Great Works II

Finished reading the Mrs. Dalloway, what interested me the most is the relationship between characters in this book and the society – what has the society done to them, and how they behave to deal with the environment they live in and people around them.

Mrs. Dalloway – or Clarissa, an upper class aged woman, seems to love socials and throws parties every now and then.  But does she really enjoy them?   If she is hosting the party out of her true passion, then why would Peter sense her insincere when she says “How delightful to see you!” to everybody, and why would she be worried that the party might be a failure instead of launching it with full excitement?  It is not hard to see that although Clarissa enjoys privacy and her interior world, she also feels equally if not more important to communicate with others – which is why she throws those parties.  This kind of community and human connection is so important to a women in her class that she has to put herself together and present to others as a remarkable woman.

As for Septimus, he locked his sole in his own world after the war, cutting up human connections and constrains of models from the society.  And when Mr. Holmes came, who asks Septimus to do what he thinks Septimus should do, Septimus chooses to die rather than surrender his sole.  That’s why Clarissa feels happy about him, taking it as a way for Septimus to finally communicate himself to the society. This is something Mrs. Dalloway – who married someone she has little feeling for – has never done, although they both love the life and both have a abundant interior world.

And then let’s look at Peter. He has been struggling inside for his whole life because he can’t put down his love for Clarissa, and constantly doubts about himself and his decisions.   However, how does he look like in the hotel?  As he walks around his room, he imagines how Daisy sees him: as a reliable man who dresses, shaves, and takes firm control of life’s small details.  When he sits at the dinner table, he is so composed and orders his food firmly, even guests on other tables find him very appealing.  This is how he thinks the society perceives him and how he should present to this society.

With the streams of consciousness and free indirect discourse in this book, we are able toconstantly move in and out of characters’ minds freely. This juxtaposition of internal world and  external world really enables us to take a look into what’s behind ‘the cotton wool of daily life’.