Mrs Dalloway – class discussion 1 (pp. 3-5)
• Shift from the 3rd person external to the 3rd person
internal narrator
• Cohesive devices
• Time: chronological vs. personal
o Interconnectedness of the past and the present
o Invasion of the bright, emotionally-charged memories
of the past into the present
o The determining presence of the past in the present
o Reliving the past (anticipation, sense of foreboding)
o The objective presence of time (age, Big Ben that
punctuates life with its strikes)
London and the consequences of
WWI (anti-pathetic fallacy)
• The past determining the present: “the war
was over, except[…]”
• Antithesis: peaceful life vs. troubled lives of
people
The past that determines the present:
Clarissa (pp. 5-7)
o Unable to erase the past from her memory
o Prone to reconsider her past decisions
o Specificity of her line of reasoning (a position of
superiority, yet one mixed with “…the grief, the
anguish, and then the horror…”)
o Realization of her mistake of judgment (“Never
could she understand how he cared.”)
o Greater tolerance thanks to lifelong experience.
(“She would not say of anyone in the world now
that they were this or were that. […] she would
not say of herself, I am this, I am that.”)
Clarissa’s inner conflicts (pp. 6-9)
“very young” vs. “unspeakably aged”
“sliced like a knife through everything” vs.
“was outside”
included vs. excluded
taking active part in everything vs. “alone”
Identity crisis (“cease completely”)
Life (“survived”, p. 7) vs. death
Love vs. hatred (p. 9)
Clarissa’s multiple identities (pp. 7-9)
An upper class woman
o Ignorance (“…she knew nothing; no language,
no history; she scarcely read a book now, except
memoirs in bed… “)
o Deeply internalized inferiority (“she had a peastick figure; a ridiculous little face, beaked like a
bird’s” vs. being a slow, large, stately woman,
interested in politics like Lady Bexborough)
o Engages in typical for this class of people
activities (shopping, participating in charity
actions, etc.)
A wife
o “invisible; unseen; unknown”
o “not even Clarissa anymore”
A mother
o keeps questioning Elizabeth’s motives to stick
with Miss Kilman
A homophobe
o scornful, narrow-minded: looks down at Miss
Kilman
o the “reduction” pattern: “better poor Grizzle
than Miss Kilman” (p. 9)
Septimus Warren Smith (p. 11)
o Onomastics: the seventh child
o “… about 30, pale-faced, beak-nosed […] shabby
overcoat, […] that look of apprehension…”
o Doubles:
 “Mrs Dalloway […] looked out …”
“Septimus looked.”
 Preoccupied with the them of death like Clarissa
(“Is it I who am blocking the way…”; “I will kill
myself”); questions the essence of his existence
(see Clarissa as well)
Anti-pathetic fallacy (pp. 12-13)
The setting
“veneration … for Queen, Prince, or Prime
Minister”, “greatness was passing”, “symbol
of state”, “opening some bazaar”
“grass-grown path”, “Wednesday morning”,
“sunlight”, “white”, “magical”, “glittering
stars”
an aeroplane – a symbol of freedom vs.
confinement; a symbol of consumerism
Septimus (pp. 16-17)
o heightened sensitivity (p. 16)
o mental and emotional instability as seen in
the upward and downward dynamics (p. 17)
o sanity vs. insanity (p. 17)
o isolation (p. 17)
o post- WWI trauma
o Identity crisis (“… he was not Septimus now”,
p. 17) – see Clarissa as well
o bouts of insanity (p. 18): see voices as well
Septimus’s insanity (p. 18)
o pacifistic notes
o sparrows – birds – freedom
o Greek – the language of antiquity that
celebrated the beauty of the man
o blurring of the differences between the living
and the dead (“there was his hand; there the
dead”) – maybe he already sees himself as
dead?
Septimus / the theme of insanity (p. 18)
o pacifistic notes
o sparrows – birds – freedom
o Greek – the language of antiquity that
celebrated the beauty of the man
o blurring of the differences between the living
and the dead (“there was his hand; there the
dead”)
Clarissa + voices (pp. 22-23)
o Making peace with her life: ‘’… must one repay in
daily life…?’’ (p.22)
o Feeling excluded (‘’… the shock of Lady Bruton
asking Richard to lunch without her’’ (p. 22)
o Afraid of time / aging (p. 23)
o Considering suicide: “ a diver before plunging ” (p.
23)
o Anti-pathetic fallacy
‘’…June morning; soft with the glow of rose petals…’’
vs. ‘’… suddenly shrivelled, aged, breastless …’’ (p. 23)
The nun
o The theme of withdrawal (distance, isolation,
separation on both topographical and emotional
levels)
o The reduction pattern:
 a child ‘’exploring a tower’’
 a life of loneliness (‘’Narrower and narrower
would her bed be’’, p. 23)
 reading as a way to escape the reality
 Stripped off her feminine characteristics (‘’… she
could not dispel a virginity preserved through
childbirth which clung to her like a sheet.’’ (p.
23)
 Lack of sexuality; frigidity (‘’She could see what
she lacked. It was not beauty; it was not mind. It
was something central which permeated;
something warm which broke up surfaces and
rippled the cold contact of man and woman, or
of women altogether.’’, p. 24)
 Shown as an atypical woman
- homosexuality (‘’…she could not resist
sometimes yielding to the charm of a woman…’’)
- drawn to unconventionalities (Sally Seton)
- a kiss as precious as a revelation (religious
connotation), pp. 24-25
Doubles: Clarissa and Septimus
• Making peace with their lives
• Accepting its sadness
• Being not afraid
Clarissa (p. 29: ‘’Fear no more, says the
heart.’’)
Septimus (p. 101: ‘’Fear no more, says the heart
in the body; fear no more.’’)
Rhetorical patterns: antithesis
Clarissa
o Conventional
o Envious of Sally’s
beauty, her
“abandonment” (p.
24)
o “Knew nothing about
sex”
o Knew “nothing about
social problems” (p.
25)
o “the purity, the
integrity of her feeling
for Sally” (p. 25)
o Protective of Sally (p.
25)
Sally
o Unconventional behavior (smoking cigarettes,
p. 24; cutting flowers’ heads off; running
naked, p. 25))
o Dysfunctional family (“Sally’s parents did not
get on”, p. 24)
o “a sort of abandonment” admired by Clarissa
(p. 24)
o Poorer (“hadn’t a penny “, p. 25)
o Passionate (“Sally it was who made her feel”,
p. 25)
o Sally’s idea “to abolish private property”, p.
25
o Intelligent (reading Plato)
o Reckless (p. 25)
o Personality (p. 25)
Rhetorical patterns 2: antithesis
The young Clarissa
o Capable of feeling (“ That
was her feeling –
Othello’s feeling […] all
because she was coming
down to dinner in a
white frock to meet Sally
Seton!” (p. 26)
o “She was wearing pink
gauze – was that
possible?”
o “…the radiance burnt
through” (the kiss, p. 26)
The 52-year-old Clarissa
o Unable to feel; numb (“She could
not even get an echo of her old
emotion”, p. 27)
o “…seeing the delicate pink face
of the woman who was that very
night to give a party; of Clarissa
Dalloway; of herself” (p. 27)
o “That was her self – pointed;
dartlike; definite” (p. 27)
o “…the whole world seems to be
saying ‘that is all’’(p. 29)
o “Fear no more, says the heart”
(p. 29)
Rhetorical patterns 3: antithesis
Clarissa Dalloway
o Lack of sexuality
o Femininity
fading away
o Frigidity
o Confinement
Peter Walsh
o Sexuality (see the
displacement mechanism:
personal anxiety
unarticulated desires )
o Intensity
o Freedom