Virginia Woolf, "Mrs. Dalloway"

The beginning of the novel (analysis)

The extract under analysis is the opening of "Mrs. Dalloway", a novel written by Virginia Woolf and published 1925. The text can be divided into two main sequences:

• First sequence (from the beginning until "Rumpelmayer's men were coming"): the novel is opened by an insight on the protagonist. In particular, the first sequence provides informatiom about the preparation of the party that'll be held later that night at Mrs. Dalloway's. The details provided suggest it'll be a big party: several people are working to get the house ready; the doors are going t be taken off the hinges; several men are arriving to provide help.
• Second sequence (from "And then, thought Mrs. Dalloway" to the end of the extract): it is built on thoughts, memories and sensations as felt by the character. A third person omniscient narrator follows Mrs. Dalloway's thoughts as the reader may recognize a "stream of consciousness".

The reader is able to single out the main points of Woolf's fiction from the analysis of the present extract.

The first element to strike the attention is the sentence that opens the novel: "Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself". It is a statement made by the protagonist, but the wroter decided to convey it through indirect speech. The reason behind such a choice may be discovered later in the text. The reader can notice the presence of indirect speech, of thoughts and more or less confused memories. The only direct speech is made of the two sentences pronounced by Mr. Walsh: however, it cannot be considered 'direct speech' since it is remembered by Mrs. Dalliway, and quite vaguely, too. Therefore, the reader may understand that the dimension of the mind and of the individual outnumbers that of society, of dialogue and communication: indeed, the reason behind the above mentioned choices may be the intention to investigate the mind and the inner reality of the individual.

The second interesting point is the concept of time. In order to decode it, the reader must focus on the character's so-called "stream of consciousness". Memories, physical sensations and thoughts are all mixed up, without a clear division between past, present and future. At first, the morning breeze reminds Mrs. Dalloway of childhood and teen years (past), of her habits (present) interrupted by Mr. Walsh, who is about to come back from a long journey (future). Past, present and future elements are united on a linguistic level, too, thanks to the narrator's use of past tenses. Also, they're united by free associations. Opposite to individual time (the subjective time, the time of one's mind) is objective time. However, objective time shifts to a secondary level of importance, since it is quite clear to the reader that the most importabt idea of time is that of the individual: Mrs. Dalloway cannot say whether Mr. Walsh is coming back in June or July. To sum up, the writer emphasizes the contrast between two different ideas of time and shows that the mind has its own time, different from the objective and conventional one.

The third interesting point lays between the previous two: in particular, the reader may be able to identify the relationship between them. The main character's  stream of thoughts is opened by a sensation: the beauty of the morning, which is likely to be originated by a physical sensation (e.g.: the feeling of the warm sun rays on the skin, the sight of a crystal clear sky, etc). The sensation of a beautiful morning connects reality and thought. All this leads to the writer's idea of reality: the purpose of her fiction is to portray reality through characters' impressions and reactions, which is a way to investigate their minds and inner reality.