full title Mrs. Dalloway
author Virginia Woolf
type of work Novel
genre Modernist; formalist; feminist
language English
time and place written Woolf began Mrs. Dalloway in Sussex
in 1922 and completed the
novel in London in 1924.
date of first publication May 14, 1925
publisher Hogarth Press, the publishing house created by Leonard
and Virginia Woolf in 1917
narrator Anonymous. The omniscient narrator is a commenting
voice who knows everything about the characters. This voice appears occasionally
among the subjective thoughts of characters. The critique of Sir
William Bradshaw’s reverence of proportion and conversion is the
narrator’s most sustained appearance.
point of view Point of view changes constantly, often shifting from
one character’s stream of consciousness (subjective interior thoughts)
to another’s within a single paragraph. Woolf most often uses free
indirect discourse, a literary technique that describes the interior
thoughts of characters using third-person singular pronouns (he and she).
This technique ensures that transitions between the thoughts of
a large number of characters are subtle and smooth.
tone The narrator is against the oppression of the human
soul and for the celebration of diversity, as are the book’s major
characters. Sometimes the mood is humorous, but an underlying sadness
is always present.
tense Though mainly in the immediate past, Peter’s dream
of the solitary traveler is in the present tense.
setting (time) A day in mid-June, 1923.
There are many flashbacks to a summer at Bourton in the early 1890s,
when Clarissa was eighteen.
setting (place) London, England. The novel takes place largely in the
affluent neighborhood of Westminster, where the Dalloways live.
protagonist Clarissa Dalloway
major conflict Clarissa and other characters try to preserve their
souls and communicate in an oppressive and fragmentary post–World
War I England.
rising action Clarissa spends the day organizing a party that will
bring people together, while her double, Septimus Warren Smith,
eventually commits suicide due to the social pressures that oppress
his soul.
climax At her party, Clarissa goes to a small room to contemplate Septimus’s
suicide. She identifies with him and is glad he did it, believing
that he preserved his soul.
falling action Clarissa returns to her party and is viewed from the
outside. We do not know whether she will change due to her moment
of clarity, but we do know that she will endure.
themes Communication vs. privacy; disillusionment with the
British Empire; the fear of death; the threat of oppression
motifs Time; Shakespeare; trees and flowers; waves and water
symbols The prime minister; Peter Walsh’s pocketknife and other weapons;
the old woman in the window; the old woman singing an ancient song
foreshadowing
· At the opening of the novel, Clarissa recalls having
a premonition one June day at Bourton that “something awful was about
to happen.” This sensation anticipates Septimus’s suicide.
· Peter thinks of Clarissa when he wakes up from his
nap in Regent’s Park and considers how she has the gift of making
the world her own and standing out among a crowd. Peter states simply,
“there she was,” a line he will repeat as the last line of the novel,
when Clarissa appears again at her party.
