Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf: Live Life with Meaning - Essay Example

Jingyue Chang Eng 111 Wendy Lukomski 10/2/14 Live Life with Meaning A life without meaning is empty. Then, what is the meaning of life? Some individuals go after money and reputation. Some people want to have a stable and simple life. Some people who spend their whole life seeking the meaning of life. In the novel, Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf uses streams of consciousness to write one day of Clarissa Dalloway’s life. By establishing the correlation between Mrs. Dalloway, Peter Walsh, Richard Dalloway, and other people, Woolf shows how mental activities influence a person’s behavior. Through Clarissa Dalloway’s one-day life, Woolf shows that the conflict between a person’s internal feelings and the external world is the key of finding the meaning of life. One of the most difficult challenges in Clarissa’s life was how to find her way out in the conflict between her passion of life and fear of death. On her way of getting flowers, Woolf writes, “For Heaven only knows why one loves it so,….for that very reason: they love life” (4). Woolf shows the strong feeling that Clarissa loves life. On her way of getting flowers, when Big Ben struck, Clarissa deeply felt her appreciation about life. She conveys a fact that all people can be happy no matter what society status that belongs to as long as they can see the beauty around them. Clarissa was depressed when she walked towards Bond Street as she struggled to establish a balance between her passion of life and fear of death. Her decision to reject Peter’s marriage proposal and marry Richard was constantly nagging her even as she walked towards Bond Street to buy flowers. Even as she went to satisfy her passion of buying flowers, Clarissa was still afraid of growing old and death. Indeed, she questioned herself, “Did it matter then,…believe that death ended absolutely” (Woolf 9)? Clarissa was afraid that people would forget her, and she became unconfident thinking about death and loneliness. Her past relate with her present leading her to doubt about the meaning of life. Kristina Groover writes, “Like all of Woolf’s texts, Mrs. Dalloway is fundamentally concerned with human connections and relationships” (25). Groover shows that people’s bodies and mind have sacred connections as internal feelings where the external world influenced Clarissa’s reactions. Woolf uses Clarissa’s streams of consciousness to convey that people make decisions by their internal and external conflict. Peter was sensitive and passionate in his life, which defined his happiness and sorrow. Indeed, Peter and Classira were initially in a passionate love relationship but Classira rejected Peter’s marriage proposal and married Richard instead. Peter manifested his sensitivity by deciding to go to India in an effort to forget his feeling about Clarissa. The rejection influenced Peter personal behavior. Peter Walsh became a critic, and emotions overcame him. Moreover, he was the first to recognize that Clarissa would marry Richard at the dining table, and he thought that Richard was a better man for Clarissa to marry. However, he also felt jealous and upset that Clarissa would leave him. Woolf writes, “She did not move….She turned, she left him, went away” (64). Clarissa turned him down, and Peter “never had suffered so infernally” (Woolf 62)! The conflicted feelings inside Peter became more and more powerful, so he decided to go to India and never saw her again. Peter could not delete his feeling about Clarissa even after going to India for five years. After five years, Clarissa was the first person that Peter wanted to visit when he back from India and he did so, but he realized that he knew about Clarissa’s current life. Peter’s insecurity and hurt from Clarissa made him to be a critical person. Peter detested Clarissa, but Clarissa was the only person who could bring him such deep happiness and affliction. Clarissa was the person who tortured him and made him happy in equal measure. Woolf writes, “A whole lifetime was too short….much less personal” (79). The quote depicts the immediate need to establish a balance in one’s life and avoid living on the edge. Peter had to define his identity and avoid living behind the shadows of Clarissa’s influence. It shows that Peter laid down his critical mind and looked at this world quietly with a peaceful mind. Ultimately, Peter found the meaning of life. Woolf uses Peter to convey that the meaning of life is appreciation rather than complaints. In fact, Woolf shows how Peter gets excited in Clarissa’s presence after recognizing her marital status and his need to move on. Clarissa and Peter Walsh had a puzzled and complicated affair where they could not forget about each other even after Clarissa married Richard and Peter went to India. During Peter’s visit to Clarissa, he had a pocketknife while Clarissa had sewing scissors where these weapons made the two characters equal competitors. While Peter was uncomfortable with his masculinity subject to his fidgeting with the pocketknife, Clarissa was not sure whether she made the right decision in rejecting Peter’s marriage proposal. Peter was Clarissa’s close friend and former lover. Although Clarissa tried to forget her memory with Peter Walsh, it all came back when Peter surprised her with an unexpected visit. Woolf writes, “She looked at Peter Walsh…she wiped her eyes” (43). It shows that the memory between Clarissa and Peter was flashed in Clarissa’s mind, which Peter did take a big portion in Clarissa’s heart. Clarissa felt heartbroken when Peter told her that he was in love with a younger woman. Peter’s assertion reminded her that she still loves Peter somewhere deeply in her mind. However, Clarissa could not tell Peter because she had her husband, her daughter, and her family. She is afraid that she would lose them if she told Peter her feeling. In Clarissa’s eyes, Peter was a mirror that she could see her real self. However, at the same time Clarissa saw Peter’s selfishness that could take her passion and freedom away, which was the reason she did not marry Peter. Woolf uses the elusive connection between Clarissa and Peter to convey another understandable meaning of life through somebody else. Clarissa chose to marry Richard and was happy with him. Richard was a stable, hardworking, and dedicated man, but he lacked passion of life. Woolf writes, “He was a thorough good sort;…, but with the inexplicable niceness of his type” (74). Richard sought to provide a stable life to his wife and daughter. However, it was hard for him to see the beauty of life. Woolf writes that Clarissa had to see things through his eyes-one of the tragedies of marriage life (77). Clarissa sacrificed her passion for marrying Richard for his steadfastness. Indeed, Clarissa sacrificed her passion for a secure upper-class life in marrying a loving, simple, and sensitive man. However, Richard did not identify with Clarissa’s desire to communicate and recognize the beauty of life. Richard lacks passion about life and lacks knowledge about her though he is a caring father and husband. Nevertheless, Richard’s lack of imagination and passion became the poison in their marriage. Richard was difficult to speak his feelings. In fact, he was shy that she could not tell his wife that he loved her, even though he felt much about it. Clarissa and Richard had different standards for life: Richard believed in the traditions in England rather than passion or imagination. Richard influenced Clarissa’s life where he made her Mrs. Dalloway, and Mrs. Dalloway could not live in such an easy and comfortable life without him. Woolf shows that life is a learning process with gains and losses. Woolf shows how Peter suffered from a rejected marriage proposal. Woolf also shows how Peter gained the true meaning of his life by looking at the world with a peaceful mind. The homosexual love between Clarissa and Sally was an essential part of Clarissa’s life since it showed how Clarissa failed to establish her identity. Woolf writes that Clarissa’s only gift was knowing people by instinct (9). Indeed, she cared about what people think of her, questioned the true meaning of life, and balanced between privacy and her need to communicate with others. Only instincts would help her identify the true meaning of life. Clarissa knew everything about life and death but was afraid to express her feelings. Clarissa feared death because she became scared when she saw things did not happen the way she wished. Finally, Clarissa met Sally and thought, “But this question of love, this falling in love with women. Take Sally Seton; her relation in the old days with Sally Seton. Had not that, after all been love” (Woolf 32)? Clarissa saw Sally’s braveness and passion, which were things Clarissa was afraid to express. Moreover, Clarissa wrote herself through Sally. Woolf writes, “Sally’s power was amazing, her gift and her personality” (33). However, the homosexual love between Clarissa and Sally was illegal in the early twentieth century. By arguing for the love between Clarissa and Sally, Woolf shows that there is no restriction to love relationships since people have rights to choose what they want in their lives. Finding the meaning of life is a requirement for everyone living in this world. Life is like a big jar fulfilled with happiness, anger, sorrow, regret, and other feelings. Woolf shows how mental activities influence a person’s behavior. Woolf shows that the conflict between a person’s internal feelings and the external world is the key of finding the meaning of life. Woolf uses Clarissa’s streams of consciousness to convey the message that people make decisions by their internal and external conflict. The streams of consciousness define the meaning of life. Furthermore, Clarissa helps us to understand that everybody can be happy regardless of their social status as long as they appreciate the beauty around them. Peter shows that we can find the meaning of our life by laying down our critical mind and looking at this world quietly with a peaceful mind. As such, the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf offers a source of optimism by suggesting how one might find meaning of life. Works Cited Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. East Melbourne, VIC: Interactive Media, 2012. Print. Read More