Mrs Dalloway-Imbalance between the Inner and Outer Worlds - Essay Example

Mrs Dalloway-Imbalance between the Inner and Outer Worlds Mrs Dalloway is a novel written by Virginia Woolf in 1925. This novel is combined from two short stories namely “Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street” and “The Prime Minister”. The novel describes a day from Clarissa Dalloway’s life that lives in the post World War I England in a high society. This novel is considered as Woolf’s best novels as it covers a wide range of themes and aspects. The most important aspect of this novel which will be discussed in this paper is modernism. Through discussing the main characters and the way the psychology of these characters are presented, Woolf builds a strong plot for the novel in terms of optimism and modernity. The paper will assess the ways in which Woolf has reflected modernism as the quality of thought and expression present in each character differently; and how these characters have different psychologies in the way they look at life around them, how they are alienated, and how they are stuck between nostalgia and modernism. Clarissa Dalloway is the main character of this novel. She is a woman who is seen constantly struggling between her internal life and thoughts with that of the outer world. She belongs to the high society where she hosts parties, wears classy dresses, and talk to people belonging to the high class. However, at the same time she is seen walking to Bond Street in the first chapter to the flower shop to make preparations for her party the same night. As she is walking and looking at the world around, she imagines about life and is continuously searching for a deeper meaning of life. Woolf writes “For Heaven only knows why one loves it so, how one sees it so, making it up, building it round one, tumbling it, creating it every moment afresh; but the veriest frumps, the most dejected of miseries sitting on doorsteps do the same; can’t be dealt with, she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they love life” (Woolf 8). This quote shows that Clarissa does not believe that happiness is anything related to high class. Woolf shows her strong positivity and attachment towards life believing that humans make their lives beautiful themselves. Clarissa is seen as the only character who can express her emotions and led herself free to the world around her unlike other characters but she doesn’t share her feelings with anyone else. However, at another place Woolf states “She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day” (Woolf 11). This quote suddenly changes the direction of Clarissa’s thinking as she looks around at the crowd and starts feeling alienated. She feels that the public life is rather busy and noisy while her private life is silent and lonely. Suddenly the character’s loneliness is seen here and how she reflects the struggles of her life. This quote also reflects her life that she has lived through the WWI experiencing the dangers and horrors of living even a single day. Clarissa is seen as a complex character who has the ability to think positive and reflect the optimism of life and society around her but at the same time her past experiences and life struggle disallow her to open her thoughts freely. At one point her optimism is shown while at the other her alienation is shown. She has accepted her life and the high society world around her but deep inside she is lonely and full of emotional stress. Clarissa’s character is psychologically alienated which is in reflection to the difficulty of dealing with factors of modernism such as a rapidly growing busy city life as well as the horrors of WWI present in the silent minds of those who lived them. Peter Walsh is Clarissa’s old friend who had never gotten over the fact that Clarissa rejected his marriage proposal. Peter is an insecure, unconfident, and an ambivalent person. He strongly fears that he has wasted all his life and could not commit to any partner or his identity. Throughout the novel he is also seen in despair and hopelessness as well as being indecisive and obsessed with Clarissa. Peter’s pocketknife is a symbol in the novel which reflects a great part of his personality. Throughout the novel, he is seen playing with his pocketknife and fiddling with it suggesting his inability to take decisions. It is not only about Clarissa but also for the feelings he has for the English society as it has emerged. He has also lived through the war and thus cannot decide what he feels for the rapidly growing western civilization. He sees the immense difference in the society after the WWI and feels that he wants to fight the current English society and traditions. He accepts the society while at the same time criticizes it and enjoys the phony sense of order which he doesn’t have in his life. Peter’s psychology is greatly influenced because of the rejection that he suffered and the obsession that he still has for Clarissa. Woolf writes “What is this terror? What is this ecstasy? He thought to himself. What is it that fills me with this extraordinary excitement? It is Clarissa, he said. For there she was” (Woolf 148). Peter’s personal failure and the failure of the British society after the WWI are interlinked. All the characters in the novel have suffered this violent shock which changed or influenced their lives greatly.   The sufferings of the WWI and the failure to accept modernism are clearly shown by the character of Septimus Warren Smith. Septimus was a veteran of the WWI who suffered from the shell shock and thus is lost in his own mind. His feelings are numb most of the time while at others he is seen feeling guilty. He simply refuses to accept the outer world and rather isolates himself to talk to his friend Evans, who is dead. He believes that the people in the modernized western society have no capacity for kindness or honesty. Woolf writes “Septimus was one of the first to volunteer. He went to France to save an England which consisted almost entirely of Shakespeare’s plays” (Woolf 68). He was one of those people who had been facing the changes in the western society followed by the WWI. He remembered the British society as it was traditionally with values and traditions which were no more present. His character shows truly the difficulties faced by the people to accept modernism. Another major aspect which was reflected was that Septimus and Clarissa’s characters were highly similar, in different ways. Both of them would speak the truth, believe in English traditions, feel the differences in the growing western society, judge people, fear oppression, and love Shakespeare. However by the end of the novel we can see that the line between Clarissa and Septimus is merely of sanity and insanity. Both of them escape their problems, Septimus by killing himself, and Clarissa by accepting her choices and the society. As Clarissa learns about Septimus’ death, “She felt somehow very like him—the young man who had killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away. The clock was striking. The leaden circles dissolved in the air. He made her feel the beauty; made her feel the fun. But she must go back. She must assemble” (Woolf 115). However, this novel describes the characters struggling through their personal experiences as well the violent shocks they suffered having living through the WWI. The characters have difficulties in accepting the modernized English society because it lacks traditions and values while at the same time they suffer psychological imbalance between the internal feelings and the outer world. Thus, this novel describes the stems of modernization and how it lead to the alienation of every character in a different way. Work Cited Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway. London: Urban Romantics, 2012. Print. Read More