Mrs Dalloway quotes

Phyllis Rose on the structure of Mrs Dalloway

 'the most schizophrenic of English novels'

Dr Nathan Waddell - free indirect discourse

Purpose of Free Indirect Discourse is that it 'establishes an intimacy between narrator and character that echoes the intimacy between Clarissa and Septimus'

Edel - weaving minds together

free indirect discourse allows Woolf to 'weave from one mind into another'

Simon Otilia - modernism/post war context

 'modernism offered a new understanding of the world as many were disillusioned by previous trends on the verge of WWI'

Clarissa’s feeling after not getting invited to Lady B’s lunch party

'out of her body and brain which now failed, since Lady Bruton, whose lunch parties were said to be extraordinarily amusing, had not asked her' ---> parties give Clarissa a purpose, not getting invited to Lady Bruton's lunch means she has failed at life

perfect hostess quote from Peter

• 'She would marry a Prime Minister and stand at the top of a staircase; the perfect hostess he called her (she had cried over it in her bedroom), she had the makings of a perfect hostess, he said' -

connection to the Prime Minister indicates that Clarissa has power in her domestic sphere (political parties, director/orchestrator of social dynamics) but she is devastated by being reduced to a domestic role in her youth

Peter comment about Clarissa making a world for herself

'purely feminine; with that extraordinary gift…of making a world of her own wherever she happened to be' - from Peter

Clarissa aware of her age/fear of being judged for it by Peter

'What would he think, she wondered, when he came back? That she had grown older…It was true. Since her illness she had turned almost white'

Peter, irony, hypocritical, double standards

'said the elderly man in the hall'

Peter valuing youth in feminine charm and views Clarissa as less desirable now she is older, but he is transfixed by her beauty when she appears more flushed and younger (more virile and fertile), she loses her importance as a woman

'I shan't tell her anything about it, he thought, for she's grown older' - about his romantic relationship

Peter judging/criticising her

'yet he always criticises me'

Clarissa being too conforming in Peter’s eyes - picks a marriage of pragmatism rather than passion

'she was straight as a dart, a little rigid in fact'

Makiko Minow-Pinkney - Clarissa’s role as restrictive

Clarissa is constrained by her 'duty as hostess of patriarchy'

Clarissa’s name

'this being Mrs Dalloway; not even Clarissa anymore; this being Mrs Richard Dalloway'

Clarissa being unseen quote

'She had the oddest sense of being herself invisible; unseen; unknown; there being no more marrying, no more having of children now'

• in aging, she feels she loses her purpose and visibility in a society that values women primarily for their youth and fertility - connection to the domestic sphere imposed upon her, her identity is connected to her

Rachel Poulton - the purpose of a wife

'losing the ability to create children feels like one cannot promise to fulfil their feminine, wifely duties'

awareness of age for Clarissa

'She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged'

Clarissa’s journey up to the attic

'Like a nun withdrawing, or a child exploring a castle, she went, upstairs'

the attic room for women

'There was an emptiness about the heart of life; an attic room. Women must put off their rich apparel. At midday they must disrobe'

• pg. 33 - inner life, in the attic, Clarissa is just the same as everybody else, there is not razzle-dazzle/glamour  of money that can lift her up

removing her hat

'She pierced the pincushion and laid her feathered yellow hat on the bed'

• pg. 33 - removal of the performative aspect of society

• removal of the signifier that suggests her social conformity to the typical housewife, her role in society as hostess and wife of a politician

Sutherland an Hislop - taking off her hat

 'She takes off her feathered yellow hat as if discarding her social pretensions'

Kristina Groover - protection the house gives her

 'Viewing the house as a potentially liminal space, however, reveals the extent to which Clarissa has chosen this life, not only for its privileges and protections, but for the deep sense of privacy it affords her, and with that privacy the freedom of her imagination'

whilst it gives her privacy and freedom of the imagination, it also suggests a limitation in that she cannot truly feel these emotions, they must stay in the mind ---> conforming, restrictions due to her class

Clarissa and the charm of a woman

'yet she could not resist sometimes yielding to the charm of a woman'

• pg. 34 - sexual fantasy, lust, ambiguity surrounding her own sexuality, allured by women

self-discovery in the attic

'Then, for that moment, she had seen an illumination…an inner meaning almost expressed'

• pg. 35 - self-discovery, through exploring her sexuality and herself, Clarissa is able to understand her own needs and self

Othello quote

'That was her feeling - Othello's feeling'

• intensity of love + attraction with Desdemona, his fatal flaw/demise ---> foreshadowed?

the kiss with Sally

'Then came the most exquisite moment of her life…kissed her on the lips. The whole world might have turned upside down!'

the trueness in their relationship - S + C

• 'The strange thing, on looking back, was the purity, the integrity, of her feeling for Sally'

• 'it had a quality which could only exist between women, between women just grown up'

protective relationship

'It was protective, on her side; sprang from a sense of being in league together'

their idea of marriage - S + C

'they spoke of marriage always as a catastrophe' - unlike Mrs Reed they reject social norms

Barrett - what their friendship captures

In the 'passionate friendship' of Sally and Clarissa

'Woolf captures the intermingling of the intellectual and the erotic, the personal and the political that she experienced in her own feminist friendships' Barrett 1997

Rachel Poulton - queer moment with Sally

'Clarissa Dalloway refuses to walk a straight line in her queer moment with Sally Seton, which refuses to stay in the past'

Woolf’s relationship with a woman

• Vita Sackville West

AO3 - perception of time

Henri Bergson - perception of time, time as linear rather than contained, past easily interludes on the present

• Suggests time is not a series of discrete, measurable moments, but a continuous, flowing experience

• Duration = the lived experience of time, characterised by fluidity + indivisibility

• The lived time is personal and subjective, deeply intertwined with our consciousness and perception

Alex Zwerdling - Clarissa’s dual personality

'Clarissa is essentially a laminated personality…like Peter and Sally she has both conformist and rebellious side, a public and private self'

Kincer - social norms for Clarissa

 'Clarissa is a slave to society's rules of behaviour which ultimately cuts her off from any substantial relationship'

Lack of love/passion in R + C marriage - could not say love

'But he could not bring himself to say he loved her, not in so many words'

the privacy of Richard + Clarissa’s marriage

'For in marriage a little licence, a little independence there must be between people living together day in day out in the same house; which Richard gave her, and she him'

stable and safe/thoughtful/playful marriage between Richard and Clarissa

'if she raised her head she could just hear the click of the handle released as gently as possible by Richard, who slipped upstairs in his socks and then, as often as not, dropped his hot-water bottle and swore! How she laughed!'

• Mutual choice that sex is not the crux/point of their relationship, Richard as repressed as Clarissa?

• Stable and safe marriage. Loving, caring, thoughtful, playful ---> their relationship

At the party - how Clarissa felt

At the party she felt 'like a stake driven at the top of the stairs' and 'something not quite herself’ - she loses her own identity in her role

Garey Carey - Clarissa’s marriage to Richard

 'the death of Clarissa's soul began the moment she married Richard Dalloway'

Jacqueline Rose - the husband’s name

 'the name of the husband is one of the strongest insignia of patriarchal power'

quote with symbolises aging and imagery of coffin

'The sheets were clean, tight stretched in a broad white band from side to side. Narrower and narrower would her bed be.'

Peter demanding for Clarissa

'Mrs Dalloway will see me' - demanding, assertive, entitled to an audience with her, his rights

what is Peter’s penknife a symbol of?

a phallic symbol, his masculinity, sexual ask/demand.agency from men

what Clarissa thinks of his penknife/reminds her

'He had his knife out. That's so like him, she thought'

pointing his knife towards her

'tilting his pen-knife towards her green dress'- he can demand for sex from Clarissa - pointing it at her dress, he has sexual agency, something he can wield against a weaker female sexual power, suggests why Clarissa did not choose to marry Peter. Symbol of virility and sexual

Clarissa’s dress

'She made to hide her dress, like a virgin protecting chastity, respecting privacy' - undressing/unflowering, dress being representative of her femininity, Walsh is a sexual threat as he is sexually persistent, by hiding the dress she protects her chastity, vulnerability of being undressed

Minow-Pinkney - fondling of penknife and sewing the dress

- fondling of the penknife suggests Peter's insecurity, whereas Clarissa sewing up her dress 'becomes the restitching into wholeness of a hymen which Walsh constantly threatens to tear'

Clarissa and Peter thinking about how they nearly married

'could have bitten her tongue for reminding Peter that he wanted to marry her…I was more unhappy than I've ever been since, he thought'

insecurity of Peter in Clarissa’s presence - and penknife

'She's looking at me, he thought, a sudden embarrassment coming over him…Putting his hand into his pocket, he took out a large pocket-knife and half opened the blade'

• Feels inadequate when compared to the opulence of Clarissa's upper class status

• Satisfaction with his self is knife-edged equilibrium, he is not completely satisfied, his mind is only tentatively in a state of equilibrium

emotions as a weakness, toxic masculinity - post war context

• 'overcome with shame suddenly at having been a fool; wept; been emotional; told her everything’

• 'it almost broke my heart too, he thought, and was overcome with his own grief'

Peter’s awareness of age

'Stop! Stop! he wanted to cry. For he was not old; his life was not over; not by any means. He was only just past fifty'

Rachel Bowlby - Peter Walsh rejection

 'Peter Walsh represents the romantic hero rejected in favour of the conventionality personified by the conversative MP'

Peter being a failure

'He had been a Socialist, in some sense a failure - true'

Peter’s views on Sally as wild etc.

'the wild, the daring, the romantic Sally!'

Peter views about Sally’s reputation

not that ragamuffin Sally without a penny to her name, and a father or a mother gambling at Monte Carlo'

Peter’s views on women’s rights - Bourton memory

‘that antidiluvian topic’

Septimus questioning medical authority

What power had Bradshaw over him? What right has Bradshaw to say "must" to me?' - questions his authority, science as absolute?

Dismissal of Septimus’ mental illness

'Yet Dr. Holmes said there was nothing the matter with him'

what they thought was ‘nervous stress disorder’ and the cause of it being that a person was too egotistical

'Try to think as little about yourself as possible' - Sir William to Septimus

Lucrezia's embarrassment regarding Septimus' behaviour

'She could not sit beside him when he stared so and did not see her'

Septimus crying as Lucrezia sees it

 ‘the most dreadful thing of all…a man like Septimus, who had fought, who was brave, crying’

The weakness seen in his madness when Septimus kills himself - link to Stoic expectations of men post WW1

'The coward! Cried Dr. Holmes' - sees Septimus as taking the 'easy' route out, not facing his problems with bravery, weak and cowardice

Connell guide - Septimus throwing himself out of the window

 By throwing himself out of the window 'he ends his life with the same belligerence he presumably showed on the battlefield' (aggressiveness, eagerness to fight) ---> therefore not a coward as Holmes attempts to suggest (belligerence = aggressive/hostile)

 Dr Manjeet Rathee - Septimus’ invidivudality

 'Septimus could clearly feel this assault on his individuality in the form of Dr Holmes and Bradshaw'

 Barbara Hill Rigney - Septimus and Clarissa’s identity/sense of self

 'The world is…perceived by both Clarissa and Septimus as threatening to one's individuality, one's sense of self'

Rachel Bowlby - what Woolf does through Septimus’ character

'In her attempt to criticise the social system, Woolf is trying to show that what proportion and conversion really amount to is coercion'

Showalter - what Septimus’ illness reflects

Septimus's illness

'reflects the conditions of his society, one in which the after-effects of the war have been evaded, where Proportion [Bradshaw’s watchword] is worshipped, and feelings have been numbed and anaesthetized'

Trombley - femininity of shell-shocked soldiers

shell-shocked soldiers were viewed as 'exhibiting a feminine kind of behaviour in male subjects'

Susan Bennett Smith - feminised Septimus

‘Septimus is feminised by his tears'

AO3 - soldiers post WW1 expectations

Following WWI, men were supposed to be seen as Stoic in their endurance of the pain and suppression of emotions and memories post-war, but Septimus’ illness and visions of Evans leads him to be seen as feminine in his madness

Lady B interest in politics - smth typically masculine

'Lady Bruton had the reputation of being more interested in politics than people; of talking like a man'

Lady B embodying patriarchy and structures of control

'her interest in women who often got in their husbands' way…and had to be taken to the seaside…to recover from influenza’ - she feels sympathy for men, women are a threat/hurdle/inconvenience to male power

Power Lady B has

'Power was hers, position, income. She had… known the ablest men of her day'

Lady B linked to emigration scheme

'Emigration had become, in short, largely Lady Bruton'

Richard willingly serving under her

'Richard would have served under her, cheerfully; he had the greatest respect for her'

Lady B dependence on men - nuance in her power

' "My Prime Minister!" What she would have done without them both she did not know'

• dependence on men ---> restricted in her role?

AO3 - economic opportunity for women post WW1

• Post ww1 women gaining more influence away from domestic world, economically, they filled up jobs of men who were at war

AO3 - emigration post war

• Between 1815 and 1914, roughly 10 million people left Britain, representing 20% of European emigration.

• Driven by colonial expansion, creating a 'global Britain' rather than just a home nation

Minow-Pinkney - Lady B as a powerful figure

 'Lady Bruton is a physically powerful, emphatically phallic woman…thus contrasting with the physical slightness of Clarissa'

Cristina Vallejo Alvarez - Lady B feminist

'…Lady Bruton represents one of the most feminist characters in Mrs Dalloway…by either organizing or taking part in some meetings that concern topics of such extent, which are usually merely connected with men’

Dalloways vs Elizabeth appearance

• ‘the Dalloways…were fair-haired; blue-eyed’ - link to ‘Bluest Eye’

• Elizabeth was ‘an Oriental mystery’ - physically foreign but also foreign as a ‘New Woman’

Elizabeth’s venture down the Strand - revelling in the public sphere

'For no Dalloways came down the Strand daily; she was a pioneer, a stray, venturing, trusting'

Rachel Bowlby - Elizabeth’s journey as a sign

 'Elizabeth's imaginative venture could be taken as a positive sign of women's progress' but she 'readily returns for the time being, to her domestic calling, as a good civilised daughter'

Miss Kilman to Elizabeth, about professions

'And every profession is open to the women of your generation, said Miss Kilman'

Candace Bond - walking a ‘straight line’

'she is unconcerned with walking a straight line'

• considered queer in the wealth of possibilities and freedoms she sees in her future ---> suggests how she does not feel constricted by society's norms/class norms, she subverts them

Elizabeth being quiet and passive

'Of course, she would not push her way. She inclined to be passive'

Clarissa expressing intense, bitter hatred towards Miss Kilman, malice, threatened by Kilman's influence over her daughter Elizabeth

'If only she could make her weep, ruin her, humiliate her, bring her to her knees crying'

Clarissa about Miss Kilman being agreeable

'Miss Kilman was not going to make herself agreeable'

Miss Kilman’s purpose vs what she sees Clarissa’s as

'She did out of her meagre income set aside so much for causes she believed in; whereas this woman did nothing, believed nothing; brought up her daughter - but here was Elizabeth'

Elizabeth and Miss Kilman's relationship to Clarissa

‘nauseating’

What Clarissa feels Doris has done/is

• 'This woman had taken her daughter from her'

•  'Elizabeth's seducer'

• 'the woman who had crept in to steal and defile'

Clarissa’s real hatred to Doris

'how she hated her - hot, hypocritical, corrupt'

Doris’ pity for Clarissa

'She did not envy women like Clarissa Dalloway; she pitied them'

Doris about Clarissa ---> reality of her position as hostess

'Her life was a tissue of vanity and deceit'

Doris feels she has an advantage over Clarissa because of Elizabeth

'At any rate she had got Elizabeth'

what Clarissa thought of Doris - appearance

'Ugly, clumsy, Clarissa Dalloway had laughed at her for being that'

what Clarissa made her almost do

'nearly burst into tears'

Elaine Fulton - Miss Kilman’s hatred towards Clarissa and attachment to Elizabeth

Miss Kilman's 'irrational hatred of Clarissa Dalloway and strange attachment to Elizabeth Dalloway, combined with her religious conversion, places her on the margins of society'

 Elaine Fulton - Miss Kilman’s status

'Miss Kilman's status as a working, unmarried woman, places her outside the acceptable realm of society'