Mrs. Dalloway

Question 1

What was Woolf’s working title for Mrs. Dalloway?

Answer 1

“The Hours”

Question 2

In which of Woolf’s earlier works do the Dalloways’ show up?

Answer 2

In “The Voyage Out”; they are fellow passengers aboard the ship carrying Rachel Vinrace.

Question 3

Over what period of time does the action of this novel take place?

Answer 3

A single day

Question 4

What is the name of Clarissa’s husband?

Answer 4

Richard

Question 5

Who is the girlhood friend whose memory haunts Clarissa?

Answer 5

Sally Seton

Question 6

What is the name of Clarissa’s daughter?

Answer 6

Elizabeth

Question 7

What is the name of the tutor Clarissa especially dislikes?

Answer 7

Miss Kilman (Kill Man – Woolf likes obvious names like this)

Question 8

Who commits suicide?

Answer 8

Septimus Smith

Question 9

What is the name of Septimus Smith’s wife?

Answer 9

Lucretzia

Question 10

What ghost haunts Septimus?

Answer 10

Evans

Question 11

Who is Clarissa’s early love interest?

Answer 11

Peter Walsh

Question 12

Who is the friend Clarissa runs into outside the flower shop?

Answer 12

Hugh Whitbread

Question 13

What is a modernist epiphany?

Answer 13

A fleeting moment of sublime insight where the universe is illuminated to you. (Woolf’s “moments of being”)

Question 14

What is Clarissa’s maiden name?

Answer 14

Parry

Question 15

What is Richard’s occupation?

Answer 15

Member of Parliament

Question 16

What is the narrative connection between Septimus and Clarissa?

Answer 16

Septimus was one of Dr. Bradshaw’s patients, and Bradshaw is an attendee at Clarissa’s party.

Question 17

What symptom does Septimus have that Woolf herself once experienced?

Answer 17

Hearing birds speak in Greek

Question 18

What metaphor is repeated about the tolling of Big Ben?

Answer 18

“The leaden circles dissolved in the air.”

Question 19

Name a modernist epiphany in the novel.

Answer 19

As Clarissa is contemplating Septimus’s suicide, she is able to see her own life and its worth more clearly. She doesn’t pity him, but his death does “make her feel the beauty, make her feel the fun.”

Question 20

What time of year does Mrs. Dalloway take place?

Answer 20

June

Question 21

How old is Clarissa?

Answer 21

52

Question 22

What is a common stylistic technique in “Mrs. Dalloway”? Define it.

Answer 22

Free Indirect Discourse

A tactic used where the inner thoughts of a character are being related without any obvious “thought action” words (Clarissa thought, Clarissa mused).

In this style, the text slips in and out of a character’s consciousness without warning. Thoughts and feelings are filtered through a third person narrator.

Question 23

What is Peter’s eccentric habit?

Answer 23

Playing with his pocket knife