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’.

Here is the map I created through my reading of Eliot’s “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock.” I left in the mistakes that came about as I learned the mapping software, as I it shows another kind of progress: working with new media to relate your ideas. In the end the posts on the lines “In the room the women come and go/Talking of Michelangelo” and “To prepare a face to meet the faces you will meet” are probably the most successful in getting the point of across. Of course, you do not need to use the zeemap.com software: you can incorporate any multimedia you would like.

https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=1010927&location=New%20York%2C%20NY&add=1#

See how well you do!

As we read on in Mrs. Dalloway, we continue on a journey through Mrs. Dalloways’ conscience with her to find her true identity. Virginia Woolf’s complex language and jumping through time, consciences, and point of view demonstrates just how intricate our minds truly are. To each person, the interpretation of a single word, item or even event differs. Just like we ventured to different museums and explored art, ideas and we connected different memories with present events and artworks, Mrs. Dalloway does the same when she hears or sees different people or sounds. These memories and connections individualize each person but the idea that we can think and process in this particular way connects us altogether. Just like Mrs. Dalloway’s thoughts “plunge”  from time periods to her thoughts of random supporting characters, our thoughts “plunge” to certain memories which connect to us and the present situation. If it were’t for these human connections and self thoughts, then our society will turn bland and uncreative, which seems to be the path as technology advances and smartphones tend to be our sources for answers. We instead should embrace our thoughts and acknowledge these connections that we make.

Within this section of the text, the reader gains exposure to the simultaneous proximity of events taking place between Rezia and Peter. This occurred during the scene when the old woman was singing the song that triggers sad moments between Rezia and Peter. For Peter it was the rejection he had endured from Clarissa that night, while for Rezia it was the present moment of seeing her husband suffer from the mental illness. Both characters had the same reaction to their current thoughts as a result of the encounter with this character. This scene also reveals both characters perceptions of the old woman and her song. Peter does not sense joy from the singing and feels pity; a pity that is suggested towards his own past concerning Clarissa and pity for the old woman’s circumstance. However, Rezia’s perception is different since she draws strength from the words of the song that enables her to relate to it through her own situation. Also we are given more background information on how Septimus’s mental condition affects his relationship between him and Rezia since it prevents him from having children with her. Thus, Septimus’s reason is that he does not want his children to have to endure the same suffering he is going through, as well as saddening Rezia that she cannot have children. As a result, it is suggestive that Septimus is suffering from a form of post traumatic stress disorder or a variant of a mental illness that he obtained from fighting in World War I. It is evident that Septimus displays a sense of distrust towards Dr. Holmes. This distrust is seen through Septimus’s view of Dr. Holmes as an embodiment of human nature. Therefore, Septimus perceives “human nature” as something that is destructive towards others. In fact this destructive perception of “human nature” is illustrated in Dr. Holmes ability to display his power in the form of control over his patients through conditioning them to live their lives through his views of the world. Thus, despite Septimus mental illness, he is able to perceive Dr. Holmes actions through his remembrance of the blind conformity during WWI. Thus, one can argue that Septimus’s memories of WWI save him from being confirmed to Dr. Holmes’s philosophy. Thus, in this scene it can be difficult for one to trust Septimus’s judgment of Dr. Holmes character as a result of his mental illness.

“Mrs.Dalloway,” an important novel by Virginia Wolf. The setting of this novel is very special comparing to other normal novel. The setting of the story takes place on a Wednesday in June 1923 and it’s in the period of post-world war. The whole story is a one-day journey about the main protagonist Clarissa Dalloway. In the beginning of the story, Clarissa is preparing her party. She put a lot of effort into her own party. She cares about what other people think about her. As the story goes on, there was a conflict created by Clarissa. Her friend Peter was invited to the party. Peter is falling in love with Clarissa, however Clarissa is married to Richard. When Peter is telling his story to Clarissa, she comforts him and kisses him. An internal conflict was created inside Clarissa heart, is marrying to Richard a right decision? She cared too much for her societal rank. She marries Richard because of the safety, wealthy and powerful life that Richard provides, but she actually in love with Peter. She is always reflecting and self-evaluation about her decision. It seems like she is not very determined and she has a bit struggling inside her heart when making the marriage decision.

In the story, there are differences between the personalities of the characters. Some characters are conventionality and some characters are unconventionality. For example, Clarissa Dalloway hides her own true feelings for the reason of conventionality and Peter Walsh is an example of unconventionality because he admits he can love anyone like he loves Clarissa. Septimus couldn’t run away conventionality and chooses to commit suicide his own life. As the story goes on, the feelings of Septimus become more guilty, confused and lack of power.

Emotional and decision conflict of Septimus and Clarissa bring us to the discussion of how this book depicts their internal feelings. They are both struggling for their life. Societal and friend caused them to think a lot about their decision. In the story, there is a scene that Richard bought Clarissa roses and rushed home to tell her that he loved her. Richard shows he loves Clarissa, but Clarissa felt selfish that she cared more about roses. She feels that marrying to Richard is a suffering decision and she feels painful at all. “How’s the conflict struggle for Clarissa and does Septimus really has to commit suicide?” I think it’s a very interesting question to think while reading this book. A tough book, but meaningful to spend time reading it.

http://youtu.be/mOE5nzvU9a0

Mrs. Dalloway full movie!!! I never watch this type of movie before. If you guys have time, feel free to watch it.

From the very start of the book where Clarissa heads off to buy flowers for her part in the evening, we can see that the mood of the story changes quickly. Through her walk, she stumbles upon shops and her observations that bring back memories of her past and much criticism and self-reflection of herself. She reminisces about the time she rejected Peter Walsh for marriage and it seems like she still has feelings for him despite Peter making her cry with his judgments on Clarissa wanting to marry a rich guy and throw parties. This holds somewhat true, since Clarissa married Richard is who rich and it brings to her the notion that everyone she knows, and she knows a lot of people, will just know her as Richard’s wife. She feels a sense of a low identity in which she lives in the shadow of her successful husband. She puts herself down which brings up the idea of agency to the extent where Clarissa doesn’t really exercise this to remove herself from this shadow. She also mentions that her affection isn’t there for him but for a female friend, Sally Seton.
Clarissa holds a conflicted mindset that enables thoughts within her to be unhappy with who she really is. She projects these thoughts through memories of her youth, significant moments in her life and current events. This novel seems to take the sequence style of Frankenstein in a way that the story is taught through other stories but Mrs. Dalloway, is a story within stories by the views of Clarissa and then Peter. Clarissa seems to be out of place and question’s her role in life. In addition, she wonders what would happen if she were to have married Peter Walsh instead of Richard. The denial of marriage from Clarissa is a recurring theme in the novel as both Clarissa and Peter think about their past regarding them heavily. Although Peter is critical of Clarissa and still bears the pain of rejection after many years and on the other hand, we have Clarissa who is not engaged in her marriage and has wonders about how things would’ve turned out if she married Peter. Self-reflection is an obvious in this novel and a big contributor to opening up the emotions of characters within this book.

“Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf is not a typical novel, it is not eventful. The events of a good classic novel do not exist in this novel. Walks around London, lunches, tea parties, receptions are these sufficient events for the novel? Narration (if this word conveys what happens in the novel) exists on two levels. First level of the narration, even though it may not seem clearly, represents the events of external and material character: buying flowers, sewing a dress, walking in the park, discussing politics, waiting for guests. Moreover, readers can observe an abundance of colors, smells, sensations of London. London arises with remarkable topographical accuracy at different times of the day, in different lighting conditions.
Readers are able to live with heroes the long June day in 1923 – but not in real time. Readers are not only witness the characters’ actions, readers primarily “spies” who entered in ” the holy of holies” – the memory of their dreams. It is just seems that in the novel is much talk. For the most part the novel full of silence and all of these conversations, dialogues, monologues, and disputes occur in the silence – in memory and imagination.
And while Big Ben strikes constantly remind us that time is moving, not astronomical time that reigns in this novel, but time internal. The internal time and internal events are the second level of narration of the novel. By “framework” story (Clarissa went to the flower shop, Rezia went for a walk in the park, Richard Dalloway bought a bouquet of roses to Clarissa) seems to be completely mixed with extraneous events occurring in another place – in Bourton, where Clarissa spent her childhood and youth, in Milan where Rezia lived during her girlhood, in India, where Peter Walsh left the woman he loves. But these are minor events; they do not have a formal relationship to events of the plot, they serve as a breeding ground for the internal motions occurring in the consciousness.

If you guys remember, in the beginning of the semester we got a handout where we read “The Heart Sutra.” I decided to look it up on youtube since Buddhism is quite intriguing. I was surprised to find out that it is a chant that is very popular! It’s pretty relaxing too, so if midterms are stressing you out, you should definitely listen to it!

Here is the link: