Mrs. Dalloway

What first fascinated me about Mrs. Dalloway is when I found out that this whole book takes place in the course of one day! At first I was skeptical, wondering how in the world a single day could fill the up the space of an entire book! But then once I got further into the book Woolfe kept taking us through flashbacks. I felt a little more relieved when I found this out, however it was also quite confusing to keep up and follow along with the story. It was also odd that there were no chapters in this book. Chapters are generally used as a breaking point or a bridge in a story. This was not so in the novel of Mrs. Dalloway. Woolfe also makes a habit of switching around whose point of view the reader is reading from. This book is quite unique in that aspect and definitely leaves no room to be bored with the book! The reader is constantly on the guard to when the point of view may change or if the tense is present or past. It definitely keeps the readers on their toes!

Mrs. Dalloway was a woman who enjoyed her privacy. She enjoyed it more so than most anything else. I think Mrs. Dalloway likes to have her privacy so much because she is not truly and completely happy with her marriage with Richard. This turns out to be a vicious cycle because Mrs. Dalloway also finds that Richard Dalloway does not know everything about her, and she finds it to be a sad thought. The reason why Richard does not know everything about Mrs. Dalloway is because of the fact that she likes her privacy and to keep to herself.

Mrs. Dalloway is clearly in doubt of her marriage with Richard. When she runs into Peter earlier on during the day, old memories and feelings run back to her as she reminisces on the past. Peter was devastated by her refusal and even to this day seems to still be pretty beaten up over it. Mrs. Dalloway questions whether or not she made the right choice. To Clarissa (Mrs. Dalloway), the wisest decision was to refuse Peter’s proposal and even deny her feelings to Sally, her childhood infatuation. She is wise because of how pursuing these relationships would have an effect on her. Homosexuality was not accepted in the society that she was living in at the time, and Peter was not high up enough on the status level of importance or wealth in their community so she thought it best to move on.

Richard was the perfect candidate for a spouse, as far as social terms are concerned. However Clarissa did not have the same kind of passion for him as she did for Peter. You can see that Clarissa is doubtful of her existing marriage and reflects on the memories of her and Peter. Clarissa definitely chose the future that would be the most stable and safe and socially acceptable, but it is clearly not the future that made her most happy. In this novel, it is clear that Clarissa chose comfort over love or happiness.