Dalloway - Context

Question 1

When was James Joyce’s the Ulysses written?

Answer 1

1922

Question 2

When the Bloomsbury group founded?

Answer 2

1912

Question 3

Name some of the prominent members of the Bloomsbury group.

Answer 3

Virginia Woolf
Leonard Woolf
Clive Bell
Vanessa Bell
E.M Forster
Bertrand Russel

Question 4

What types of things did the Bloomsbury group discuss?

Answer 4

• Political issues of the time (many of them were socialists)
• The war (many of them were pacifists)
• Art (many of them were artists or writers)
• Philosophy (many of them were philosophers)
• the redundancies of victorian ideals (“bourgeois habits”) e.g. Monogamy, conservatism, heterosexuality

Question 5

What was the name of the printing press the Woolfs set up?

Answer 5

Hogarth Press

Question 6

Why was the Bloomsbury group criticised?

Answer 6

Accused of being snobbish and elitist

Question 7

Who was the first labour prime minister? And what year was he put in office?

Answer 7

Ramsay MacDonald

1924

Question 8

Who else was using the stream of consciousness technique at the time?

Answer 8

Gertrude Stein, James Joyce

Question 9

How did cubism influence Woolf?

Answer 9

A Cubist painting attempted to render the object simultaneously from several view points in several moments in time. Woolf’s fractured, multiple perspectives styles reflects this desire to capture something not simply by describing it as it is but also as it was, as it will be how someone is viewed and how they view themselves.

Question 10

Which narrative techniques demonstrate woolfs interest in Cinema?

Answer 10

Montage, close ups, flashbacks,tracking shots, rapid cuts

Question 11

When was ‘mrs dalloway’ written?

Answer 11

1925

Question 12

What does James Joyce’s the Ulysses have in common with Mrs Dalloway?

Answer 12

• Happens during the course of one day
• Written in stream of consciousness
• Woolf was reading it when she started writing Mrs Dalloway

Question 13

Elaine showalter called Clarissa and Septimus ‘doubles’, name at least 5 ways in which Clarissa and Septimus are connected/similar.

Answer 13

a) Respond to things very physically
b) Bird like
c) Water, waves
d) Both slightly mad
e) fear no more the heat of the sun, nor the furious winters rages
f) hate bradshaw
g) death of sept frees clarissa

Question 14

In what ways is Freud’s work relevant to Mrs Dalloway?

Answer 14

• Impact of childhood on adult development (sexual development in particular)
• Memories
• dreams
• Mind=complex
• id, ego, superego

Question 15

Skywriting was very popular at the beginning of the 20th century. When was skywriting invented and by who?

Answer 15

1922

Major Jack

Question 16

When was the cinema invented?

Answer 16

1890s

Question 17

What does bathos mean?

Answer 17

contrasting an elevated manner or description with something ordinary or banal.

Question 18

What does ‘eponymous’ mean?

Answer 18

named after a particular person

Question 19

On which day is Mrs Dalloway set?

Answer 19

13th june 1923

Question 20

When was Mrs Dalloway written?

Answer 20

1925

Question 21

When did Woolf write ‘Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown’? What was the essay about?

Answer 21

1924
Challenged the unimportant information like how much someone earnt or their relations. Arnold Bennett was the author that Woolf was directly criticising. Him, alongside other edwardian authors, often wrote in the style she mocks. In particular she criticised these authors presentation of women.

Question 22

What Shakespeare play is significantly quoted by both Clarissa and Septimus?

Answer 22

Cymbeline

Question 23

What is Sally called at the end of the novel? How many sons does she have?

Answer 23

Lady Rosseter, 5

Question 24

In what ways did attitudes to female sexuality change after the war?

Answer 24

Before the war female sexuality was greatly limited and restricted with women often seen as not enjoying sex.

After the war, the necessity of new mothers meant attitudes to female sexuality had to change. The focus became on sexual compatibility between Man and wife.