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(Redirected from Mrs. Dalloway)
'''Mrs Dalloway''' (published on 14 May 1925) is a novel by Virginia Woolf detailing a day in the life of protagonist Clarissa Dalloway in post-World War I England. ''Mrs Dalloway'' is one of Woolf's best-known novels, owing in part to the popularity of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ''The Hours'', and Stephen Daldry's movie of the same name.
The novel follows Clarissa Dalloway throughout a single day in post-Great War England in a stream of consciousness narrative. Created from two short stories "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister" the novel's story is of Clarissa's preparations for a party of which she is to be hostess. With the interior perspective of the novel, the story travels forwards and back in time, and in and out of the characters' minds, to construct a complete image of Clarissa's life and of the inter-war social structure.
Because of structural and stylistic similarities, ''Mrs Dalloway'' is commonly thought to be a response to James Joyce's ''Ulysses'', a text that is often hailed as one of the greatest novels of the Twentieth Century. Woolf herself derided Joyce's masterpiece (the Hogarth Press, run by her and her husband Leonard, turned down the chance to publish the novel in England). Fundamentally, however, ''Mrs Dalloway'' treads new ground and seeks to portray a different aspect of the human experience.
The novel itself is preoccupied with a number of issues. Foremost are feminism and madness displayed by the characters Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith. As a commentary on inter-war society, Clarissa's character highlights the role of women as the proverbial "Angel in the House" and embodies both sexual and economic repression. Septimus, as the shell-shocked war hero, operates as a pointed criticism of the treatment of insanity and depression. Woolf lashes out at the medical discourse through Septimus's decline and ultimate suicide. Similarities in Septimus's condition to Woolf's own struggles with manic depression (they both hallucinate that birds sing in Greek, and Woolf once attempted to throw herself out a window as Septimus finally does) lead many to read a strongly auto-biographical aspect into Septimus's character. Ultimately, though, the novel serves as commentary on a wide array of issues, from colonialism (in Peter Walsh), commercialism, and medicine to feminism, bisexuality (Sally Seton), and politics.
Adopting the plot device used by James Joyce in ''Ulysses'', the narrative present of Mrs Dalloway is patterned as the sequence of a single day in June. The novel opens conventionally enough with the sentence, 'Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself' (3). This is the exterior event, to borrow Erich Auerbach's terminology in his famous essay on Woolf, 'The Brown Stocking' (first published in 1946) which presents her as a modernist writer, par excellence, in that it that mobilises the story to follow. What follows, however, is a plunge into Clarissa Dalloway's past and into her memories of the open air at Bourton where she spent her adolescence long before she became Mrs Dalloway. Her recollection of that time leads her to think of Peter Walsh as he was then: she recalls his words 'Musing among the vegetables?', or something like that, she can't be exact. But she also thinks of him in the present: 'He would be back from India one of these days, June or July, she forgot which' (2-3). A paragraph later, she is back on the kerb, waiting for Durtnall's van to pass so that she can cross the road to go and buy the flowers. It is already apparent from these opening paragraphs that the past is intimately involved with the present. The past is not just background to the present, it becomes a part of it by virtue of Clarissa's association of the freshness of the June morning with Bourton and Peter. The fluidity of movement between past and present, which softens and blurs the lines of their traditional opposition, is emphasised by the equal vagueness of Clarissa's recall of Peters's words spoken at Bourton: 'Musing among the vegetables?'--was that it?--I prefer men to cauliflowers'--was that it?' and her indecision over the month of his return from India, 'June or July, she forgot which'.
A film version of ''Mrs. Dalloway'' was made in 1997 by Dutch feminist film director Marleen Gorris. It was adapted from Woolf's novel by British actress Eileen Atkins and starred Vanessa Redgrave in the title role. The cast included Natascha McElhone, Rupert Graves, Michael Kitchen, Alan Cox, and Sarah Badel.
''Mrs. Dalloway'' was a key element of the plot of both the Michael Cunningham novel ''The Hours'' and its subsequent screen adaptation. Cunningham's title was derived from Woolf's original title for ''Mrs. Dalloway''.
★
★
★ Analysis of Characters in Mrs Dalloway: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dalloway/canalysis.html
'''Mrs Dalloway''' (published on 14 May 1925) is a novel by Virginia Woolf detailing a day in the life of protagonist Clarissa Dalloway in post-World War I England. ''Mrs Dalloway'' is one of Woolf's best-known novels, owing in part to the popularity of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ''The Hours'', and Stephen Daldry's movie of the same name.
| Contents |
| Plot introduction |
| Analysis |
| Film adaptation |
| External links |
Plot introduction
The novel follows Clarissa Dalloway throughout a single day in post-Great War England in a stream of consciousness narrative. Created from two short stories "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister" the novel's story is of Clarissa's preparations for a party of which she is to be hostess. With the interior perspective of the novel, the story travels forwards and back in time, and in and out of the characters' minds, to construct a complete image of Clarissa's life and of the inter-war social structure.
Because of structural and stylistic similarities, ''Mrs Dalloway'' is commonly thought to be a response to James Joyce's ''Ulysses'', a text that is often hailed as one of the greatest novels of the Twentieth Century. Woolf herself derided Joyce's masterpiece (the Hogarth Press, run by her and her husband Leonard, turned down the chance to publish the novel in England). Fundamentally, however, ''Mrs Dalloway'' treads new ground and seeks to portray a different aspect of the human experience.
Analysis
The novel itself is preoccupied with a number of issues. Foremost are feminism and madness displayed by the characters Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith. As a commentary on inter-war society, Clarissa's character highlights the role of women as the proverbial "Angel in the House" and embodies both sexual and economic repression. Septimus, as the shell-shocked war hero, operates as a pointed criticism of the treatment of insanity and depression. Woolf lashes out at the medical discourse through Septimus's decline and ultimate suicide. Similarities in Septimus's condition to Woolf's own struggles with manic depression (they both hallucinate that birds sing in Greek, and Woolf once attempted to throw herself out a window as Septimus finally does) lead many to read a strongly auto-biographical aspect into Septimus's character. Ultimately, though, the novel serves as commentary on a wide array of issues, from colonialism (in Peter Walsh), commercialism, and medicine to feminism, bisexuality (Sally Seton), and politics.
Adopting the plot device used by James Joyce in ''Ulysses'', the narrative present of Mrs Dalloway is patterned as the sequence of a single day in June. The novel opens conventionally enough with the sentence, 'Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself' (3). This is the exterior event, to borrow Erich Auerbach's terminology in his famous essay on Woolf, 'The Brown Stocking' (first published in 1946) which presents her as a modernist writer, par excellence, in that it that mobilises the story to follow. What follows, however, is a plunge into Clarissa Dalloway's past and into her memories of the open air at Bourton where she spent her adolescence long before she became Mrs Dalloway. Her recollection of that time leads her to think of Peter Walsh as he was then: she recalls his words 'Musing among the vegetables?', or something like that, she can't be exact. But she also thinks of him in the present: 'He would be back from India one of these days, June or July, she forgot which' (2-3). A paragraph later, she is back on the kerb, waiting for Durtnall's van to pass so that she can cross the road to go and buy the flowers. It is already apparent from these opening paragraphs that the past is intimately involved with the present. The past is not just background to the present, it becomes a part of it by virtue of Clarissa's association of the freshness of the June morning with Bourton and Peter. The fluidity of movement between past and present, which softens and blurs the lines of their traditional opposition, is emphasised by the equal vagueness of Clarissa's recall of Peters's words spoken at Bourton: 'Musing among the vegetables?'--was that it?--I prefer men to cauliflowers'--was that it?' and her indecision over the month of his return from India, 'June or July, she forgot which'.
Film adaptation
A film version of ''Mrs. Dalloway'' was made in 1997 by Dutch feminist film director Marleen Gorris. It was adapted from Woolf's novel by British actress Eileen Atkins and starred Vanessa Redgrave in the title role. The cast included Natascha McElhone, Rupert Graves, Michael Kitchen, Alan Cox, and Sarah Badel.
''Mrs. Dalloway'' was a key element of the plot of both the Michael Cunningham novel ''The Hours'' and its subsequent screen adaptation. Cunningham's title was derived from Woolf's original title for ''Mrs. Dalloway''.
External links
★
★
★ Analysis of Characters in Mrs Dalloway: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dalloway/canalysis.html
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