Virginia Woolf's introduction of Clarissa Dalloway
One of the most striking passages in Mrs. Dalloway to me was her initial walk to go and pick up flowers. Particularly, I was fascinated by the way that Virginia Woolf was able to lay out all of Clarissa's thoughts and indirectly tell us so much about what type of a person she is in such a short amount of time. We get to understand Clarissa’s struggles, fears, and regrets, what makes her happy, and most interesting my opinion, we get to see her try and convince herself that she made the right choices in life. The style of narration that Woolf uses here is perhaps why this introduction works so well. We are not some 3rd party watching Clarissa nor is she narrating, rather we have sort of just popped in and are along for the ride while she goes on with her thoughts, unaware of our presence. This gives a really raw feeling to the insight we get. It is not biased, and we are able to tell when Clarissa is intentionally not going through the rabbit hole of a certain thought, or reaffirming that she definitely made the best choices without feeling as concretely about it in reality.
One prominent example of Clarissa being in denial during her adventure to go and get flowers is when she is walking through St. James Park. During this walk, she goes on and on about how she is sure she made the right decision in marrying Richard, and how a relationship with Peter would have destroyed and ruined both of them. However, she then starts to recall how bad she felt after leaving him at the fountain. She describes her feelings as an arrow, piercing her heart with grief and anguish. Remembering how she felt when she found out that he was getting married makes her feel even worse, and it's here when we really see her lying to herself. She insults the woman in India to who Peter was supposed to get married, says she could never really see how Peter cared in their relationship and then concludes by basically calling his life a failure.
Her thoughts about Peter then end very abruptly, and I believe this is intentional from Woolf. When thinking about something that produces an emotional response like that, it is hard to believe Clarissa would be able to just unintentionally switch it off and focus on something else. This leads me to believe that Woolf is intentionally showing us Clarissa is really not as confident in her choice as she might like to believe, and is trying to bury those thoughts. If we examine some other thought trains we can also find similar trends that help us get to know Clarissa better. In just the walk to get flowers, it is fascinating how many things about Clarissa can be addressed, such as her trying to cope with the idea of death, thinking about her youth, and many others. This was just one example of many as to how reading deeper into Virginia Woolf's characters can help you find out a lot about them.
I completely agree! I too found the writing style of Mrs. Dalloway to be very interesting. I think at times it is even more realistic than describing what is happening, because most of the time you are occupied in your own thoughts and now paying attention to the physical world around you. The way the book was written, and as you wrote about, the way the walk was written really reflects this type of narration and I think it was fun to read.
ReplyDeleteThe switches between different characters minds and the abrupt changes in thought as characters see and encounter different things makes the Mrs. Dalloway difficult to read. I never thought of analyzing why those constant switches occur in each case before. I agree that it's interesting how so much of what we know about each character is just from passing memories that happen over just one (if very eventful) day.
ReplyDeleteI think your point about how Clarissa is choosing to stop thinking about things and forces the reader out of her head is really interesting. It makes you consider the reliability as narrators of all the individual people you see inside the heads of in this novel. People see the world differently from one another and I think that this novel does a really job of showing that for reasons like these.
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea of Clarissa purposefully burying some of her more troubling thoughts, and I never really thought about it before. It seems a lot like she abruptly ends her thoughts on a particular subject when it gets particularly dark. For example, I thought it was shocking how little she spoke about her sister dying in childhood, a life-altering traumatic event, but thinking about it in this context makes a lot more sense.
ReplyDeleteThe first few pages of the novel really sets the tone well, and gets us thinking about these characters when we don't even know who they are yet. We see Woolf cut off Clarissa's thinking a couple times in the novel, especially when she's thinking about things she may not want to think about. If she was truly confident in her marriage, I don't think there would be any need to avoid thinking about it. Nice job
ReplyDeleteI always note how perfectly Woolf "orchestrates" this balance of present/surface observation and deeper reflection/memory. In the case you mention, she is going deep into her thoughts and reflections about Peter and Richard just after leaving Hugh Whitbread, with his very conventional sentiments about his very conventional marriage. So it is natural that, on this day where she has been forcefully reminded of Bourton by the weather (a strong memory trigger, along with smell and the sound of music), she would think of her own marriage choice as she ponders the mysteries of Hugh and Evelyn. (Hugh was also at Bourton, and we later learn that he forcibly kissed Sally without consent, causing a minor scandal.)
ReplyDeleteAs she walks through the park, we see a setting that lends itself to extended reflection--and she goes deep in her comparisons of Richard and Peter, and how she can't quite figure out how she feels about Peter to this day. But then her thoughts are interrupted as she gets to the gates of the park and the busy street Picadilly--she is snapped back to the present by a change in setting, a street she needs to cross. And from here her idle speculations pursue new directions. This all seems very realistic to me, how we can plunge into reflection and memory and be snapped back to the present, losing the thread. It's not that she's "done" thinking about Peter--we sense that she'll never really be "done." It's just that her mind has been pointed to something else, and for now, Peter fades.
I really like this blog post. i love the ideas you are bringing to the table. The constant change of flashback and current day is incredibly intriguing. Woolf has such an interesting writing style and how she strings ideas together keeps the reader interested. These are all great points you are drawing from. I can almost feel myself hiding the intrusive thoughts while on my walk to the florist in an effort to not get distracted and journey down a deep rabbit hole.
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