Mrs Dalloway and Sense and Sensibility Critics

Blatt on Lucy’s nature

“A novel about how cunning women manipulate weak men”

Chapman on why Elinor chose Edward

“A case of falling in love on the rebound when mourning the lost lover of her father”

Zhang on social environments in s+s

“Social environments […] are vulgar and money-thirsty”

Zhang on Marianne at the end

“Marianne is not shown as an overjoyed bride”

Johnston on Marianne’s illness

“The more Marianne falls ill the more she is admired by men (due to her vulnerability)”

McCaster on Austen’s plot choice

“Austen is happy to follow the Cinderella plot”

Gilbert on women’s duty

“Young women must submit to powerful conventions of society by finding a male protector”

Mullen on what people believe Austen is

“Limited to the small world and small concerns of her characters”

Showalter on menopause and Dalloway

“Menopause was seen […] almost as a mental disorder”

Zwerding on Clarissa’s personality

“Clarissa is essentially a laminated personality”

Showalter on Woolf and masks

“Woolf sees behind people’s masks to their deepest human concerns”

Bowlby on the heroine of Dalloway

“The heroine is a woman of 50 and not her 18 year old daughter on the brink of courtship”

Bell on Ms Kilman

“Miss Kilman is Clarissa’s anti-type”

Zwerdling on Clarissa’s submission

“Clarissa is the prisoner of the social system”

Showalter on women and their husbands

“Defined in terms of her husband”

Woolf on her process

“Tunnelling process”