Woolf, Virginia - Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs Dalloway

Plot

Clarissa go to Bond Street to buy some flowers for a party she is giving that evening at her house. She saw Septimus and Lucrezia Warren Smith who were walking: he is an estate agent’s clerk and shell-shocked veteran of the War and she is an Italian girl. Septimus’s mental disorder has necessitated the calling in of doctor, Sir Williams. Clarissa came back home and meet Peter Walsh, the man she used to love in her youth. He leaves Clarissa’s house and goes to a Park where he catches a glimpse of Septimus who are going to sir Williams for an interview. After the interview, Sir William Septimus recommends to go to one of his clinics. At 6 pm, Septimus is thrown out of the window and the ambulance carrying him, pass by Peter Wash that was returning in his hotel. All the people who have been important in this day will all be at the party of Mrs. Dalloway. When Clarissa discovers the death of Septimus, starts making strange connections.

Analisi

Is set on a single ordinary day in June 1923. It follows the protagonist through a very
small area of London. The characters enjoy the sights and sounds of London, its parks, its changing life. Through ‘tunnelling technique’, she allows the reader to experience the characters’ recollection of their past sense of their background and personal history. Clarissa Dalloway’s party is the climax
of the novel.
Significant changes in the social life of the time represented in the novel:
• the spread of newspapers
• the increasing use of cars and planes
• the new standards in the marital relationship
• the success of the cinema
She adopt a motif, the striking of Big Ben and of clocks in general, which acts at the same time as a structural connection and symbol.
Clarissa is fifty-one and is the wife of a Conservative MP, Richard Dalloway, who has conventional views on politics and women’s rights. She experienced the influence of a possessive father and the frustration of a genuine love, the need to refuse Peter Walsh, a man who would force her to share everything. All this has weakened her emotional self.
Septimus is an extremely sensitive man. He can suddenly fall prey to
panic and fear, or feelings of guilt for the death of his best friend, Evans, during the war. He is a ‘shell-shock’ case, a victim of industrialised war. He is haunted by the spectre of Evans; he suffers from
headaches and insomnia. He cannot stand the idea of having a child, he is sexually impotent.