Critical Analysis of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf - Book Report/Review Example

Critical Analysis of Mrs. Dalloway Introduction ‘Mrs Dalloway’, published on 14th May 1925, is counted as one of Virginia Woolf’s finest literary works. The novel takes up and brings forth the problems faced by the post war English society, and represents it through the subjective empiricism and cognizance, of the two central characters in the novel, Mrs Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith. The novel, which Woolf has divided into parts instead of chapters, is an interesting study of various characters through their inner most thoughts, and mental processes. It is almost as if the novel transforms the reader and takes him inside the head of the various characters, and this form of literary expression is known as ‘Stream of Consciousness’. It involves the writer giving us in detail what the main lead and the other characters are thinking, leading to a myriad collection of thoughts, much like that a of a spider weaving its thread to form a well knit web. The characters in this novel decipher the meaning of life in a moment of shock, or as Woolf frame it, in ‘a moment of being’ and they suddenly come face to face with the grim realities of life. Woolf explores the inner conflicts that the two lead characters face as they try to unravel various broken emotions like love, despair, and try to find means to endure the pain. The social order in England after the World War I was on the decline, and Woolf uses the two main characters to represent this changing political and social atmosphere, and we find that even as Clarissa Dalloway decides to fights valiantly, Septimus Smith escapes his pain and inner turmoil by committing suicide. At the end we realise what Woolf tries to tell us, that death ultimately must conquer all, including Clarissa, Septimus, and the old crumbling social order. This article will provide a critical analysis of Virginia Woolf’s most famous novel ‘Mrs. Dalloway’, and will give an insight into the form of writing known as the ‘Stream of consciousness,’ that Woolf puts to optimum use in her novel. It will also explore the inner conflicts that torment Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith, and will discuss the path of resolution that Woolf decides to take, to end all conflicts in this novel. Body A brief look into the life of Virginia Wolf and her mental instability that formed a basis for many of her novels: Virginia Woolf was born on 25th January 1882, in London, in an upper middle class family, and was brought up in the Victorian period, amidst a literary social atmosphere. As she grew up, she met with two tragedies that left indelible marks in her life. Her mother died in 1895, and soon after in 1897 her half sister Stella also died, leaving Virginia devastated. She was soon diagnosed with mental illness and suffered severe manic depressions throughout her life. This depression is omnipresent not only in ‘Mrs. Dalloway’, but also in most of her works, and represents the story of her life to some extent. As Samuel Butler tells us, “Every man’s work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself” (Butler, 60). So the conflict and mental turmoil that we see in many of Woolf’s novels is in fact a representation of her own disturbed self, as she tries to find out the meaning of her existence, and explore the connection between life and death. Her tumultuous relationship with her own sisters and with those surrounding her, is well documented in John Lehman’s book “Virginia Woolf and her world”. An evident admirer of Virginia Woolf, Lehman however faced many stormy ups and downs in his relationship with both with Virginia and husband. Lehman later chronicled all these incidents, which also show us the manic depression that Woolf went through, before she eventually committed suicide. Woolfs ‘stream of consciousness’ style in her representation of Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith: The novel which is set in London, talks of a single day in June 1923. It portrays the life of two very different people, Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith. Though the novel does not see much action, there are currents of thoughts within the minds of the main characters, which keep on flowing, exploring each new idea as they come.“It is extremely technical that these retrospects should seem to occur randomly within the stream of consciousness of Mrs. Dalloway who is currently the narrative focus, while at the same time acting as ducts for all that the reader needs to know” (Batchelor, 5). ‘Stream of consciousness’ is a term which was brought in by William James, a psychologist, which represented the flow of thoughts and senses of a human being. This concept, which gave psychologically realistic views from the percept of a single individual, was successfully used by many writers like Dorothy Richardson, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. Here in Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf successfully uses this style of writing by framing the subjective lives of the different personalities, set in the objectivity of space and time that “remember the past, fantasize about the future, speculate about each other and attend with greater or less degrees of success to the present” (Silver, 54). As the novel progresses we find the characters comprehending the essence of life and death. It is this realisation, and the manifestation of one’s life and death (comprehensible from the inner thought processes of each individual character, that the writer brings out so well in the novel), which forms the main theme of the story. Though the story unfolds in one single day, the thought processes of the characters cover a span of nearly 18 years. Thus, we find that the characters expressing their various responses to everyday life situations, reminiscing their past and thinking about their future, and all these are presented to the reader through various internal speeches, sometimes also through the voice of the narrator, each having a distinct entity. This is very evident when we find Peter Walsh thinking about the past, when Clarissa had rejected him, “He felt that he was grinding against something physically hard; she was unyielding. She was like iron, like flint, rigid up the backbone. And when she said, it’s no use. Its no use. This is the end - after he has spoken   for house, it seemed, with the tears running down his cheeks- it was as if she had hit him in the face. She turned, she left him, she went away Clarissa! He cried. Clarissa!  But she never came back. It was over. He went away that night. He never saw her again. It was awful, he cried, awful, awful!" (Woolf,70). It is a very beautiful, almost a pictorial, representation of the thoughts and emotions that Walsh felt at that particular moment when Clarissa left him. Major part of the novel deals with the ‘Stream of Consciousness,’ of Clarissa Dalloway, the female main protagonist who is the wife of a rich and powerful MP Richard Dalloway. Right at the beginning we delve into her thoughts as she prepares to throw a lavish and important party for husband. “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself”, with this very first line that is set in an impersonal narrative tone, the writer takes us abruptly into the life and thoughts of Clarissa. As she shops, she reminisces about her past, over that one all important summer when she chose to marry Richard over her lover Peter Walsh, and also remembers her old friend Sally Seton. As she wonders over the real meaning of life and love, we find her trying hard to maintain a balance, in her wish to retain her privacy, yet also yearning to speak to someone. She thinks of death, and her lost youth and vitality, and when these thoughts are uppermost in her mind she sees a dead fish and mentally comments, “That is all...Did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely; all this must go on without her: did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely?” (Woolf, 9). Septimus is shown as an introvert and recluse, who refuse to speak and share his feelings with anyone. He is diagnosed with a severe mental disorder, and mostly rambles to himself, and here again we get a very close look at his deranged mind through the effective use of ‘stream of consciousness’ in the form of internal monologues. Through his internal thoughts and ravings, Woolf informs us, that the grimness of the war had turned Septimus from being a brave soldier, to possessing a mind that has become wasted and suicidal. Inner conflicts that torment Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith: There are various competing underlying tensions in almost all of Woolf’s novels. In ‘Mrs. Dalloway’, the daily psychological tensions and its associated problems, along with shifting social norms and orders, form the main picture. However there are also strong hints (that form the backdrop of the novel) of the ‘universality of love’ (Woolf, 57, 125) and the communality of the city, which Septimus with his twisted mind apprehends, and which Woolf as a writer completely believed in. (Hussey, Virginia Woolf: A to Z). Clarissa tries to avoid conflict and struggles, to maintain a harmony between her internal self and her external appearances. Being from a well bred, aristocratic and moneyed family, her world revolves around parties and other so called ‘high society’ activities. However, amidst all these we find her searching for something more substantial, as she mulls about life and death. Her thoughts on her recent illness, her own approaching old age, all these make her feel dissatisfied with life and gives an empty feeling. As she chatters on in the novel and tries to portray she is content, she keeps her soul locked up. She is happy in the material sense of being, but at heart she knows that she had bargained happiness for the security of money and position, the day she refused to marry Peter Walsh. Clarissa however enjoys living and is frightened of dying and she takes heart from the line “Fear no more the heat o’ sun/Nor the furious winter’s rages” (quoted in Woolf, 25). So though we find that in the exterior, Clarissa is the epitome of coolness, internally she faces conflicts when thinking of love, life, her fears and doubts. Septimus Smith on the other hand is in a state of shock after seeing the gruesome realities of the World War I, and has been diagnosed as having severe depression. Unable to deal with all the powerful memories of his good friends dying while fighting, and his own near death escape, has made him mentally unstable and he is unable to open up, and express his thoughts with others. Most of his inner turmoil is represented by his own internal ramblings. Septimus’s conflicts lay in the illusionary fact that “he imagines he feels nothing. He had not cared when Evans was killed; that was the worst but all the other crimes raised their heads and shook their fingers…The verdict of human nature on such a wreck was death” (Clements, 59). So Septimus’s inner conflicts arise from the social order and forces, like imperialism and war, that threaten to destroy the entire mankind. End of conflicts in the novel: Clarissa is reconciled to the fact she has chosen money over love, and though wishes to have another chance to live, has however accepted her position, and at the end of the day also comes to terms with the possibility of her death in the near future. She is not willing to let go of her life and enjoys it, seeks relationships and values them, though “it is possible that in shutting herself off from Peter Walsh, Clarissa may have caused the death of her soul” (Hawthorn, 35). Clarissa comes to terms with her conflicts by understanding that the love within her is dead, but she still has her life. She separates the two terms, life and love, as in body and soul, and as she enjoys life, her body has to live on. Septimus on the other hand does not invest in relationships, and does not differentiate between body and soul (“fear no more, says the heart in the body; fear no more”). He escapes all his conflicts and inner turmoil by committing suicide. As Clarissa interprets Septimus’s death by saying that it was one way of communication, we find the line that establishes a connection between the two of them, “Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate, people feeling the impossibility of reaching the centre which, mystically, evaded them; closeness drew apart; rapture faded; one was alone. There was an embrace in death” (Woolf, 202). So we find Clarissa choosing to resolve her conflicts by letting go of love and embracing life, while Septimus for whom life and body were one single entity, chose to end his conflicts by terminating his life. Conclusion This novel by Virginia Woolf is a wonderful story that represents the sane and insane nature of human minds. By using the method of ‘stream of consciousness,’ she lets us wander into the minds of Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith. Here we find that the concepts of life and death, and that of body and soul, are relative, and depend on how an individual interprets it and views life. The famous lines “Fear no more the heat o’ sun...” is quoted by both Clarissa and Septimus, albeit in two different ways, and with two different meanings. Clarissa takes heart from this line and decides to go on with life, while Septimus asks “Why live?” When the doctor replies “life was good”, Septimus commits suicide as if to confirm this very statement that, “life was good. The sun hot” (Clements and Grundy, 59). Works Cited Batchelor, John. Virginia Woolf: The major novels. NY: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Print. Butler, S. The way of all flesh. Forgotten Books, 1925. Print. Clements, P. and Grundy, Isobel. (Eds.) Virginia Woolf: New critical essays. U.S.A.: Vision Press Ltd., 1983. Print. Hawthorn, J. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway- A Study in Alienation. Sussex: University Press, 1975. Print. Hussey, M. Virginia Woolf from A to Z: The Essential Reference to her Life and Writings. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Print. Lehman, J. Virginia Woolf and Her World. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1975. Print. Silver, Brenda R. Virginia Woolf Icon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1991. Print. Woolf, V, and Bradshaw, D. Mrs Dalloway. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print. Read More