The Shifting Points of View in Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf - Essay Example

The Shifting Points of View in Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Mrs. Dalloway is a novel written by Virginia Woolf that is based on a day in the life of its main character Clarissa Dalloway. Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway was a fictional character of a high society woman living in England post World War I. Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for a party as a host. Her considerations, recognition, and impressions, along with the contemplation of different characters, structure the "action" of the novel. Limited to a single day in London, this is a modern novel, for it has no deed in the traditional sense- of developing a crisis and its determination, of mixing of different plots and sub-plots; instead, it is simply a presentation of two-three story strings moving through a single day; it has an open structure, the completion being uncertain; with a lack of linearity in the story, characters feeling, encountering and thinking, instead of acting. Unlike the conventional novels, this novel has additionally no story to tell. It is a cognizant gathering of 'multitude impressions', all united by Woolf to have her say in regards to what she supposes about all these things in the form of her characters, however they seem alive and thinking in their rights. There is likewise no decisive closure of the novel. Mrs. Dalloway is a true example of the modern literature accustomed with the features of modernism as a non-linear story telling style is adopted, which reflects the modernism of a period of time. Also, it presents some new ideas of identity. This novel is written with a non-linear story telling style wherein every character is telling the story instead of a traditional flow. An example from the novel can be the statement “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 (drink their downfall) do the same; can’t be dealt with, she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they love life.” (Woolf 8). These words are narrated as the thoughts of Clarissa when sho goes to the flower shop. Modern fiction showed up at the start of the twentieth century and won amid the 20s, 30s of the twentieth century in English writing. The new way of writing, or simply modernism, was slowly and gradually developed as a new way of depicting characters following a ‘continuous flow’ of information on their personalities and personal thoughts. The striking feature of these books is that they give priority to the delineation of the characters' mental and enthusiastic responses to outside occasions, instead of the occasions themselves. Along these lines, the author surrendered the ordinary uses of reasonable plot structure, characterization and interpretation, and their works got to be progressions of "transient pictures of the outer world with contemplation and half-musings and shadows of thought appended to the prompt present or moving over and over again in memory" (LIU, 1993). An example of this writing style is portrayed by Peter Walsh in the following lines “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 105)  The novel was published after World War I, a time when people were stressed and everyone was feeling that their life had been shattered. Woolf wrote a novel in a different style which showed despair and hope at the same time. Clarissa’s understanding and exposure to the hope and despair dwelling together in everyone’s life is depicted in the following lines as “This late age of the world’s experience had bred in them all, all men and women, a well of tears. Tears and sorrows; courage and endurance; a perfectly upright and stoical bearing.” (Woolf 11). These lines represent the time in which Clarissa was living when the world and its structure was changing and was searching for an alternate way of understanding. In the novel, Woolf narrated the advent of psychology through Freud’s work. She narrated how Freud’s ides were changing the traditional psychiatric understanding on the nature of the patient and doctor. Both, Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus Smith, have mental disorders which were not very common at that time. Mrs. Dalloway was suffering from a mental disorder which, today, is known as depression and anxiety; whereas, Septimus was suffering from a disorder known as Post-traumatic stress disorder. The novel imposes modernism because of the introduction of new ideas regarding identity. Identity is commonly termed as the way people perceive a person and the way through which people recognize a person and themselves. However, in Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf introduced another term of identity, according to which a person separates his/her self inherently from others. Woolf also narrated this novel in a way where she used direct and indirect speech as well as she kept her tone light, but had done criticism. A lighter tone is used to criticize the social existence of isolated love and care for one person or the other by stating that “nothing is so strange when one is in love (and what was this except being in love?) as the complete indifference of other people” (Woolf 30). An example of indirect speech from the novel is "But Lucrezia herself could not help looking at the motor car and the tree pattern on the blinds. Was it the Queen in there – the Queen going shopping?" (Woolf 16). In this style of speech, she shows a strong access to the minds and thoughts of the characters; therefore, she simply put out the things that were circulating in their minds. She criticized traditional psychiatrists, traditional style of writing or storytelling, and has criticized some of the qualities that were less appealing to her in the British lifestyle and tradition (Lambert, p. 37). The novel advances through two clearly inconsequential storylines: one regarding Septimus' ailment and consequent suicide, while the second regarding Mrs. Dalloway's arrangements for a party, which would be attended by the Prime Minister. Despite of the difference,the characters concerning both plots of the novel passed one another in the city of London throughout the novel. Both the plots are united at the end of the novel, when at the party Mrs. Dalloway hears about Septimus' suicide as one of the guests was the psychiatrist of Septimus. She felt an unusual sympathy for him. It appears that the information about his suicide keeps Clarissa from the suicide. Additionally, it shows how society and people are responsible for the death or troubles of one another. By narrating such an event, Mrs. Woolf used techniques of modern literature showing the reaction of people to external events. After hearing about the death of Septimus, Mrs. Dalloway’s personal or private space was separated from the public in the party with the help of an unseen wall (Lambert 82). In this regard, the factor of modernism is depicted as Mrs. Woolf presented the inner world of her characters, unlike the traditional fiction where the focus of the writer was only the physical outlook of the character. Throughout the entire novel, Mrs. Woolf tried to explain the difference between the inner world and outer world of a person and the impact of external events on the thoughts and personality of a person. The novel ends without any conclusion, but has conveyed a very clear message to the world suffering from the after effects of World War I. In the climax of the novel, Mrs. Dalloway has begun her life with a new hope, enthusiasm and energy, though, it was very difficult, but she gathered fragmented pieces of her life and started to search a new route. In this way Mrs. Woolf conveyed a message of courage to people who were depressed and were feeling hard to continue their lives. Mrs. Woolf used a tone and writing mechanisms of modernism to encourage people on continuing their lives without the negative thoughts of suicides and being killed by the social evils and has tried to expose a number of evils that could otherwise remain unnoticed yet damaging to the society. Mrs. Dalloway helped Woolf to narrate the importance of complicated and fragmented people and things in a society. Though, the novel was based on the span of a single day, but now even after so many decades, the legacy of the novel fits exactly in our own modern era and life. The novel is written in a very unique manner which involved the reader completely and compelled the reader to think critically to find answers of different questions. The novel has portrayed the degree of human control on his life as well as on the things and technologies related to his life. References Lambert, D. C. The Shifting Points Of View In Virginia Woolf's Novel Mrs. Dalloway. 1st ed. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2011. Print. Liu Bingshan. (1993). A Short History of English Literature. Zhengzhou, China: Henan People''s Publishing House. Read More