Mrs Dalloway – class discussion 1 (pp. 3-5)

1. Mrs Dalloway – class discussion 1 (pp. 3-5) • Shift from the 3rd person external to the 3rd person internal narrator • Cohesive devices • Time: chronological vs. personal • Interconnectedness of the past and the present • Invasion of the bright, emotionally-charged memories of the past into the present • The determining presence of the past in the present • Reliving the past (anticipation, sense of foreboding) • The objective presence of time (age, Big Ben that punctuates life with its strikes)

2. London and the consequences of WWI (anti-pathetic fallacy) • The past determining the present: “the war was over, except[…]” • Antithesis: peaceful life vs. troubled lives of people

3. The past that determines the present: Clarissa (pp. 5-7) • Unable to erase the past from her memory • Prone to reconsider her past decisions • Specificity of her line of reasoning (a position of superiority, yet one mixed with “…the grief, the anguish, and then the horror…”) • Realization of her mistake of judgment (“Never could she understand how he cared.”) • Greater tolerance thanks to lifelong experience. (“She would not say of anyone in the world now that they were this or were that. […] she would not say of herself, I am this, I am that.”)

4. Clarissa’s inner conflicts (pp. 6-9) • “very young” vs. “unspeakably aged” • “sliced like a knife through everything” vs. “was outside” • included vs. excluded • taking active part in everything vs. “alone” • Identity crisis (“cease completely”) • Life (“survived”, p. 7) vs. death • Love vs. hatred (p. 9)

5. Clarissa’s multiple identities (pp. 7-9) An upper class woman • Ignorance (“…she knew nothing; no language, no history; she scarcely read a book now, except memoirs in bed… “) • Deeply internalized inferiority (“she had a pea-stick figure; a ridiculous little face, beaked like a bird’s” vs. being a slow, large, stately woman, interested in politics like Lady Bexborough) • Engages in typical for this class of people activities (shopping, participating in charity actions, etc.)

6. A wife • “invisible; unseen; unknown” • “not even Clarissa anymore” A mother • keeps questioning Elizabeth’s motives to stick with Miss Kilman A homophobe • scornful, narrow-minded: looks down at Miss Kilman • the “reduction” pattern: “better poor Grizzle than Miss Kilman” (p. 9)

7. Septimus Warren Smith (p. 11) • Onomastics: the seventh child • “… about 30, pale-faced, beak-nosed […] shabby overcoat, […] that look of apprehension…” • Doubles: • “Mrs Dalloway […] looked out …” “Septimus looked.” • Preoccupied with the them of death like Clarissa (“Is it I who am blocking the way…”; “I will kill myself”); questions the essence of his existence (see Clarissa as well)

8. Anti-pathetic fallacy (pp. 12-13) The setting • “veneration … for Queen, Prince, or Prime Minister”, “greatness was passing”, “symbol of state”, “opening some bazaar” • “grass-grown path”, “Wednesday morning”, “sunlight”, “white”, “magical”, “glittering stars” • an aeroplane – a symbol of freedom vs. confinement; a symbol of consumerism

9. Septimus (pp. 16-17) • heightened sensitivity (p. 16) • mental and emotional instability as seen in the upward and downward dynamics (p. 17) • sanity vs. insanity (p. 17) • isolation (p. 17) • post- WWI trauma • Identity crisis (“… he was not Septimus now”, p. 17) – see Clarissa as well • bouts of insanity (p. 18): see voices as well

10. Septimus’s insanity (p. 18) • pacifistic notes • sparrows – birds – freedom • Greek – the language of antiquity that celebrated the beauty of the man • blurring of the differences between the living and the dead (“there was his hand; there the dead”) – maybe he already sees himself as dead?

11. Septimus / the theme of insanity (p. 18) • pacifistic notes • sparrows – birds – freedom • Greek – the language of antiquity that celebrated the beauty of the man • blurring of the differences between the living and the dead (“there was his hand; there the dead”)

12. Clarissa + voices(pp. 22-23) • Makingpeacewithherlife: ‘’… must one repay in daily life…?’’ (p.22) • Feeling excluded (‘’… the shock of Lady Brutonasking Richard to lunch withouther’’ (p. 22) • Afraid of time / aging (p. 23) • Consideringsuicide: “ a diverbeforeplunging” (p. 23) • Anti-patheticfallacy ‘’…Junemorning; soft with the glow of rose petals…’’ vs. ‘’… suddenlyshrivelled, aged, breastless…’’ (p. 23)

13. The nun • The theme of withdrawal (distance, isolation, separation on bothtopographical and emotionallevels) • The reduction pattern: • a child ‘’exploring a tower’’ • a life of loneliness (‘’Narrower and narrowerwouldherbedbe’’, p. 23) • reading as a way to escape the reality • Stripped off herfemininecharacteristics (‘’… shecould not dispel a virginitypreservedthroughchildbirthwhichclung to herlike a sheet.’’ (p. 23)

14. Lack of sexuality; frigidity (‘’Shecouldseewhatshelacked. It was not beauty; itwas not mind. It wassomething central whichpermeated; something warm whichbroke up surfaces and rippled the cold contact of man and woman, or of womenaltogether.’’, p. 24) • Shown as an atypicalwoman - homosexuality (‘’…shecould not resistsometimesyielding to the charm of a woman…’’) • drawn to unconventionalities (Sally Seton) • akiss as precious as a revelation (religious connotation), pp. 24-25

15. Doubles: Clarissa and Septimus • Makingpeacewiththeirlives • Acceptingitssadness • Being not afraid Clarissa (p. 29: ‘’Fear no more, says the heart.’’) Septimus (p. 101: ‘’Fear no more, says the heart in the body; fear no more.’’)

16. Rhetorical patterns: antithesis Clarissa Sally Unconventional behavior (smoking cigarettes, p. 24; cutting flowers’ heads off; running naked, p. 25)) Dysfunctional family (“Sally’s parents did not get on”, p. 24) “a sort of abandonment” admired by Clarissa (p. 24) Poorer (“hadn’t a penny “, p. 25) Passionate (“Sally it was who made her feel”, p. 25) Sally’s idea “to abolish private property”, p. 25 Intelligent (reading Plato) Reckless (p. 25) Personality (p. 25) • Conventional • Envious of Sally’s beauty, her “abandonment” (p. 24) • “Knew nothing about sex” • Knew “nothing about social problems” (p. 25) • “the purity, the integrity of her feeling for Sally” (p. 25) • Protective of Sally (p. 25)

17. Rhetorical patterns 2: antithesis The young Clarissa The 52-year-old Clarissa Unable to feel; numb (“She could not even get an echo of her old emotion”, p. 27) “…seeing the delicate pink face of the woman who was that very night to give a party; of Clarissa Dalloway; of herself” (p. 27) “That was her self – pointed; dartlike; definite” (p. 27) “…the whole world seems to be saying ‘that is all’’(p. 29) “Fear no more, says the heart” (p. 29) • Capable of feeling (“ That was her feeling – Othello’s feeling […] all because she was coming down to dinner in a white frock to meet Sally Seton!” (p. 26) • “She was wearing pink gauze – was that possible?” • “…the radiance burnt through” (the kiss, p. 26)

18. Rhetorical patterns 3: antithesis Clarissa Dalloway Peter Walsh Sexuality (see the displacement mechanism: personal anxiety unarticulated desires ) Intensity Freedom • Lack of sexuality • Femininity fading away • Frigidity • Confinement