Despair and Hope in Woolfs Mrs Dalloway - Essay Example

May 3, Despair and Hope in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway The First World War just ended, but its effects had not. This is the historical setting of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa Dalloway is throwing a party, and the day reveals unmet needs and social issues that people of her class prefer to ignore. Woolf uses an omniscient third party narrator to help the audience access the innermost thoughts and feelings of the characters. In addition, Woolf uses psychological realism as her writing style, which is important in exploring what characters say and do not say and how their behaviors are products of their social, economic, and political conditions. Mrs. Dalloway asks readers to read between the lines and to analyze the meanings of words, images, and memories to the characters and their society. Mrs. Dalloway represents despair because of repression and isolation that social class, faith, and science cannot remove, although the novel suggests that through love and career, some people can have enough hope to find meaning in their lives. Mrs. Dalloway feels despair because of her repressed life that the traditional social order imposes on her. Conventional society has gender and social status norms and all of these repress Mrs. Dalloway. Even before she got married, Clarissa feels something missing in her life, which she remembers when she goes to shop for flowers for her party: “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 Section 1). She feels it dangerous to live probably because she cannot live the life she wants because society will reject her. One of the hidden lives that Clarissa has is being a lesbian. She does not want to fully admit it to herself, but her relationship with Sally Seton has a romantic side. When Sally kissed her before, Clarissa felt something new, something better in her life: “…the radiance burnt through, the revelation, the religious feeling!” (Woolf Section 2). The revelation is her attraction for the same sex, while the religious feeling is finding purity in truth. Clarissa knows, however, that her society despises gay people, so she decides to stick to gender norms and to marry Richard Dalloway instead. He presents socio-economic comforts, which Clarissa justifies she needs better than her suitor’s, Peter Walsh’s promise of an adventurous life in traveling. Furthermore, the title itself reveals how oppressed Clarissa is as a woman. Mrs. Dalloway means that she has no identity of her own. Her identity is only a side note to her husband because she is a woman. Because of these traditions, Clarissa feels emptiness in her identity and life that she cannot fully understand. Apart from repression, Clarissa experiences physical, sexual, and emotional isolation because of social and gender norms too. Physically, she rarely goes out of the house because she is married to a wealthy man, which means they have maids. She takes the chance to get out when she says that all the maids are busy. Once outside, she thinks: “What a lark! What a plunge!” (Woolf Section 1). She must be an extreme homebody to be celebrating her flower shopping as if she is a free bird. Her enjoyment of going out suggests her isolated life that also isolates her mind, which is desperate for something new, for something to plunge into. The description of Mrs. Dalloway’s bed also signifies her sexual isolation: “So the room was an attic; the bed narrow; and lying there reading, for she slept badly, she could not dispel a virginity preserved through childbirth which clung to her like a sheet” (Woolf Section 2). The narrowness of her room suggests the feeling of being trapped in a life that she cannot escape from, while virginity underscores her sexual isolation that brings about sexual and emotional repression too. Moreover, Clarissa is isolated enough to no longer feel a strong social connection with others around her. A motor car passes by and all she and others who saw the car can think about is that it must have belonged to the Queen (Woolf Section 1). Vereen Bell analyzes the “death of soul” in Mrs. Dalloway and she argues that “[t]he society that Clarissa Dalloway and her peers inhabit exhibits little interest in the lives or pain of other people. Its members hardly seem aware of the shadowed historical moment they are living in” (44). They are so isolated from the context of their lives that they no longer remember the casualties of war and what its consequences mean for their future. Septimus Smith, a war veteran, committed suicide because of hallucinations that came from post-traumatic stress from the war. Clarisse does not like knowing about his death in her party (Woolf Section 6). Clarissa evidently no longer cares about the war and its effects on people, while the novel suggests that she should care because her historical context affects her freedom and experiences. Mrs. Dalloway experiences misery because of her isolated life that prevents her from being more aware of her life’s meaninglessness. Besides isolation, Mrs. Dalloway shows that social class, faith, and science cannot save people like her who have accepted the social order. Clarissa chose Richard over Peter because the latter lacks the kind of ambition that Richard has (Woolf Section 1). Richard can give her more stability, as well as space to do what she wants; at least that is what she thinks (Woolf Section 1). Despite being in the upper social class, Clarissa does not feel happy, however, because she still feels repressed and detached from others. Bell states that “Clarissa is confined literally and symbolically to a world comprising the London districts of Westminster…where the wealth and power of London are congregated” (46). Instead of having the space she needs to grow as a person, her social class becomes a cage for her. Faith is not a source of salvation either. Miss Kilman has put evangelical religion in the center of her life, but instead of being good because of it, she has become bitter and self-pitying. She thinks that she is better than Clarissa, and that she will one day achieve “religious victory” because it is “God’s will” (Woolf Section 5). Woolf shows Kilman in a negative light to suggest that even religion can be oppressive, if it makes people feel superior over others. Science is not a positive source of meaning in life too. Sir William Bradshaw uses the idea of proportion to assert that people should follow social norms and not people’s ideas and emotions (Woolf Section 5). He enforces social norms too through science, so Woolf is showing the audience that even science can be full of lies. Social class, faith, and science can mislead people by being enforcers of traditional social norms. Despite these restrictions in life, the novel suggests that career can offer the means of having sufficient hope that there is meaning in life. Peter has an exciting life; at least, this is how he sees it, because, while he is in India, Clarissa only stays in London to get married (Woolf Section 2). By saying this, Peter is suggesting that being able to have a career is better than marriage that ties people down. Having a career means there is hope for independence. Miss Kilman also suggests a better life to Elizabeth. Kilman talks about another life that is different from the empty comfortable life she has: “Law, medicine, politics, all professions are open to women of your generation, said Miss Kilman” (Woolf Section 5). Kilman wants Elizabeth to grab the freedoms and opportunities that are accessible to her because of her race and social class. Like Peter, Kilman believes that a career provides independence and an independent life is a meaningful life because it does not obey social norms anymore. Elizabeth feels that a good career can also make her happier in life. When she goes to Chancery Lane, she feels at one with the busy activities of ordinary people: “The feet of those people busy about their activities… minds eternally occupied…made her quite determined, whatever her mother might say, to become either a farmer or a doctor” (Woolf Section 5). Elizabeth does not mention plans for marriage, which society would have wanted for her, and instead, she plans for a career that will give her freedom and autonomy. These characters believe that a self-chosen career is a good path toward a meaningful life. Besides work, the novel shows that love can also free people from despair. Love is a strong force that can make people feel free. Clarissa meets Hugh who makes her feel “schoolgirlish” (Woolf Section 1). The idea of being young again suggests the theme of freedom from controls. The novel seems to say that to love freely is to love one’s freedom too. Peter still loves Clarissa, and as the novel ends, he sees her and he feels “terror,” “ecstasy,” and “extraordinary excitement” (Woolf Section 6). He feels terror because love makes people vulnerable to despair, as much as it offers happiness. He also feels ecstasy and excitement because love makes him feel alive. His boredom with his life is gone because love gives him drive to live. Septimus loves Evans, but gender norms do not allow such feelings. After Evans died, his love for him continued as in his sleep, he hears the “voices of the dead” (Woolf Section 5). If only Evans did not die, Septimus’ love for him might have helped him deal with his gender repression. Richard loves Clarissa dearly, but he cannot fully express his love. He cannot even say he loves her verbally because he says he is shy and lazy (Woolf Section 5). Nevertheless, his love for her is one of the good places in the world that he has because the rest is filled with violence and cruelty (Woolf Section 5). Clarissa loves Sally, whose idea of love is freedom. The way Sally cut up flowers and made them float on water (Woolf Section 2) suggests Sally’s opposition to gender norms, where flowers represent femininity. The image of floating flowers suggests that to love means to love the self too and not letting society control people’s identity. Love is something that helps people cope with society’s darkness. A society that controls every aspect of human life kills it. Mrs. Dalloway allows herself to be the flower that society wants it to be- decorative, but useless. No wonder then that when Septimus kills himself, she feels envious. For someone who cannot change her life because she feels bound to society, death is the only way to have freedom. Death is sweeter compared to an imprisoned life. Mrs. Dalloway forces readers to examine their lives and to face the mirror. Do they see Mrs. Dalloway in their reflection? Works Cited Bell, Vereen M. “The ‘Death of the Soul’ in Mrs. Dalloway.” Critical Insights: Mrs. Dalloway (2011): 44-58. Literary Reference Center. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. 1925. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. Read More