Lesson 9: Virginia Woolf – Mrs Dalloway (1925)

Briefly summarise Mrs Dalloway.

• The novel takes place during a single day in London in June 1923.

• Clarissa Dalloway prepares for a party while reflecting on her life, relationships, and choices.

• Running parallel to her story is Septimus Warren Smith, a shell-shocked WWI veteran suffering from psychological trauma.

• Through multiple perspectives, memories, and streams of consciousness, Woolf explores time, identity, death, trauma, and the relationship between the individual mind and society.

Why is World War I important for understanding Mrs Dalloway?

The novel is set after WWI and reflects the psychological, social, and cultural consequences of the war, especially through Septimus Warren Smith.

What was the original title of Mrs Dalloway?

The Hours.

How did Woolf describe her original idea for the novel in her diary?

She wanted to show "the world seen by the sane and the insane side by side."

Mrs Dalloway and Ulysses

What important similarity exists between Mrs Dalloway and Ulysses?

Both novels take place during a single day and focus heavily on consciousness.

Mrs Dalloway and Ulysses

What narrative techniques do Mrs Dalloway and Ulysses share?

Stream of consciousness, fragmentation, narrated monologue, quoted monologue, and multiple focalisation.

Mrs Dalloway and Ulysses

What major difference exists between Woolf and Joyce?

Joyce uses mythic structures, while Woolf focuses on ordinary human experiences without elevating them to mythic status.

Why is the title Mrs Dalloway significant?

It defines Clarissa through her marital status and social identity rather than through her personal name.

"She had the oddest sense of being herself invisible."

illustrates Clarissa's feeling of invisibility

Structure

What structural principle organises the novel?

The cinematic principle (montage).

Structure

What is montage?

A technique that links different scenes, characters, and perspectives through connections rather than traditional plot development.

Structure

What are linking devices in Mrs Dalloway?

Objects, sounds, locations, or events that connect one character's consciousness to another.

Structure

Give examples of important linking devices.

The car, the aeroplane, Big Ben, the ambulance, the party, locations, and passing characters.

Structure

Why are many linking devices symbols of modernity?

They represent technological and social change in modern London.

What is intersubjectivity?

The idea that characters are understood through their relationships with and perceptions of other characters.

Why is intersubjectivity important in Mrs Dalloway?

Characters constantly observe, interpret, and define one another.

Narration

How does Woolf represent consciousness in Mrs Dalloway?

Through stream of consciousness, narrated monologue, quoted monologue, and free indirect discourse.

Narration

What is quasi-unmediated access to consciousness?

An attempt to present thoughts directly while still retaining traces of narrator mediation.

Narration

Why are thought tags such as "she thought" important?

They show that the text is not pure quoted monologue but remains partly mediated.

Focalisation

What is variable focalisation?

The narrative shifts from one focalising character to another.

Focalisation

What is multiple focalisation?

The same event is perceived through several different consciousnesses.

Focalisation

Which scenes are famous examples of multiple focalisation?

The car scene and the aeroplane scene.

Focalisation

What is the Uncle Charles Principle?

The narrator adopts the vocabulary and perspective of a character while remaining grammatically in the third person.

Focalisation

Why is the Uncle Charles Principle important?

It creates the illusion that readers are inside a character's consciousness.

Time

What is the relationship between story time and narration time in Mrs Dalloway?

The story covers one day, but narration constantly expands through memories and reflections.

Time

What is an ellipsis?

Story time passes but is not narrated.

Time

What is acceleration?

Story time passes faster than narration time.

Time

What is a scene?

Story time and narration time proceed at approximately the same speed.

Time

What is deceleration?

Narration takes much longer than the event being described.

Time

What is a pause?

Story time stops while narration continues.

Time

Which temporal technique dominates Mrs Dalloway?

Deceleration and pauses.

Time

Why are flashbacks important in the novel?

They show how the past constantly shapes present experience.

What are Woolf's "beautiful caves"?

The memories and hidden pasts that exist beneath a character's present consciousness.

What is the tunnelling process?

Woolf's technique of connecting characters through memories and shared experiences beneath the surface narrative.

What is a "moment of being"?

A moment of heightened awareness in which deeper truths suddenly become visible.

How are moments of being similar to Joycean epiphanies?

Both involve sudden insight, but Woolf's moments are often more emotional and sensory.

What major moment of being occurs near the end of the novel?

Clarissa learns about Septimus's suicide and reflects deeply on death and life.

Why is Septimus often called Clarissa's double?

He embodies many of the fears and impulses that Clarissa herself experiences.

Why does Woolf frequently use parentheses (..) ?

To insert additional thoughts, memories, or perspectives without interrupting the flow of consciousness.

What is the most important thematic opposition in Mrs Dalloway?

Mind versus world.

What does Woolf mean by the "inward turn"?

The Modernist focus on subjective consciousness rather than external events.

How does the novel connect mind and world?

Individual thoughts are constantly shaped by historical events, social systems, and modern urban life.

How is World War I represented in the novel?

Not through battle scenes, but through its effects on ordinary lives and consciousness.

Why is the phrase "something happened" significant?

It refers indirectly to the enormous impact of WWI, showing how deeply the war transformed society.

How does the opening sentence illustrate in medias res?

"Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

The novel begins immediately with action

Which Modernist features are strongly present in Mrs Dalloway?

• Stream of consciousness

• Fragmentation

• Variable focalisation

• Multiple focalisation

• Free indirect discourse

• Time manipulation

• Intertextuality

• Psychological depth

Why is Mrs Dalloway considered a quintessential Modernist novel?

It abandons traditional plot in favour of consciousness, subjective time, fragmented identity, multiple perspectives, and experimentation with narrative form.

How does Woolf represent consciousness in Mrs Dalloway?

• Woolf represents consciousness through stream of consciousness, narrated monologue, free indirect discourse, variable focalisation, and multiple focalisation.

• Rather than presenting reality objectively, the novel shows how reality is experienced differently by each individual.

• Memories, perceptions, emotions, and associations constantly shape the characters' understanding of themselves and the world around them.