Mrs Dalloway quotes

Clarissa independence

‘Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself’

First ringing out of Big Ben

‘the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air’

Clarissa’s appreciation of life

‘she loved; life; London; this moment in June’

Period pf transition after war

‘The war was over, except for…’ ‘It was over; thank heaven - over’

Peter Walsh labelling Clarissa

‘the perfect hostess he called her (she had cried over it)’

Importance of independence

‘in marriage a little license, a little independence there must be’

Clarissa’s reasoning for rejecting Peter

‘with Peter everything had to be shared’ ‘intolerable’

Clarissa’s feelings on rejecting Peter

‘she had borne about her for years like an arrow sticking in her heart the grief’

Clarissa and Peter views of each other

‘his whole life had been a failure’ ‘cold, heartless, a prude, he called her’

Loneliness and isolation

‘perpetual sense’ ‘of being out, out, far out to sea and alone’ ‘dangerous to live even one day’

Loss of identity

‘this being Mrs Dalloway; not even Clarissa anymore; this being Mrs Richard Dalloway’