Exercises
1. The extract can be organised into five sections:
o First section: from the beginning to line 25. The focus is on Mrs Dalloway who is buying flowers at Mulberry, a flower shop Bond Street; in this section the narrator brings to surface Mrs Dalloway’s thoughts about her daughter’s history teacher, presents the relationship between the florist and the lady and evokes Clarissa’s feelings and sensations while admiring the different flowers.
o Second section: From line 26 to line 44. In the section, there is the arrival of a mysterious motor car. The narrator also presents different reactions and rumours of passers-by that try to guess who is in the elegant car.
o Third section: from line 45 to line 49. The narrator introduces Septimus Warren Smith.
o Fourth section: from line 50 to line 62. The focus is on the confusion that the motor car has brought and, in particular, on Septimus’s thoughts.
o Fifth section: from line 63 to line 86. The narrator presents Septimus’ wife Lucrezia and their relationship. In addition, the narrator brings to surface Lucrezia’s embarrassment due to Septimus’ behaviour.

2. The scene is set in a small area: Bond Street, where there is the flower shop. Considering the time, the extract seems to correspond to a very small space of time.

3. The main event is the arrival of a mysterious motor car opposite Mulberry’s shop window. People react in different ways: Miss Pym apologies for the noise after she has gone to the window together with Mrs Dalloway; Passers-by stop and stare; Edgar J Watkiss makes some hypothesis on whose motor car is it. All in all, the “shot in the street outside” seems to be a violent explosion that provokes a reaction in every passer-by.

4. The car has a dove-grey upholstery and blinds with a curious pattern like a tree and it is connoted by the great sound he made when it arrived (“a pistol shot in the street outside”). People suppose it might be the Prince of Wales, or the Queen or the Prime Minister in the motor car.

5. Septimus. Age: thirty; Nationality: English; Apparence: pale-faced, beak-nose, hazel eyes, wearing brown shoes and a shabby overcoat. Lucrezia. Age: twenty-four; Nationality: Italian; Apparence: little woman, large eyes, sallow pointed face.

6. Expressions like “Dear, those motor car” and the repetition of the word “car” give insight into a changing society. The importance of the innovation is highlighted by two aspects: people immediately think that the car belongs to an important person and, in addition, the narrator juxtaposes the arrival of the motor car with the expression “English people, with their children and their horses”.

7. Virginia Woolf uses a third person narrator that is an omniscient narrator since he knows the different characters’ thoughts. Making this choice, the narrator manages to bring to surface the inner world linking it to the external reality.

8. In the extract the narrator switches from the characters’ actions to their inner thoughts. In particular, the space given to the characters’ inner world seems to be more extensive since the narrator is more interested in investigating it than she is in presenting the external reality.

9. Septimus illness:

o “this gradual drawing together of everything to one centre before his eyes [..] terrified him” – panic
o “it is I who am blocking the way” – feelings of guilt
o “(he) jumped, started, and said ‘all right!’ angrily, as if she had interrupted him” – anger
o ‘I will kill myself” – madness

10. Mostly in the first section and in the presentation of the mysterious motor car, the narrator focuses her attention on the sensory experience: she underlines the value of the visual experience. In particular, the reader can find a detailed presentation of Mrs Dalloway when she is choosing the flowers (there are verbs like: “breathed in”, “snuffing in”, “looked”..).

CLARISSA AND SEPTIMUS
The title given to the extract anticipates the content of the text: it will present both Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith. The narrator switches the focus from one character to the other evoking how they react in front of the violent explosion and the arrival of the mysterious motor car. This strategy unveils an implicit parallelism between the two characters: they both have some horror inside. But while Clarissa seems to have found a balance between the inner and the external reality, Septimus represents how people become when the inner horrors come to surface through symptoms: madness, panic, anger, over-reactions.. connote the character, whose strangeness is also underlined by his unconventional name that strikes the reader’s attention.
Considering the structure, the extract can be organised into five sections. In the first section (from the beginning to line 25) the focus is on Mrs Dalloway who is buying flowers at Mulberry, a flower shop at Bond Street; the narrator brings to surface Mrs Dalloway’s thoughts about her daughter’s history teacher, presents the relationship between the florist and the lady and evokes Clarissa’s feelings and sensations while admiring the different flowers. In the second section (from line 26 to line 44) there is the arrival of a mysterious motor car. The narrator also presents different reactions and rumours of passers-by that try to guess who is in the elegant car. In the third section (from line 45 to line 49) the narrator introduces Septimus Warren Smith. In the fourth section (from line 50 to line 62) the focus is on the confusion that the motor car has brought and, in particular, on Septimus’s thoughts. In the fifth, and last, section (from line 63 to line 86) the narrator presents Septimus’ wife Lucrezia and their relationship. In addition, the narrator brings to surface Lucrezia’s embarrassment due to Septimus’ behaviour.
The structure highlights the alternation of actions and thoughts and also underlines the narrator’s shift of point of view (mainly from Clarissa’s to Septimus’ and viceversa). As it regards the narrator, it is interesting to notice that Virginia Woolf uses a third person narrator (unveiled by “she advanced”) that is an omniscient narrator since he knows the different characters’ thoughts. Making this choice, the narrator manages to bring to surface the inner world linking it to the external reality. The juxtaposition between inner reality and external reality is extremely important: it seems to be the fulcrum of the extract. Apart from the quest of balance between the two levels/realities, the narrator unveils the relationship between them: the external world influences the inner world. For example, the violent explosion conditions people’s thoughts and also manages to stop Clarissa’s stream of thoughts.
Last, but not least, it is important to consider the language adopted by Virginia Woolf, since it is effective and it perfectly underlines the relevant points made by the extract. Indeed, the language is a poetic one: there are a lot of repetitions and parallelisms and a use of a language of sense impressions that puts the focus on how the external reality can change inner reality and manages to make the reader feel something.