Mrs Dalloway summary

June 1923, Westminister central london

middle-aged society women

Modernist stream of consciousness of style

Bond street, flower shops, she thinks she hears a pistol

Motor, aeroplane appears in the sky.

People shaken from WW1

Veteran Septimus warren smith, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder

Peter Walsh vsists and asks her if she is happy

Clarrissa thinks of Peter and Sally

Peter goes to park

Septimus considers suicide

Sir William Bradshaw

Richard Dalloway gives her flowers.

Razia assures him nothing will separate the two of them.

Septmius feels cornered and jumps out of apartment.

Peter receives a letter from Clarrissa she atteds her party.

Clarissa feels sympathy for Septimus, reflecting on her death makes her reflect on all she has.

The stream of conscious web ofthe mundane mystical and modernist writing.

Character analysis:

Clarissa is a titular character, loving, compassionate, social, skeptical --> Nostaglia and pain have a major pull on her. she has grown more subdued and conventionl. Well-dressed and married to a conservative politician.

Septimus:

former poet so a naturall contemplative and reflective person. Suffers from shell shock - PTSD- he loses his ability to connect to and feel emotions, his thoughts become scattered and frantic.

Peter Walsh

intelligent

critical

disocontented with the status quo.

Richard

Is a practical and kind man, not interal conflicts, conservative values, enjoys simple pleasures.

Elizabeth Dalloway

quiet and introspective

prefers solitude

Rezia Warren Smith

misses Italy

longs for children

supportive of Septimus.

Sally Seton

outsider

intelligent and witty

speaks her mind

Stands apart from other women

Symbolism

aeroplane--> Aeorplane symbolises swift changes of London's urban society after WW1. Shadow of war.

London as a character of its own.

Trees--> Septimus asserts that men must not cut down treets since treets symbolise and everlasting life force that gives life meaning in post war chaos.

Age and memory

The past informs the present

Age and memory is a theme that Peter, Richard and Sally shaped there now adult lifes.

Fractured, magical prose style shows that memory can be unreliable.

For Septimus, whose memories is affected by profound trauma that past spirals into the present and creates ghostly visions.

London setting has a kind of memoery too, Peter refects on the change its gone in the past five year but it continues to remember its royal noble past. Woolf emphasis hat the war dead live on in the memoru of the living.

Age brings perspective, aging is celebrated at the end.

passage of time

Told by the hours on Big end dictates characters movements.

City of London is driven by time, the unstoppable movement of time provides stress and comfort of order and rhythmn.

Modernists style allows for leaps of style.

The real 12 hour time shows that thoughts have the ability to stop narrative time showcasing Woold's focus on the inerior of life.

aftershocks of war

PTSD

Septimus and Rezia

Aeroplane emphasises aftershocks of war while London's loud traffic echoes the link between technology and violence.

England is permant changes and this rings out both patriotism and cynicism in the novel's characters.

Stress and mental illness

goes deeply into peoples imagination, so stess and mental illness experienced by Septimus and Clarissa feels authentic and honest to the reader. Both suffer with depression and pain but can still the incredible beauty of life.

Motifs of modern life:

clothing

-> clothing signfiies social class, personality, and priority. Mrs Dalloway's silver and gren evening dress reflects colours found in nature symbolising her love for the outdoors and need to be part of the wider world.

Elizabeth's distate for shopping shows and an emerging desire for independece.

Hugh Whitbread shopping habits show his need ot cultivate elegance

Miss Kilam raincoat reflects self-sacifice she is hiding within its material.

Flowers

--> Flowers appear as representations of beauty, care and aspitation and the chaacters hopes that something good will happen.

Richard brings Clarissa red and white roses to prove his love

Mrs Dalloway buys flowers for her guests to demonstrate her devotion

Sally shows an interest to blue hydrangeas showing her rare intelligence and enthusiam for life.

water

--> shows change and transformation, it's shifting states show the shiftting mental states of the character.

Septimus and Clarissa often feel drowned or out to sea he movement of the tides refletcs the inevitable daily chnages people observe and flow through.

Water reflects the process of life and death.

big ben

Unifies the many separate characters who all hear it ring at the same time

shows a sense of shared reality, a reminder that everyone is in the city together and that everyone is connected by an order and continuity of time.