy. I prefer man to cauliflowers could be a metaphorical way to underline her considering the personal relationship the most important thing of life.

The second part of the third sequence reports other thoughts of the woman, some present thoughts active by the remembering of the man. Clarissa remember how he way from a physical point of view. The last exclamation (how strange it was!) recalls another important element of V. Woolf narrative: the moment of being, that moment that is lived fully and is remembered. Clarissa here is thinking about the moments of non-being: the things that have no real importance for the person, that are lived mechanically.

In conclusion, the technique used is the interior monologue due to bring to surface the character’s thoughts. The choice of such a narrative technique underlines the importance that the inner world has according to the writer. The purpose of the incipit of the novel is to introduce one of the two protagonists. The character is introduced through her thinking, her actions and her name.