This
late age of the world’s experience had bred in them all, all men
and women, a well of tears. Tears and sorrows; courage and endurance;
a perfectly upright and stoical bearing.
This quotation occurs directly after
Clarissa reads lines from Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline in
a bookshop window. The lines “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun /
Nor the furious winter’s rages” come from a hymn sung at a funeral
and suggest that death is a release from the hard struggle of life.
The words speak very directly to Clarissa’s own time period, the
years after World War I. England is still in shock after having
lost so many men in battle, the world now seems like a hostile place,
and death seems like a welcome relief. After Clarissa reads the
words from Cymbeline, she considers the great amount
of sorrow every person now bears. Everyone, regardless of class,
has to some degree been affected by the war.
Despite the upright and courageous attitudes many
people maintain, they all carry a great sadness, and people cry
constantly in Mrs. Dalloway. Peter Walsh bursts
into tears at Clarissa’s house. Clarissa’s eyes fill with tears
when she thinks of her mother walking in a garden. Septimus cries,
and so does Rezia. Tears are never far from the surface, and sadness
lurks beneath the busy activity of the day. Most people manage to
contain their tears, according to the rules of society, or cry only
in private. Septimus, the veteran, is the only character who does
not hesitate to cry openly in the park, and he is considered mentally
unstable. People are supposed to organize bazaars to help raise
money for the veterans. People are supposed to maintain a stiff
upper lip and carry on. Admitting to the horrors of the war by crying
is not acceptable in English culture, though as Clarissa points
out, a well of tears exists in each of them.