She Loved Life, London, This Moment of June V. Woolf, “Mrs Dalloway” (1925)

1. She Loved Life, London, This Moment of JuneV. Woolf, “Mrs Dalloway” (1925) GUIDED ANALYSIS MILLENNIUM 2 P. 205

2. Speaking • What does the title of the passage tell you in terms of place, time and emotional feelings? • Mrs Dalloway likes living in London, it is June and she is happy. GUIDED ANALYSIS • Read the first line. • What information are we given? • We are told that Mrs Dalloway has decided to buy some flowers. • Would you be able to place it in a proper context if not already partially helped by the title? • It would be of course impossible to place it in a proper context from the very beginning, if it was not for the title given to the excerpt. (Only in lines 23-25 will we learn that the action takes place in Westminster, a fashionable district of London where the Houses of Parliament are. • Why does Clarissa Dalloway want to buy flowers? • We don’t know for what purpose yet. The word “herself” though suggests that this is a special occasion and that someone else would normally do it for her, possibly a servant.

3. GUIDED ANALYSIS • Read the second paragraph (lines 2 -4). • Already we are entering Clarissa’s stream of thoughts. Distinguish between practical information about the preparation for the party and Clarissa’s mental impressions. • the preparation for the party • “the doors would be taken off their hinges” (l.2) • “Rumpelmayer’s men were coming” (l.3) • Clarissa’s mental impressions • “what a morning - fresh as if issued to children given out on a beach” (ll. 3-4) • Read the third paragraph (lines 5 – 19). • What sound evokes past memories in Clarissa’s mind? • The sound of squeaking hinges (l.6) • What precise time and place is Clarissa’s past given ? • An early morning when she was eighteen years old , and she had opened the French windows of her country house at Bourton and enjoyed the fresh hair and the view. • Who suddenly emerges from her past? • Peter Walsh, an old friend. She remembers some of his physical features and traits of character, but especially his sayings.

4. GUIDED ANALYSIS • At one point in the paragraph, a flash of the future comes into Clarissa’s thoughts: what is it? • We come to know that Clarissa and her friend had been writing to each other since they were young and that Peter is coming back from India soon. • Read the fourth paragraph (lines 20 – 24). Mrs Dalloway is seen through the eyes, or rather the thoughts of Scrope Purvis, a neighbour. • How does he see her? • Scrope Purvis sees Clarissa as a “charming woman” (ll.20-21), “bird-like” (“a touch of the bird about her, of the jay”, ll. 22-23; “she perched” (l.24); • “light, vivacious” (l.23) and still “very upright” (l.24) despite her age. We also learn that she has been ill and that her hair has whitened. • What impression of Mrs Dalloway do we get in this paragraph? • That she possibly belongs to the upper class (she lives in Westminster) and is very proud (“stiffened”, l.20; “never seeing him”, l.24; “very upright” l.24) but also lively and still beautiful. • Is it consistent with the impression we got from the title? • Yes, the description is consistent with the definition of the title that says “She Loved Life”.

5. GUIDED ANALYSIS • Read the fifth paragraph (lines 25 -39). As in Joyce, Woolf’s interior monologue is firmly rooted in a physical geographical context. • Make a lists of the sights and places mentioned. • “Westminster” (l. 25); “Big Ben” (l.28); “Victoria Street” (l.30); • List the things that strike Clarissa in London and say what is the element common to them. • The “hush” (= silence) just before Big Ben strikes the hour (ll. 27-28); the sounds and bustle (= activities) of the city life • (“swing, tramp, and trudge, ... the bellow and uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands, barrel organs”, ll. 35-37); (la foga del brulichio cittadino, il muggito e il frastuono, il trepestio e l'ondeggiar di carrozze, automobili, omnibus, furgoni, uomini-sandwich; le bande e gli organetti) • The element common to them is “life” (ll. 35, 39); All of them are characterized by “life”.

6. GUIDED ANALYSIS • Focus on the narrative technique. • Short sentences, fragmentation of the traditional syntactic structure, repeated lists of things or actions together with alliteration are some of the stylistic devices of Woolf’s interior monologue. Give evidence. • Short sentences: • “The doors would be taken off their hinges ” (l.2); • “Rumpelmayer’s men were coming” (l.3); • “What a morning” (ll.3-4); • “What a lark! What a plunge!” (l. 5); • “Was that it? – ‘I prefer men to cauliflowers’ – was that it?” (ll. 13-14); • “There! Out it boomed” (ll.28-29); • Sentences without a verb: • “like the flap of a wave, the kiss of a wave” (ll.8-9); • Repetition of words: • “like the flap of a wave, the kiss of a wave” (ll.8-9); • “Was that it? (l.13, 14); • Repetition of verbal forms: • “feeling ... standing ... looking” (ll.10-11); • “winding ... rising, falling (ll. 11-12); • “standing and looking” (l.12); • “one loves it so ... One sees it so” (l.31);

7. GUIDED ANALYSIS • Focus on the narrative technique. • Short sentences, fragmentation of the traditional syntactic structure, repeated lists of things or actions together with alliteration are some of the stylistic devices of Woolf’s interior monologue. Give evidence. • List of things or qualities: • “his eyes, his pocket-knife, his smile, his grumpiness” (l.17); • “swing, tramp, and trudge” (l.35); • “carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans” (l.36); • Alliteration: • “drink their downfall” (l.33); • “tramp and trudge” (l.35); • “brass bands; barrel organs” (l.37); • “loved life; London” (ll.38-39). • Has the time of narration any relation with chronological time? • Chronological time and fictional time have no direct relationship because in a very limited chronological time, thanks to Mrs Dalloway’s thoughts, we learn things and events that are related to the past, present and future.

8. WRITING NES • Nothing has really happened in the excerpt from “Mrs Dalloway” you have read, but much we have come to know about the central character’s thoughts and feelings. Comment on this. (maximum 220 words). • In the excerpt from “Mrs Dalloway” what goes on in the character’s mind overlaps with what goes on outside, in the world of external reality. From the very beginning of the novel we are entering Clarissa’s stream of thoughts: the sound of squeaking hinges evokes past memories of when she was eighteen years old, and she had opened the French windows of her country house at Bourton and enjoyed the fresh air and the view. This reminds her of Peter Walsh, an old friend who is coming back from India very soon, his traits of character, but especially his sayings. • We are also given a sketch of Clarissa’s physical appearance and personality through the thoughts of Scrope Purvis, a next-door neighbour in Westminster, who observes her while she is waiting to cross the road: she is still charming and lively, despite her age and recent illness, with something of the bird in her, and very upright. • Events related to Clarissa’s past, present and future run inside her with unrestrained energy while she plunges into the life of London with immense absorbing pleasure, enjoying the sound and bustle of the city. The result is chaotic, vital and fascinating like any sensitive person’s stream of consciousness. (203 words)