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 First edition dust jacket, 1925; cover art byVanessa Bell | |
| Author | Virginia Woolf |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Hogarth Press |
Publication date | 14 May 1925 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 224 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 0-15-662870-8 |
| OCLC | 20932825 |
| 823.912 20 | |
| LC Class | PR6045.O72 M7 1990b |
| Text | Mrs Dalloway atWikisource |
Mrs Dalloway is anovel byVirginia Woolf published on 14 May 1925.[1][2] It details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictionalupper-class woman inpost-First World WarEngland.
The working title ofMrs Dalloway wasThe Hours. The novel originated from two short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister". In autumn 1922, Woolf began to think of the "Mrs Dalloway" short story as the first chapter of her new novel,[2] and she completed the manuscript in late autumn 1924.[3]
The book describes Clarissa's preparations for a party she will host in the evening and the ensuing party. With an interior perspective, the story travels forwards and backwards in time to construct an image of Clarissa's life and the inter-war social structure. The novel addresses the nature of time in personal experience through multiple interwoven stories, using astream of consciousness narration style.
In October 2005,Mrs Dalloway was included onTIME Magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since its first issue in 1923.[4]
On January 1, 2021,Mrs Dalloway entered thepublic domain in the United States.[5]
Clarissa Dalloway goes aroundLondon in the morning, getting ready to host a party that evening. The nice day reminds her of her youth spent in the countryside inBourton and makes her wonder about her choice of husband; she had married the reliable, successful, Richard Dalloway instead of the enigmatic and demanding Peter Walsh. She "had not the option" to be with a female romantic interest, Sally Seton. Peter reintroduces these conflicts by paying a visit that morning. Peter's visit made it clear that he was still in love with Clarissa (despite mention of his new love interest, Daisy), and Clarissa expressed her desire for Peter to take her away. Clarissa additionally invites Peter to her party that evening.
Septimus Warren Smith, aFirst World War veteran suffering fromdeferred traumatic stress, spends his day in the park with his Italian-born wife Lucrezia, who experiences majorloneliness as a result of her husband's isolating illness. His going to war affected not only his ability to function, but Lucrezia's as well. Septimus is now visited by frequent and indecipherablehallucinations, mostly concerning his dear friend Evans, whom he had unresolved unrequited sexual feelings towards, and who died in thewar; otherwise Septimus seems to be unable to feel emotions for anyone, even his wife. Septimus's relationship with his physicians, Sir William Bradshaw and Dr Holmes, is extremely poor. He fears for his safety in the presence of both doctors and often questions human nature after their interactions. As a result of hisinvoluntary commitment to apsychiatric hospital hetakes his own life by jumping out of a window.
Clarissa's party in the evening is a slow success. It is attended by most of the characters she has met throughout the book, including Sally, Peter, and others from her past. Clarissa discovers that Sally, whom she has not seen for several decades, and who used to be a free-spirited tomboy, has become a respectable, matronly mother to five boys.
The novel ends with Clarissa hearing about Septimus's suicide at the party and gradually coming to admire this stranger's act, which she considers an effort to preserve the purity of his happiness. Clarissa also acknowledges her ability to relate to Septimus regardless of her limited knowledge of him.
InMrs Dalloway, all of the action, aside from theflashbacks, takes place on a day in "the middle of June" of 1923. It is an example ofstream of consciousness storytelling: every scene closely tracks the momentary thoughts of a particular character. Woolf blurs the distinction betweendirect andindirect speech throughout the novel, freely alternating hermode of narration betweenomniscient description,indirectinterior monologue, andsoliloquy.[9] The narration follows at least twenty characters in this way, but the bulk of the novel is spent with Clarissa Dalloway, Peter Walsh, and Septimus Smith.
Woolf laid out some of her literary goals with the characters ofMrs Dalloway while still working on the novel. A year before its publication, she gave a talk at Cambridge University called "Character in Fiction", revised and retitled later that year as "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown".[10]
Mrs Dalloway is commonly thought to be a response toJames Joyce'sUlysses. Both novels use the stream of consciousness technique to follow the thoughts of two characters, one older and one younger, during one day in a bustling city.[11] Woolf herself, writing in 1928, denied any deliberate "method" to the book, saying instead that the structure came about "without any conscious direction".[12]
The novel has two main narrative lines involving two separate characters (Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith); within each narrative there is a particular time and place in the past that the main characters keep returning to in their minds. For Clarissa, her charmed youth at Bourton keeps intruding into her thoughts on this day in London. For Septimus, his time as a soldier during the "Great War" keeps intruding, especially in the form of Evans, his fallen comrade. Other characters, such as Peter Walsh, also find themselves returning to moments in their past.[13]
Time plays an integral role in the theme of faith and doubt in Mrs Dalloway. The overwhelming presence of the passing of time and the impending fate of death for each of the characters is felt throughout the novel. As Big Ben towers over the city of London and rings for each half-hour, characters cannot help but stop and notice the loss of life to time in regular intervals throughout the story.[14] For Septimus, who has experienced the vicious war, the notion of death constantly floats in his mind as he continues to see his friend Evans talking of such things. The constant stream of consciousness perspective of the characters, especially Clarissa, serves as a distraction from this passing of time and the ultimate march towards death, but each character is constantly reminded of the inevitability of these facts. Further emphasizing the passage of time is the time-frame of the novel, which takes place in the course of a single day, like Joyce'sUlysses.
The idea that there can be meaning in every detail of life, and a deeper appreciation of life as a result, is emphasized by the constant connection of characters to memories and to simple ideas and things. Clarissa even feels that her job (throwing her parties) is to offer "the gift" of connectedness to the inhabitants of London. Woolf's writing style crosses the boundaries of the past, present and future, emphasizing her idea of time as a constant flow, connected only by some force (or divinity) within each person.[15] An evident contrast can be found between the constant passing of time—symbolized by Big Ben—and the seemingly random crossings of time-lines in Woolf's writing.[16] Yet, although these crossings seem random, they only demonstrate the infinite possibilities that the world can offer once it is interconnected by the individual character of each person.
Septimus, as theshell-shocked war hero, operates as a pointed criticism of the treatment ofmental illness and depression.[17] Woolf criticises medical discourse through Septimus' decline and suicide; his doctors make snap judgments about his condition, talk to him mainly through his wife, and dismiss his urgent confessions before he can make them. Rezia remarks that Septimus "was not ill. Dr Holmes said there was nothing the matter with him."[18]
Woolf goes beyond commenting on the treatment of mental illness. Using the characters of Clarissa and Rezia, she makes the argument that people can only interpret Septimus' shell shock according to their cultural norms.[19] Throughout the course of the novel Clarissa does not meet Septimus. Clarissa's reality is vastly different from that of Septimus; his presence in London is unknown to Clarissa until his death becomes the subject of idle chatter at her party. By never having these characters meet, Woolf is suggesting that mental illness can be contained to the individuals who suffer from it without others, who remain unaffected, ever having to witness it.[20] This allows Woolf to weave her criticism of the treatment of thementally ill with her larger argument, which is the criticism of society's class structure. Her use of Septimus as the stereotypically traumatised veteran is her way of showing that there were still reminders of the First World War in London in 1923.[19] These ripples affect Mrs. Dalloway and readers spanning generations. Shell shock, orpost traumatic stress disorder, is an important addition to the early 20th century canon of post-war British literature.[21]
There are similarities in Septimus' condition to Woolf's struggles withbipolar disorder. Bothhallucinate that birds sing inGreek, and Woolf once attempted to throw herself out of a window as Septimus does.[17] Woolf had also been treated for her condition at various asylums, from which her antipathy towards doctors developed. Woolf committed suicide by drowning, sixteen years after the publication ofMrs Dalloway.[22]
Woolf's original plan for her novel called for Clarissa to kill herself during her party. In this original version, Septimus (whom Woolf called Mrs. Dalloway's "double") did not appear at all.[12]
When Peter Walsh sees a girl on the street andstalks her for half an hour, he notes that his relationship to the girl was "made up, as one makes up the better part of life." By focusing on characters' thoughts and perceptions, Woolf emphasizes the significance of private thoughts onexistential crisis rather than concrete events in a person's life. Most of the plot inMrs Dalloway consists of realizations that the characters subjectively make.[17]
Clarissa Dalloway is depicted as a woman who appreciates life. Her love of party-throwing comes from a desire to bring people together and create happy moments. Her charm, according to Peter Walsh, who loves her, is a sense ofjoie de vivre, always summarized by the sentence: "There she was." She interprets Septimus Smith's death as an act of embracing life and her mood remains light, even though she hears about it in the midst of the party.[citation needed]
As a commentary on inter-war society, Clarissa's character highlights the role of women as the proverbial "Angel in the House" and embodies sexual andeconomic repression and thenarcissism of bourgeois women who have never known the hunger and insecurity of working women. She keeps up with and even embraces the social expectations of the wife of a patrician politician, but she is still able to express herself and find distinction in the parties she throws.[17]
Her old friend Sally Seton, whom Clarissa admires dearly, is remembered as a great independent woman – she smoked cigars, once ran down a corridor naked to fetch her sponge-bag, and made bold, unladylike statements to get a reaction from people.[17] When Clarissa meets her in the present day, Sally turns out to be a perfect housewife, having accepted her lot as a rich woman ("Yes, I have ten thousand a year"-whether before the tax was paid, or after, she couldn't remember...), married, and given birth to five sons.
Clarissa Dalloway felt a strong bond to Sally Seton at Bourton, and those feelings seem to extend beyond friendship. Thirty-four years later, Clarissa still considers the kiss they shared to be the "most exquisite" moment of her life, and she remembers feeling about Sally "as men feel."[23] Clarissa even goes so far as to compare her feelings to those that Shakespeare's character Othello feels for Desdemona—and when she looks back and ponders those emotions, the narration remarks, "But this question of love (she thought, putting her coat away), 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?"[24] Clarissa then recalls Sally's visit and how others seemed "indifferent" to Sally's presence, and she thinks to herself, "But nothing is so strange when one is in love (and what was this except being in love?) as the complete indifference of other people."[24]
Clarissa also recalls Sally's visit—specifically the experience of seeing Sally at dinner—as "the most happy" moment of her life.[24] Nevertheless, scholar Kate Haffey observes that some critics have attempted to gloss over the narrative's erotic qualities and reframe Clarissa and Sally's early relationship as a fanciful yet ultimately platonic phase of heterosexual female development: "Despite the quite sexual nature of Clarissa's descriptions of her affections for women, her feelings for Sally are most often constructed as representing a period of girlhood innocence that is sharply contrasted with the adult self […] When this love is not described in terms of its 'innocence,' it is positioned as part of that 'unruly' phase of adolescence, a period incompatible with female maturity."[25] Yet in the novel itself, memories of the kiss are rendered in passionate language (Clarissa compares the kiss to "a diamond, something infinitely precious"),[24] and this moment of the past drifts back powerfully into Clarissa's present, creating a sense of timelessness. The kiss thus underlines the novel's theme of temporality, as the experience is a moment that seems to stand outside or suspend ordinary time.[26]
Similarly, Septimus is haunted by the image of his dear friend and commanding officer, Evans, who is described as being "undemonstrative in the company of women."[27] The narrator describes Septimus and Evans behaving together like "two dogs playing on a hearth-rug" who, inseparable, "had to be together, share with each other, fight with each other, quarrel with each other...."[27] Jean E. Kennard notes that the word "share" could easily be read in aForsteran manner, perhaps as in Forster'sMaurice; "The word 'share' […] was often used in this period to describe sexual relations between men."[28] Kennard also notes Septimus' "increasing revulsion at the idea of heterosexual sex," abstaining from sex with Rezia and feeling that "the business of copulation was filth to him before the end."[29]
Dutch film directorMarleen Gorris made a film version ofMrs Dalloway in 1997.[30] It was adapted from Woolf's novel by British actressEileen Atkins and starredVanessa Redgrave andNatascha McElhone in the title role. The cast includedLena Headey,Rupert Graves,Michael Kitchen,Alan Cox,Sarah Badel, andKatie Carr.
A related 2002 film,The Hours depicts a single day in the lives of three women across generations affected byMrs Dalloway: Woolf writing it in 1923, a Los Angeles housewife reading it in 1951, and a New York literary editor living it in 2001. Adapted fromthe 1998 novel byMichael Cunningham, the cast featuresNicole Kidman as Woolf,Julianne Moore as housewife Laura, andMeryl Streep as editor Clarissa. Cunningham titled his novelThe Hours after Woolf'sworking title forMrs Dalloway.[31] A2022 opera with music byKevin Puts and libretto by Greg Pierce was based on Cunningham's novel and the film.[32]
In 2025, to mark the 100th anniversary of the novel's publication, it was broadcast onBBC Radio Four, in ten 15-minute instalments, read bySiân Thomas
Mrs Dalloway also appears in Virginia Woolf's first novel,The Voyage Out, as well as five of her short stories, in which the character hosts dinner parties to which the main subject of the narrative is invited:[citation needed]
The stories (except for "The Introduction") all appear in the 1944 collectionA Haunted House and Other Short Stories, and in the 1973 collectionMrs Dalloway's Party.[33]
She had just broken into her fifty-second year.
Mrs. Dalloway public domain audiobook atLibriVox| International | |
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