Mrs Dalloway & Jane Eyre Critics

Clarissa’s ageing.

Makiko Minow-Pinkney- Clarissa is 'the mere ghost of a woman, cut away by physical infirmity from the energies of bodily life'.

Septimus’ feeling.

Elaine Showalter- Septimus "feels so much because others feel so little".

Clarissa’s escape.

Sutherland and Hislop- "The secret space within Clarissa's self is symbolised by the attic to which she ascends".

Clarissa’s spiritual sanctuary.

Kristina Groover- "Woolf's characterization of Clarissa's bedroom as "nunlike" casts it as a sacred space and suggests the spiritual nature of her seclusion".

Clarissa’s inner and outer self.

Alex Zwerdling- "Like Peter and Sally (Clarissa) has both a conformist and rebellious side, a public and private self."

Peter’s facade.

Elaine Showalter- "Behind his mask of masculine bravado is an immature man who cannot reconcile his alleged ideals with his real feelings and acts".

Woolf’s criticism.

Woolf- "I want to criticise the social system and to show it at work at its most intense."

Doris’ adaptation.

Makiko Minow-Pinkney- "Because of her inferior class-position, Kilman has had to adopt the most aggressive masculine values to secure a niche for herself…even her love for Elizabeth becomes a rapacious desire for possession."

Doris’ rejection.

Elaine Fulton- "Miss Kilman searches for human connection in a world that has rejected her".

Peter's rejection

Rachel Bowlby- "Peter Walsh represents the romantic hero rejected in favour of the conventionality personified by the conservative MP".

How genders view the world.

John Batchelor- "Mrs Dalloway uses the idea of a public and private life as a means of exploring an opposition between a masculine view of the world and a feminine view of the world".

Hugh Whitbread’s kiss

Makiko Minow-Pinkney-”Hugh Whitbread's kiss is an act of sexual violence, the rape on a miniature scale of a woman who has dared argue that her sex should have the vote."

Clarissa recalling her father

Makiko Minow-Pinkney- "Clarissa's mother is curiously repressed, though her father is always prominent in her memories.”

Valuable female identity.

Makiko Minow-Pinkney-"Maternity is the only female identity which is valorised by patriarchy.”

Septimus’ death

Barbara Hill Rigney- "Septimus does not want to die, but society demands his sacrifice".

Clarissa and Septimus

Barbara Hill Rigney- "Clarissa and Septimus... may also be seen, in their relationship to society, as essentially 'feminine' in that both are victimised, to varying extents, by a male-supremacist system."

Husband’s name

Jacqueline Rose- "The name of the husband is one of the strongest insignia of patriarchal power".

Women’s choices

Elaine Showalter- (women)"Their lives are more bounded and determined by choices made early in youth".

Women in patriarchal society.

Gilbert and Gubar- "Every woman in a patriarchal society must overcome oppression, starvation, madness and coldness."

Women’s moral insanity

Elaine Showalter- "Sexual appetite was considered one of the chief symptoms of moral insanity in women”.

Governess’ status

Terry Eagleton- "[The governess] lives at that ambiguous point in the social structure at which two worlds meet and collide."

Religious authority

Gilbert and Gubar- "orphan girls are starved and frozen into proper Christian submission."

Elizabeth vs Jane

Rachel Bowlby- "Whereas Jane Eyre dreams out from a distant rooftop, Elizabeth Dalloway is already on top of the bus, travelling through the city in which she may well fulfill her ambitions"