MRS DALLOWAY

Question 1

MRS DALLOWAY’S PLOT

Answer 1

The story only lasts a day – wednesday the 13th of June 1923 – and in a place – London – in contrast to the chaos happening in her mind.

But also the title Virginia Woolf decided on the novel is very simple, nothing special: It’s only the name of the protagonist: Clarissa Dalloway.

This technique wants to underline a radical shift from the Victorian style: she chooses the most ordinary character in the most ordinary day
focusing not on the variety of the plot, but on the complexity of mind.

Question 2

MRS DALLOWAY’S STYLE

Answer 2

TIME
A very important feature of the novel is the obsession with time, described by the elements of the passing of time and clocks.

In particular it is represented by Big Ben – “Big Ben strikes / Out it boomed / First a warning, musical; then the hour”

There are two examples of time:
– a subjective time, the time of the mind
– a objective time, the chronological time

SENSES
In the text Virginia Woolf describes the scene ever through the senses, in particular the sense of sight and hearing. ( last paragraph: hush, pause, boomed, warning, musical )

Question 3

MRS DALLOWAY’S PROTAGONISTS: CLARISSA DALLOWAY

Answer 3

Mrs Dalloway’s counterpart is Septimus Smith
He’s also walking around London but there are two completely different voyages:

MRS DALLOWAY
Because of her conservative political views and not particularly open mind;

she’s a wife and a mother

but she’s also a very complex and frustrated woman: she sees in these two roles a limitation of her freedom.

Mrs Dalloway character is split between the desire of life – through social interactions and parties, and death – though her aging

She’s walking around London and conducting an healing and growing voyage – because, with Septimus’s death, she’s able to accept that death is a part of her life and she keeps living

Question 4

MRS DALLOWAY PROTAGONISTS: SEPTIMUS

Answer 4

HE IS a veteran affected by disturbing hallucinations about the death of a close friend in the War with him.

Septimus Smith’s character is also split between life and death – because he sees in suicide a liberation from the pain of life
He’s walking around London and conducting a self destructing voyage – because it ends with his suicide: he throws himself off the window, impaling himself in the railings

Question 5

Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers

Answer 5

She wants to host a party this evening, so she’s trying to make her house as welcoming as possible. She’s very excited about this party. In the text she’s describing what she’s seeing around the street and the noises.
she needs to go buy some flowers
Rumpelmayer’s man, a company of blacksmiths, are coming to take of the doors