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Updated July 22, 1997
Created July 22, 1997
Abel, Elizabeth. "Narrative Structure(s) and Female Development: The Case
of Mrs. Dalloway." The Voyage In: Fictions of Female
Development. Eds. Elizabeth Abel, Marianne Hirsch, and Elizabeth
Langland Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1983.
161-85. Mrs. Dalloway contains a "layering of plots" which writes
subversive stimuli while hiding it. Abel combines Freud’s analysis
of women with Woolf’s impulse of writing the female plot and showing
in her novel feminine growth and development through absences and
gaps in the story. Clarissa’s development arises from "an
emotionally pre-Oedipal female-centered natural world to the
heterosexual male-dominated social world" (96). But her development
is intentionally obscured by various subplots within the text.
By explaining Freud’s ideas concerning female development, Abel is
able to illustrate Woolf’s use of Clarissa’s loss of the female world.
Beker, Mirslav. "London As A Principle of Structure in Mrs. Dalloway."
Modern Fiction Studies 18 (1972): 375-85. Woolf uses the city of
London to "define and test the characters, and show how it reveals
them and prompts the action of the novel" (376). Beker then
explicates how the city defines the characters of Clarissa, Richard,
Elizabeth, Peter, Septimus, and Rezia. Yet, despite the various
influences upon the various characters, the city also works to bind
the characters together. Woolf’s primary strategy for achieving this
cohesion is demonstrated through the use of Regent’s Park.
Carlson, Julia. "The Solitary Traveller in Mrs. Dalloway." Virginia
Woolf. Ed. Thomas S. W. Lewis. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company,
1975. 56-62. Ms. Carlson examines the often-forgotten scene "where
Virginia Woolf describes a solitary traveller’s homeward journey from
a wood to his landlady’s kitchen" (56). She postulates that this
scene is a method for revealing Peter’s experience by paralleling his
movement through society with the lonely traveler. Additionally, the
traveler’s inability to handle relationships with women reveals
Peter’s failure to integrate with society and to effectively commune
with Clarissa, his former wife, and Daisy, his mistress.
Guth, Deborah. "Rituals of Self-Deception: Clarissa Dalloway’s Final
Moment of Vision." Twentieth Century Literature: A Scholarly and
Critical Journal 36:1 (1990): 35-42. Guth believes that Clarissa
achieves a final vision through "three prominent frameworks: the
romantic, the pagan, and the Christian" (36). Through these
frameworks Clarissa’s character is able to evolve through her
imaginative devices. She can substitute herself for Septimus’ death
without actually being a victim. Clarissa’s use of "imaginative
self-evasion" (41) keeps her from actually having to confront the
reality of Septimus’ madness because she does not allow him to enter
her life on a personal level.
Henke, Suzette A. "Mrs. Dalloway: The Communion of Saints." New Feminist
Essays on Virginia Woolf. Ed. Jane Marcus. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska, 1981. 125-147. This article compares Clarissa’s party to
a communion which is similar to the Catholic Mass, culminating in a
celebration of life. Septimus’ suicide is likened to a sacrifice
that is offered, bringing a renewed sense of life’s value. Henke
notes the use of contrast within the text: the satirical and the
tragic; political power and artistic creativeness; death and life;
evil and good; public demands and individual preservation;
patriarchal dominance and maternal love; homosexuality and androgyny;
possessiveness and privacy. This article claims that "Mrs. Dalloway
offers a scathing indictment of the British class system and a strong
critique of patriarchy" (125).
Jensen, Emily. "Clarissa Dalloway’s Respectable Suicide." Virginia
Woolf: A Feminist Slant. Ed. Jane Marcus. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1983. 162-179. This article shows that Clarissa is
linked to Septimus by his tragic suicide. By denying herself the
life that love for Sally Seton could have provided, Clarissa chooses
instead destruction of her true desires. Jensen claims that Mrs.
Dalloway’s "fear of interruption is the most important feature of her
personality" (162). The kiss at Bourton is interrupted by Peter
Walsh. Thoughts of marrying Peter are interrupted by Clarissa’s
decision to marry Richard. The link between Clarissa and Septimus is
strengthened: his life is interrupted by a plunge, as is his
attraction to Evans interrupted by the war. This article points to
the ambiguities within the text, especially of Clarissa’s feelings
concerning Richard’s role in her life and of her feelings concerning
Miss Kilman. The conventions of society force Clarissa to choose the
only respectable way, "destruction of the self in the interest of the
other" (178). This is not uncommon for women. In spite of
Clarissa’s suicide, a contrast is evident: she is also shown as being
"enthusiastically involved in the process of living" (162).
McPherson, Karen S. "Speaking Madness: Mrs. Dalloway." Incriminations:
Guilty Women/Telling Stories. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1994. 130-157. McPherson connects Mrs. Dalloway with mysteries and
detective stories, declaring that though the novel seems mundane
enough, it actually incorporates police, crime, and punishment due to
the "‘charged’ past that intrudes almost immediately upon the
present" (130). The past is traumatic history powerfully connected
with the present. This is revealed through Septimus’ preoccupation
with his own sad history which is so totally in his present. Through
Clarissa’s development paralleled with Septimus, we are able to see
how society is policed in the presence of Sir William and Dr. Holmes.
Mezei, Kathy. "Who is Speaking Here? Free Indirect Discourse, Gender,
and Authority in Emma,Howards End, and Mrs. Dalloway." Ambiguous
Discourse: Feminist Narratology & British Women Writers. Ed. Kathy
Mezei. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966. 66-92.
Mezei defines free indirect discourse (FID) in segments and explains
its controversial usage derived from its flexible nature. Mezei
explains how FID provides the "appropriate space for interchange
between author, narrator, character-focalizer, and reader" (67). The
article then describes how the author uses FID in Emma, Howards End,
and Mrs. Dalloway to move the focus away from the author and places
it on the narrator. However, the voice and gender of the narrator
may also be difficult to distinguish with the use of FID. The
narrator may focalize through the characters using FID. This allows
the narrator to be in control while "effacing him/her at the same
time" (81).
Miller, J. Hillis. "Mrs. Dalloway: Repetition as the Raising of the
Dead." Modern Critical Views: Virginia Woolf. Ed. Harold Bloom. New
York: Chelsea House, 1986. 169-190. Reprinted from Fiction and
Repetition: Seven English Novels. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1982.
This article shows new and complex means and methods used by Woolf in
her narrative. Repetition and the function of the all-knowing
narrator are the significant aspects of this type of storytelling.
He can move from mind to mind and relate to the reader the thoughts
and feelings of any character. Time is used in a unique manner, with
the narrator relating the story after the event has happened. He
speaks, however, in the present tense, "Which moves forward toward
the future by way of a recapitulation or repetition of the past"
(170). This repetition is achieved by relating first the mind of one
character and then the mind of another. In addition, one character
can relate what he thinks another character is thinking. By going
deeply into each mind, there is a point when the mind of one
character and the minds of all characters become one. There comes at
this point a "general mind," unity as evidenced in common images
throughout the narrative (173). As a mode of transportation from
one mind to another, Woolf uses "external objects as "a means of
transition from the mind of one character to the mind of another"
(172). By repetition of event from the past that are being called
forth by many minds, Woolf permits her narrator to remove the "usual
boundaries between mind and world" (169).
Ruotolo, Lucio. "Mrs. Dalloway: The Unguarded Moment." Virginia Woolf:
Revaluation and Continuity. Ed. Ralph Freedman and Maria DiBattista.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. 141-160. Ruotolo
states that "Clarissa is the vehicle for her reproof in criticizing
the social system" (141). Woolf demonstrates Clarissa’s
dissatisfaction with the social system through her sympathy over a
shop girl’s life. Clarissa’s ability and "willingness to question
the given…calls for ever-renewed acts of re-creation" (144). Woolf
uses illness as a means of demonstrating how the characters of
Septimus and Clarissa can either destroy themselves or renew
themselves. Although both characters retreat during difficult times,
Clarissa is glorified by her ability to "grow in her mind" (148).
Clarissa can face reality renewed. She has the gift of being an
excellent hostess, to "be in charge and yet remain unseen, just like
a good writer" (158).
Wang, Ban. "’I’ on the Run: Crisis of Identity in Mrs. Dalloway." Modern
Fiction Studies 38 (1992): 177-191. Wang reveals how the private
consciousness is developed according to societal expectations, and
examines "the ways in which the individual tries or fails to
establish his or her identity as the subject of the state" (179).
The order of the state is revealed through symbols such as the motor
car and the airplane. Everyone reacts to them differently, but only
according to the rules society imposes: "social structure, ideology,
language" (180). Septimus, however, is unable to assimilate into
society because he cannot follow the rules of language and
perception. Because he poses a threat to rationality, the medical
men, who "work to make sure that everybody submits to and
internalizes the laws and becomes the perfect subject of the state,"
decide to separate him from society (186).
Zwerdling, Alex. "Mrs. Dalloway and the Social System." Publications of
the Modern Language Association of America 92 (1977): 69-82. This
article interprets Mrs. Dalloway as Woolf’s strong yet indirect
criticism of the ruling class in England during the period following
World War I. Peter Walsh’s return home functions to show the
tremendous changes: "People looked different. Newspapers seemed
different; and morals and manners have changed" (70). Political
issues are enmeshed within the narrative: emigration, imperialism,
government party struggles. Septimus is destroyed by the realities
of the war, while society in general is in denial of its
repercussions. Ambiguity is seen in Clarissa, whom Zwerdling
describes as "an ‘animated mirror’ of the shallow world she reflects"
(79). Mrs. Dalloway shows how society and history influence ones
life and "how class, wealth, and sex help to determine his fate" (69).