In my mind map I wanted to show the connections made between Clarissa Dalloway and the main characters of the story. I started with Peter all the way to the left because he is one of Clarissa’s old friends and her ex-boyfriend. Although it has been a while since they split up you can still see he has feelings for Mrs. Dalloway, but she does not feel the same way about him. Next on my chart is Mr. Dalloway, Clarissa’s husband. They have an interesting relationship because she does not feel sexually attracted to him and this forms a wedge in their marriage. Next to Mr. Dalloway is Sally, the person who Mrs. Dalloway actually does have sexual attractions to. Since she was younger and kissed Sally, Clarissa has known that Sally is the one she really has emotional connections with. Last on my chart is Sepitmus. I feel that Septimus and Clarissa have the most similarities in character and their situation. Life has greatly changed the both of them. In different ways, they both are mentally lost and don’t really know who they are anymore. “Behind the cotton wool [of daily life] is hidden a pattern; that we-I mean all human beings-are connected with this; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art.” In this quote I feel Virginia Woolf is stressing that in all the confusion of life, that we are all connected and this is a very important part of who we are, and how the world works. You can see these types of connections and relationships in Mrs. Dalloway.

Mrs Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway Web

My mind map / web shows two aspects of Clarissa and how the different characters fit into them and slightly intermingle. The two aspects I was able to divide Clarissa and the characters up was by mental state and love.

Clarissa’s love life isn’t going too well with Richard Dalloway, even though they are married, she doesn’t feel a special connection between them. On top of that he doesn’t recognize her acute depression, as hes at Parliament most of the time rather than with her. Clarissa, however, felt an intimate connection with Sally, which she didn’t feel with her husband. Peter Walsh fits into this map since he was her ex boyfriend / lover and still loves her even though she doesn’t feel the same. They ended it since they choose different paths to follow, and their interests, lifestyles, and choices didn’t intersect.

Clarissa’s mental state is most similar to that of Septimus. They both are suffering a depression that others don’t seem to recognize and validate. Septimus is suffering from PTSD where he is a world that revolves around him, everything that happens suddenly focuses on him and that makes him slightly paranoid and disconnected from society. Clarissa is in a similar state where she also lost touch with who she used to be.

Connected to Septimus is his wife, who doesn’t understand his depression and detachments. I added her into this web since this is similar to Richard who does the same to Clarissa, making them connected.

Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, is a novel written in a narrative form. In the novel, Woolf attempts to narrates the conscious stream of her main character, Clarissa, using third person narrative. Others characters who are fairly related to Clarissa are Septimus, Sally, Richard, and Peter. In A Sketch of the Past, Virginia Woolf states, “Behind the cotton wool [of daily life] is hidden a pattern; that we—I mean all human beings—are connected with this…” Although the novel might appear as simply narrating the random events and Ms. Dalloway’s conscious stream of thought, we can understand the character’s identity conflict and complicated relationships with other characters. Septimus and Clarissa have the most common because they both suffer from severe depression, having difficulty construct their own identities, and being misunderstood by others. Peter Walsh whose marriage proposal had been refused by Clarissa suddenly paid a visit to her house and tempted to ask her if she was happy with her current marriage. It shows that he still obsesses with Clarissa and has not gotten over the refusal yet. Moreover, her relationship with current husband, Richard Dalloway, has becoming shallow and she feels that they have no emotional connection with each other. It becomes clear to Richard as well when he is unable to say he loves her as he cannot even remember the last time he said it. Sally is the female character in the story whom Clarissa was sexually attracted to but was not able to move their relationship longer as their relationship would be badly criticized by society at that time.

For my mind map on Clarissa Dalloway, I decided to examine all of the people who are closest related to her. These connections are what constantly go through her stream of conscience, and give readers insight into her feelings and emotions. In Virginia Wolf’s A Sketch of the Past, she states “Behind the cotton wool [of daily life] is hidden a pattern; that we—I mean all human beings—are connected with this…”. This quote is very telling  and applicable to Clarissa on many levels. At the beginning of the novel, Clarissa is on a walk in London to buy flowers for her party. Behind all of the people and chaos in London is a true sense of connectedness and readers are exposed into Clarissa’s sense of connection. Primarily, she has thoughts on the four people listed in the mind map. It can be seen that Clarissa has the closest similarities and connections to Septimus Warren. They are both “lost souls” who are facing depression and have no sense of identity. Neither are understood by their significant other which causes them to be very solitary. In regards to Clarissa’s connection with her husband, she does not feel very close to him as she feels that she is a mere representative of him (as he is a prominent member of parliament). Finally, it is revealed that the one person who Clarissa does have a sense of connection with is Sally Senton. The two of them had a connection that she did not feel with any other people, and one that she especially lacked within her own marriage.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is a novel that may be confusing at first but is filled with hidden patterns of connection that not only connect characters and themes but also time. In A Sketch of the Past, Virginia Woolf states, “Behind the cotton wool [of daily life] is hidden a pattern; that we—I mean all human beings—are connected with.”  In the novel, Clarissa leads a life where she plays a role of fitting into the higher social class. She follows etiquette but internally she questions herself on  how her life has turned out. She searches for the deeper meaning to life. Even though she is married to Richard Dalloway, the reader can infer that their relationship is distant and thus Clarissa is isolated. Septimus was a character that was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after fighting in World War I. The war had left him depressed and even though he had a wife who tried to help him, Septimus was lost in his own mind. He too, was distant from his spouse and later can’t take being in the world any longer.

Another way the characters are interconnected in the novel is through time and memories. Even though the book revolves around one specific day and the activities that take part of it, the reader is taken into the past numerous times. Clarissa remembers many memories that make her smile, such as the time Sally kissed her. For Septimus, he thinks back to the time his friend Evans was alive.  Although, I have only used Clarissa and Septimus as examples, there many more characters who look back on the past. One such character is Peter Walsh; He remembers the summer in Bourton. By connecting the past with the present, Woolf creates a dynamic storyline and provides background on all the characters. Even though Septimus and Clarissa never met in the novel, it can be seen that the two characters are not very different from each other.

“Behind the cotton wool [of daily life] is hidden a pattern; that we—I mean all human beings—are connected with this; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art. Hamlet or a Beethoven quartet is the truth about this vast mass that we call the world. But there is no Shakespeare, there is no Beethoven; certainly and emphatically there is no God; we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself.”

—Virginia Woolf, A Sketch of the Past

1.

Through this quotation Virginia Woolf gives her readers an idea about the characters of this book. If we read this reading very carefully than we can see that she is trying to construct the abstract of her characters. “Behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern” with the character Mrs. Dalloway she tries to show the how the real character of Clarissa is hidden behind the daily life an ordinary woman. Here is picture of the daily journey of Mrs. Dalloway on the street of London.

2.

“I mean all human beings— are connected with this;” with this she tries to say that the connection between the human beings are build up to continue the cycle of the daily life. Our daily life is an art and we are the artist. We can see the same connections in her characters as well. All the characters are picturing themselves in a different way while the realities of these characters are different. This is the work of an artist. Here is picture of the connection between the characters of this book.

I compared Virginia Wolf’s characters Carissa and Septimus.  They share the common feeling of depression, loneliness, and isolation at times.  Like Wolf’s A Sketch of the Past says, “we are parts of the work of art”.  What I understood out of Wolf’s words was that even though some people may never meet we are all connected in one way or another.  Some of us are connected through our emotions and feelings and others through our values and beliefs.  Carissa and Septimus are connected through their emotions and feelings.  I displayed out their similarities and differences in the most simplistic way using a Venn diagram.  Both Carissa and Septimus are unhappy with who they have become, but the way that they changed differed.  Septimus is struggling after war and there is no help for him.  Carissa lost her identity as a person and is now just known as her husband’s wife which is unchangeable during the time the book takes place.  On the outside Carissa looks as if she is fine, but we know as the readers on the inside she is depressed.  While everyone knows that Septimus is depressed, though there is nothing that can be done for him.  It is weird how these two characters are so similar yet they never meet in the book, I think the connection of these two characters help you better understand each character as individuals.

She said to herself,”In a hurry. Gate open. Oh well!” She was really tired. Nevertheless she was determined  to drive the hour to Newark. As she drove down the street, she pretended not to look at the neighbors’ car that was exactly the same as her own. On the highway Suzanne wondered if the other drivers could see her car’  momentary drifting between lanes as she struggled to control her fatigue.  Divine intervention enabled her to find parking. She gathered her belongings, taking a quick inventory of neck and back, and hustled through the maze of streets that would lead to the PATH train. Now, she was really running late for class. A dirty Chinese man with luggage sat beside her on the train . She thought this unusual, and of all mornings, she just  couldn’t stand the possibility of smelling him, so she instinctively moved one seat over. Lots of people coming out of Home Depot. I need to stop there, she thought. She saw a man in a pink man bag and asked herself the question, “Gay?” She then noticed another man with a worn brown leather man bag and commented to herself, “Possibly not gay.” As she walked along 23rd Street she wondered which store to eat lunch at today. Two street crossings and the vertical campus loomed ahead.

Larry woke abruptly to the sound of his phone alarm going off. It reminded him of a documentary he watched on the CIA and how they would wake prisoners every 2 hours with freezing cold water to make sure they didn’t get enough sleep. His routine followed, shower, shave, breakfast and out the door to catch that seemingly always delayed B train at Brighton Beach. On the train Larry noticed the old Russian man who always got on at Sheepshead Bay to sing a short song and ask for tips. He thought of his own dedushka, Russian for grandfather, and how he would handle his older years as he approached them. Larry got off the B train at Broadway/Lafayette and took the 6 train to 23rd street. As the sun hit his eyes and he stared down Lexington Avenue, Larry could only think of the weekend plans that approached beyond the haze of Baruch College.