The Hours by M. Cunningham - Essay Example

? The Hours by M. Cunningham Institute’s The Hours by M. Cunningham Be objective, include how the topic relates to today’s literature and art scene, its deeper meaning and consequences. Try to express your own opinion at the end. The Hours is a spectacular novel written by Michael Cunningham in 1998. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1999 and in the same year it also got the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Later on in 2002 the novel was made into an Oscar-winning movie by the same name. The novel talks about a day of the lives of three women. It is made up of three separate narratives, one for each woman. Virginia Woolf is one of the women talked about and she is writing Mrs Dalloway (Ehlen, 2013). The other woman is Laura Brown who is portrayed to be a plain American housewife from 1949 and she is reading Mrs Dalloway. The third narrative is set in the 20th century and the subject is Clarissa Vaughn. In her narrative she throws a party for her friend, Richard, who was also her lover. The narratives are not all set one by one but alternately switch between the three characters. The novel begins with Virginia detailing about her suicide and writing a note for her partner and sister after which she picks up a huge stone from the bank, keeps it in her pocket and walks toward into the water (Cunningham, 2013). Then the story turns to others and tells about their mornings. Clarissa goes out to buy flowers for her writer friend Richard, who is fatally ill from AIDS, and is getting a literary award for his work. This point has been taken from Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway wherein the character goes to buy flowers (Woolf, 2012). Next, Virginia is back into focus but at period twenty years earlier when she was going to start writing Mrs Dalloway. In the next part the reader gets to know about Laura Brown – she is lying in bed reading Mrs Dalloway. It is her husband’s birthday but she feels too lazy to get up and wish him. Next Clarissa is found standing outside the flower shop looking for the celebrity whom she thought she got a peek of. However, she does not wait too long and goes to Richard’s place. Virginia is still writing but finally stops after a headache sets in. Laura bakes a cake with her son. Virginia goes out for a walk, thinking about her character, Clarissa Dalloway. This is how the novel continues, without any break in sequence, and smoothly moves in and out between the characters. One of the themes talked about in The Hours is LGBT issues. The three generations of women characters in the novel were doubtfully lesbian or bisexual. It was known that Virginia Woolf had had affairs with women; Laura Brown was found to be kissing Kitty in her kitchen; while Clarissa Vaughan had first been Richard’s lover and later on started a relationship with Sally. These were just three main characters displaying such behaviour; even some minor ones were shown to be having varied sexual identity. To a certain extent The Hours has examined how freely each of the women from the three generations was able and allowed to express their sexuality – to themselves as well as to the others around them. Therefore, it is difficult to determine a definable sexuality for them, especially for Virginia and Laura. It is very much possible that had the novel been set in later times and these characters born in more recent years they would have been able to openly declare themselves lesbians. They could not have “come out” because of the way homosexuality was – and in some places, still is – treated. In some countries it is considered a taboo topic. In others there is still more freedom. But still, there are areas where homosexuals are shunned and discriminated and not given the same rights as the “normal” people. In fact, some people even consider homosexuality a disease or illness that can be treated. Today there are groups that fight for the rights of LGBT people but this fight will be a long one. Another important topic that the novel addressed is that of mental illness. Cunningham has suggested that there is a possibility that an alleged mental illness is actually a valid expression of perspective. This idea can also been seen in Virginia’s life – in the way she has censored her true self. Although that might have appeared to be insanity to readers in the past, most of today’s readers can find it to be something besides “insane”. With mental illness Cunningham has also talked about suicide in each of the three stories of the novel. While Virginia and Richard attempt suicide, Laura decides to leave her family instead, and start a new life in a new place. These characters look for meaning in their lives and decide that suicide is a way out. The three women are really sensitive and observant of the world. They think a lot and every event, every moment makes them analyse the life they are leading and thus they keep considering suicide to escape the issues and oppressing events that they face. Clarissa thinks over the life she is living and the life she had when she was living with her lover, Richard. She looks at the way time affects people, changing them. Richard had gotten ill and, even though she did not give up to suicide, she sees her friend dying and wonders if she will not have any more good days in her life. Very insignificant rebuffs make her feel low, such as not receiving an invitation to lunch with Oliver St. Ives. The lowly feeling she brings upon herself makes her want to die. She is fascinated by the way celebrities and writers are looked upon as immortals, considering that they would be remembered much more than people like her. The issues with Laura are that she’s trapped due to the limitations she has playing the part of a suburban housewife and she thinks suicide is an easy way out of it. She is tired of the noisy life and by committing suicide she can immediately shut it all out and thus, the idea appeals to her greatly. Initially she feels fascinated with the idea of suicide but also feels that she will not be able to actually kill herself. But when the problems wrap her further she becomes serious about the idea. She does not, however, complete the act. It is apparent that Cunningham had planned out the novel perfectly before writing it and the events that unfold in the novel clearly indicate how thoughtfully they have been put out. For instance, when certain events from Mrs Dalloway start to repeat in The Hours the reader wonders whether this is a literary parallel and if the author is hinting at how limited a human’s plots and chances can be, or is it that the author is suggesting that the events of the first novel are actually the cause of those in the second one (Wood, 1998). Cunningham definitely was a writer ahead of his times. He is widely praised and said to be an extremely gifted writer. The Hours has a particular inventive touch to it that only a genius can come up with, and through this he has creatively drawn on the life and work of Virginia Woolf, telling the story of three women caught in the conflicts associated with love and inheritance, life and death, creation and destruction. Although the novel is about three different stories they have been entwined ingeniously, giving parallels to each other. Every transition that Cunningham made between the characters appears to be seamless. References Cunningham, M. (2013). The Hours. HarperCollins Publishers. Ehlen, K. (2013). Virginia Woolf As a Character in Michael Cunningham's the Hours. GRIN Verlag. Wood, M. (1998, November 22). Parallel Lives. Retrieved December 12, 2013, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/22/reviews/981122.22woodlt.html Woolf, V. (2012). Mrs. Dalloway. Interactive Media. Read More