solitude and restriction Flashcards
Clarissa wants independence - reason she didn’t marry peter “ but with peter everything had to be shared”
but Richard gives her independence - ‘a little independence there must be between people living together day in day out in the same house”
Jane “i longed for a power of vision which might reach the busy world”
mrs dalloway is “reluctant to inflict her individuality’ “she did not do things simply but to make people think this or that”
Jane is not reluctant to be an individual and express herself - “no net ensnares me , i am a free human being with an independent will”
unwanted solitude - mrs d has ‘a sense of being herself invisible ; unseen unknown; there being no more marrying no more having children now”
but unlike clarissa it is not jane’s age and marriage that restricts her but rather her class
“ i was in discord in gateshead hall; i was like nobody there”
ella henderson is alone during the party “not having anyone to talk to” “standing there all evening by herself”
jane too sits aside “ i sit in the shade… the curtain half hides me”
women’s solitude is interuppted by men - “it was outrageous to be interrupted at 11 oclock in the morning of her party” -
jane is peacefully walking when “a rude noise broke on these fine ripplings and whisperings”
lucrezia feels restricted and trapped - ‘its wicked! why should i suffer?
jane is restricted at gateshead - “unjust! unjust! said my reason” “why could i never please?”
mrs dalloway wants to be alone when hearing bad news - “she went on into the little room where the prime minister had gone”
jane “i was in my room as usual by myself” - this alone is more meaningful for jane as berthas existence means she has to be without rochester
mrs dalloway feels trapped in marriage - “not even clarissa any more; this being mrs richard dalloway”
so does septimus - “the rope was cut; he mounted; he was free” (since his wife had thrown away her wedding ring; since she had left him), he, Septimus, was alone
blanche acting out bridewell prison in charades “miss ingram clad in white” - the view that marriage is a prison - perhaps this is why “it was coldness from her” when he spread the “ a rumour that my fortune was not a third of what was supposed” . in her position she needs to marry someone rich but will not settle for anyone below and these high standards make it easier to keep away from the prison of marriage.
