The Hours-Critique - Essay Example

What colors the whole film is the knowledge that Virginia Woolf will take her own life at the end of the story due to her mental illness (Ehlen 45). These ideas and many others warrant a closer examination and clarification of the thoughts present in the film. As such, this paper will seek to identify and focus on the ideas of the film “The Hours”. To begin with, as the three main characters continue to search for a meaning in their lives, they evaluate suicide to be a means of avoiding the problems they encounter.

Laura, Clarissa, and Virginia have a high credibility towards their perceptions and sensitivity with regard to the world around them. Every moment of their lives, traverses with their evaluation of how they feel about living. Thus, they from time to time see death as a solution to their problems that is why they constantly think of committing suicide (59). Given her mental illness, Virginia considers death as the only way out of her oppressive aspects in her life. As we analyze the film, we find that she finally ends her life towards the end of the story.

Now that we know Virginia took her own life, it is understandable that her deliberations concerning Clarissa are partly a reflection of her own individual struggle and strive with the idea of suicide. Additionally, while in the same universal exploration of the literary work of Cunningham, the idea of humans fascinating with the idea of mortality revolves around the three main characters. Virginia ends her own life due to her aspects of oppressions following her mental illness. Laura Brown on the other hand, experiences feelings that makes see her trapped by the constraints of her function as a suburban homemaker.

Due to these feelings, she considers suicide as the only possible escape. At this instant, the idea of shutting the clamor and chatter of living seduces this character. However, since she is an intellectual, at first, she finds her fascination with committing suicide is an interest, which has an academic objective. As a result, the thought of not being able to proceed with the killing crosses her mind constantly (66). Regardless of her thought and visions, the feeling of constraints befalls her more and she starts evaluating the idea of killing herself with a serious note.

The idea of Laura’s suicide plan is no longer hypothetical when she stands at the mirror while staring at the sleeping pills. The indebtedness of Michael Cunningham to Virginia is too obvious. Consequently, some critics resolved to use the term pastiche with the view of describing his novel. For instance, as Mrs. Dalloway opens and as Clarissa prepares for a party in one fine morning in June, she departs from home to buy some flowers. This description finds its echo when the second chapter of The Hours opens.

Intense clarification of this film points out that, a description that shows and describes what the audience already expects is too obvious. Nevertheless, we see the women within this film trying to define the state of their lives within the roles that society set for them without sacrificing their individual identities (81). Occasionally, women such as Clarissa thinks that she is too domestic and Laura feels trapped within the life she finds herself living. This is a clear indication depicting that women of The Hours have varying degrees comforting their respective roles.

Analysis of this situation brings about the idea of constrain of societal roles where trappings and domesticity of women illustrates its