Who is Mrs. Dalloway?
Right from the first few pages, we can tell what kind of character Virginia Woolf is setting up Mrs. Dalloway to be. Mrs. Dalloway can be immediately understood as lonely, a bit confused about what her role in life is, and if she has chosen the right path of life. Woolf plays with the idea of age and stage in life right within the first part of the novel Mrs. Dalloway, and so we have to pay close attention to figure out if Clarissa Dalloway is really in her 50s or if she is a couple of decades younger and in her 20s.
We quickly learn more about Clarissa's sense of loneliness. She describes herself as unseen in the busy street in London and shows her dissatisfaction with her role as a public figure. The constraints that shape her life as a "perfect hostess", as her ex Peter once called her, make her unsure of who she really is (Woolf, 7). Even though she chose the "safe" life -- with a high-profile husband in a very affluent neighborhood of London -- she still feels like she is missing out on things in life and she is definitely not 100% satisfied with her role of Mrs. Richard Dalloway.
In her role as Richard's wife, she is meant to prepare for parties and do the important housework, but she does not get to have her own personality. All people know of her is that her husband is an important member of Parliament. The fact that all of her worth is based on her social life and what image she portrays bothers Clarissa. She even finds herself fantasizing about her younger days at her family's summer estate with Sally and Peter, who are both a lot less constrained in their ways and seem to be very "free" characters. Both of them represent the wilder side of Clarissa, that she has had to give up to assume the role of "the wife of a member of Parliament". Clarissa seems anxious now because the time to change her life and go down a different path seems to have passed and she is noticing that that maybe wasn't the way she wanted to spend the majority of her life.
Clarissa obviously had a choice about where she would go in life. Peter proposed to her and she turned down his offer. Even though we don't know too much about this yet, it seems that there was probably more than one reason to her rejection. We know that Peter wasn't the nicest guy and it definitely seems like that was a big part of their incompatibility, but it also seems that Clarissa wasn't confident enough to completely give away her planned future and let her life just figure itself out. We can tell from the fact that her family has a large summer estate by the beach, that Clarissa probably had a pretty privileged upbringing. Because of that she probably felt some pressure to marry someone high in status. Now that her daughter is embarking on the same journey to start her life, Clarissa questions whether or not she chose the right path and whether who she is at the moment is who she wants to be.
We quickly learn more about Clarissa's sense of loneliness. She describes herself as unseen in the busy street in London and shows her dissatisfaction with her role as a public figure. The constraints that shape her life as a "perfect hostess", as her ex Peter once called her, make her unsure of who she really is (Woolf, 7). Even though she chose the "safe" life -- with a high-profile husband in a very affluent neighborhood of London -- she still feels like she is missing out on things in life and she is definitely not 100% satisfied with her role of Mrs. Richard Dalloway.
In her role as Richard's wife, she is meant to prepare for parties and do the important housework, but she does not get to have her own personality. All people know of her is that her husband is an important member of Parliament. The fact that all of her worth is based on her social life and what image she portrays bothers Clarissa. She even finds herself fantasizing about her younger days at her family's summer estate with Sally and Peter, who are both a lot less constrained in their ways and seem to be very "free" characters. Both of them represent the wilder side of Clarissa, that she has had to give up to assume the role of "the wife of a member of Parliament". Clarissa seems anxious now because the time to change her life and go down a different path seems to have passed and she is noticing that that maybe wasn't the way she wanted to spend the majority of her life.
Clarissa obviously had a choice about where she would go in life. Peter proposed to her and she turned down his offer. Even though we don't know too much about this yet, it seems that there was probably more than one reason to her rejection. We know that Peter wasn't the nicest guy and it definitely seems like that was a big part of their incompatibility, but it also seems that Clarissa wasn't confident enough to completely give away her planned future and let her life just figure itself out. We can tell from the fact that her family has a large summer estate by the beach, that Clarissa probably had a pretty privileged upbringing. Because of that she probably felt some pressure to marry someone high in status. Now that her daughter is embarking on the same journey to start her life, Clarissa questions whether or not she chose the right path and whether who she is at the moment is who she wants to be.
Catalin I love this post! You brought up some very interesting points that really examine Clarissa Dalloway as a character. While I was reading your post (specifically in paragraph 2), I was thinking about the concept of feminism. Clarissa wants to be her own person yet feels pressured to live up to a certain expectation. This expectation is set by her family, as you mentioned in your last paragraph, and possibly by society. The women’s rights movement ended about 27 years before Mrs. Dalloway was published, however women continued to fight for equal rights even after the movement. It would be very interesting to see if the movement influenced Virginia Woolf when writing this novel.
ReplyDeleteCatalin, I feel like you did a great job of exploring Clarissa's charcter farther than just her being Mrs. Richard Dalloway (a type of title I hate (it's so painfully sexist (moving on))). I think it was really powerful when you tied it to her daughter, I hadn't connected her questioning her choices with her daughter having to soon make the same ones. It makes a lot sense! I can definitely imagine being in her position and going through my past trying to see what I could have done differently. I also believe that a huge part of why Clarissa and Peter didn't get married was because he wasn't necessarily "nice". Clarissa on the other hand seems to be a fairly empathetic, kind person as shown through her thoughts about Lucy and her daughter. Great work!
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up a very good point about how Mrs. Dalloway feels that her only job is to be Richard's husband. I agree with Nina that Woolf is bringing up some feminist issues here. It seems that Woolf is trying to portray a picture of how women were oppressed during this time. They were meant to be someone's husband and take care of house work, that's it. However, it seems that Mrs. Dalloway feels that her life should be more then just a housekeeper. Maybe she wonders what would happen if she had married Peter because she thinks that she wouldn't have just been Mrs. Peter Walsh, she would have been someone more then that.
ReplyDeleteYou have made some excellent points about Clarissa and the role she plays in her society. It's interesting that you mention Elizabeth. We haven't heard much about her, but we assume she will lead a life not unlike Clarissa's. If Clarissa shared with Elizabeth what she has shared (somewhat unknowingly, I suppose) with us, I wonder if Elizabeth would be tempted to try a "riskier" path? She would at least see her mother in a different light. Clarissa surely earned my respect with tales of Sally Seton. It would also strengthen their bond as mother and daughter, possibly making up for the experiences Clarissa felt she couldn't have because of the pressure she felt from 20th century gender roles in the process.
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