Everything Flashcards
Intro:
Field of inquiry
Global issue
Literary work
Nonliterary work
Today, I would like to explore the field of inquiry “culture, identity, and community”, and specifically I’d like to explore the global issue of how societies repress women, resulting in harmful internal dialogues that limit their contribution to society. My literary text comes from page 11 of the 1925 novel “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf. My non-literary body of work is the cartoon ‘I am supposed to be here.’ drawn by Liza Donnelly and published in the Forbes magazine blog in 2013.
Victorian patriarchy repressing women‘s role in society
First I would like to discuss Virginia Woolf’s book Mrs. Dalloway. Throughout the book, Woolf uses a Victorian patriarchal society to show the repression of women and how this leads to harmful internal dialogues and limits women’s contributions to society.
Use of stream of consciousness
Woolf uses stream of consciousness through 3 of the characters (Peter Walsh, Clarissa Dalloway, and Septimus Warren Smith) to magnify the global issue. The book weaves in and out of these different characters thoughts, and they show how society has affected them in different ways. For Peter and Clarissa, they both feel the need to fit into society. For Septimus, since society forced him into the war, he experiences traumatic visualizations of what happened for him.
Peter Walsh always acting superior and controlling „the perfect hostess he called her“ (p.8)
Peter Walsh is a character who is in love with Clarissa but she is not interested in him. He often undermines her by stating what place he believes she has in society. One place we see this is on page 8 where he says, “the perfect hostess he called her.”
Female harmful inner dialogue: After Peter says this „(she cried over it in her bedroom“ (p.8)
Immediately after, we see the author shows how this is harmful to the inner dialogue. On page 8, Woolf writes that what Peter Walsh said made Clarissa “(…cr[y] over it in her bedroom.)”
Clarissa Dalloway wishes she „could have looked even differently“ (p.11)
Adding to this thought, one of the first times Clarissa talks about herself as being different is on page 11 when Clarissa says she wished she “could have looked differently.”
Septimus connection: „She felt somehow like him - the young man who had killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away.“ (p. 204)
Additionally, there are many times in the book where Woolf shows the way in which Clarissa and Septimus are alike. Clarissa felt just like Septimus because both women and people with mental needs are ostracized from the community. On page 204, Woolf writes, “She [Clarissa] felt somehow very like him - the young man who had killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away.” Although she perseveres and continues in the struggle of womanhood, Clarissa is shown here to be jealous of Septimus for not needing to struggle in this world anymore.
Extract: Societal repression: comparing gender roles „…interested in politics like a man“ (line 3)
Looking more closely at this global issue in my extract, we can see on line 3 that if a woman has any interest outside of the societal norm, they are seen as weird. Here Clarissa is reflecting on Lady Buxborough’s interest in politics and how Clarissa could have been “…interested in politics like a man”. This is negatively impactful because women are pushed away from the topics that they might be interested in, causing them to not only be frustrated at society for pushing them out of these fields, but also themselves because they may feel like they are not fitting in by being interested in politics.
woman‘s identity comes from marrying - „She had the oddest sense of being herself invisible…there being no more marrying“ (line 12)
Otherwise, they are seen as acceptable in society by marrying or having children. For Clarissa, she believes she does not fit in society because in line 12 she says, “She had the oddest sense of being herself invisible…there being no more marrying”
woman’s identity comes from bearing children „…no more having of children now“ (lines 12-13)
and because as she says in lines 12-13 “…no more having of children now” she is further ostracized from the London community because she can no longer bear children at her age.
Extract: Female harmful inner dialogue: Clarissa compares her body to Lady Bexborough‘ „slow and stately“ (line 2) shape as compared to Clarissa Dalloway‘s „Instead of which she had a narrow peastick figure, a ridiculous face, beaked like a bird‘s (line 4-5)
On line 2 of the extract, Clarissa compares Lady Bexborough’s “slow and stately” body to her body in lines 4-5 by stating “Instead of which she [Clarissa] had a narrow peastick figure, a ridiculous face, beaked like a bird’s.” These standards, whether it be how women are meant to conform to society by having a body that looks a certain way or being born with an acceptable body shape, relate to my global issue because they clearly show signs of harmful inner dialogue.
Extract: Female harmful internal dialogue „this being Mrs. Dalloway; not even Clarissa anymore; this being Mrs. Richard Dalloway“ (lines 14-16)
Moving on to lines 14-16, Virginia Woolf uses another one of Clarissa’s self-reflections to show the harmful internal dialogue further by stating “this being Mrs. Dalloway; not even Clarissa anymore; this being Mrs. Richard Dalloway.” Clarissa is given a role through her name.
Names
She is called Mrs. Dalloway, sometimes even Mrs. Richard Dalloway and nothing of the name that was given to her. This makes it seem as though she is the subordinate of Mr. Dalloway. This excerpt shows that society gives certain prejudiced roles to women. This results in women feeling, as Clarissa says on line 11, “…unseen, unknown…” because her duties, according to society, as a woman are complete because she’s married, and she can no longer have children at her age.
Commas used to make the reader slow down
Commas and in this part semi-colons used to slow the reader down
Contemplation from Clarissa and resignation to her role of society‘s view of a woman
signifying Clarissa’s resignation to her role
Alliteration: „…unseen; unknown…“
The use of alliteration here is particularly interesting with an emphasis on the “un” which Woolf uses to emphasize the sense of loss of Clarissa’s belonging.
Liz Donnelly‘s body of work
Now I would like to explore Liza Donnelly’s cartoons and how they address this global issue through the text type cartoons.
