Mrs. Dalloway Blog

 I have definitely gotten behind on my blogs, so here we are at the end of Mrs. Dalloway! I had already read this book in a previous class, but I found that I appreciated it much more this time around.

I find it interesting that the entire novel revolves around Clarissa throwing a party, which is usually filled with many housewife roles like preparing food, getting table placements set up, and things of that nature. Clarissa is going about those motions and running into certain people along the way that make her question deep parts of life. This begs me to think that by being with her husband, she does not ponder life as much as she did before marriage. 

I found myself resonating with Clarissa on a few levels. I have always had a fear, as many women do, that marriage will confine me to the title of being my husband's wife and that by losing my last name I will be losing my individuality and personal freedom. 

I also found the character of Septimus to be interesting. He seems to be a foil character for Clarissa, in my opinion, because I found myself constantly comparing the two. He is seen as an insane person by many people, while Clarissa is seen as a perfectly sane and normal person. However, Clarissa is facing many depressive and big thoughts internally, while Septimus is showing those thoughts externally. Septimus eventually throws himself out of a window, and Clarissa respects him for doing this. 

This leads me to believe that Clarissa and Septimus are more alike than you would think: Septimus has faced the traumas of war and is showing the effects in a chaotic manner, while Clarissa has faced the traumas of a peaceful, mundane life and is hiding the effects while going crazy inside.

I find that both characters are struggling with oppression in its different forms, and the pressure to conform to standards. Although they go about it in different ways, I think that they both are facing similar thoughts about the many difficulties in our day-to-day lives.

Overall, this novel was an interesting insight into the life of a housewife, and of Virginia Woolf herself, since critics believe that Clarissa's character is an example of the life that Woolf's mother imagined for her. Some food for thought.