Visual Notes on Mrs. Dalloway’s
Walk through London
E.K. Sparks
Clemson University
Fall 2002
Woolf on the parallel structure
"Suppose it to be connected in this way:
Sanity and insanity.
Mrs. Dalloway seeing the truth, Septimus Smith
seeing the insane truth . . .
The pace is to be given by the gradual increase of
Septimus's insanity on the one side; by the approach
of the party on the other. . . .
The Question is whether the inside of the mind
in both Mrs Dalloway and Septimus Smith can be
made luminous--that is to say the stuff of the book-lights on it coming from external sources."
Woolf’s “philosophy”
"Perhaps this is the strongest pleasure known to me. It is the
rapture I get when in writing I seem to be discovering what
belongs to what; making a scene come right; making a
character come together. From this I reach what I might call
a philosophy; at any rate it is a constant idea of mind; that
behind the cotton wool is hidden pattern; that we--I mean
all human beings--are connected with this; that the whole
world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of
art. Hamlet or a Beethoven quartet is the truth about this
vast mass that we call the world. But there is no
Shakespeare, there is no Beethoven; certainly and
emphatically there is no God; we are the words; we are the
music; we are the thing itself."
Woolf on “character”
"I believe that all novels begin with an old lady in
the corner opposite. I believe that all novels, that is
to say, deal with character, and that it is to express
character--not to preach doctrines, sing songs, or
celebrate the glories of the British Empire, that the
form of the novel, so clumsy, verbose, and
undramatic, so rich, elastic, and alive, has been
evolved" (from her essay “Mr Bennett and Mrs
Brown”).
“Fear No More the Heat of the Sun”
William Shakespeare’s play, Cymbeline (act 4,
scene 2) contains a funeral song, sung while
Guiderius and his brother strew the “fairest
flowers” to “sweeten thy sad grave.”
Fear no more the heat of the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages,
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and tane [taken] thy wages.
Golden Lads, and Girls all must,
As Chimney-Sweepers come to dust.
The phrase is alluded to five times in the
novel
Clarissa recalls the words four times during
the day:
When she is looking in a bookstore window (9)
When she learns that Lady Bruton and Richard are
dining together (29)
When she is sewing and remembers her youth with Peter
(39)
When she thinks about Septimus Smith’s death (182)
Septimus Smith thinks of the words once
During his moment of contentment before Holmes comes
to take him (136)
Social Analysis in Mrs. Dalloway
“I want to critique the social system, and to show it
at work at its most intense” – Virginia Woolf on
Mrs. Dalloway
Hugh Whitbread: “this type of an English public school
man” (173)
Prime Minister: “the symbol of what they all stood for,
English society” (172)
Peter Walsh: “the public spirited, British Empire, tariffreform, governing-class spirit.”
Lady Bruton and Peter Walsh identify with Britain’s
imperial mission
Mrs. Dalloway’s Walk from Dean’s Yard,
Westminster to Bond Street (MD 3-14)
Westminster Abbey
Archway to Dean’s Yard
[Richard Dalloway] entered Dean’s Yard ...
approaching his door: MDA 129
Big Ben (1910) Strikes 10:00 as
Mrs. Dalloway crosses Victoria St.
Birdcage Walk: Entrance to St.
James Park
“in the middle of St James’s Park on a fine
morning” (MD 9)
By the clubs on Pall Mall
Burlington Arcade: across Piccadilly St
from Bond St.
Septimus &
Rezia’s walk from
Oxford St.
through Harley
St. to Regent’s
Park (MD 14-27)
Oxford Street, 1910
Regent’s Park: flower beds & fountains
Regent’s Park: The Broad Walk
Harley Street
Peter Walsh’s Walk:
Westminster, up Whitehall,
through Trafalgar, up
Regent’s St. to Regent’s
Park (MD 48-56)
Trafalgar Sq., 1908
Richard Dalloway’s Walk: Brook St. off New Bond,
through Green Park, past Buckingham Palace into
Dean’s Yard (MD 112-117)
Buckingham Palace, 1910
Elizabeth’s Bus Ride: from Army Navy Stores on
Victoria St. , up Whitehall and the Strand to Fleet
Street (MD 134-139)
Fleet Street looking towards St. Paul’s (1910)
All the Dalloway Walks