Mrs Dalloway Essay Example

Mrs Dalloway Essay Example Mrs Dalloway Paper Mrs Dalloway Paper Essay Topic: A Long Way Gone Literature Mrs Dalloway This essay will be investigating to what extent Woolf used her novel Mrs Dalloway to criticise the social system. To do this I will be taking into account the year the novel was written, and examining the social situations which the reader could have perceived to be critical. Also, it will be important to acknowledge that some of the socially critical situations Woolf uses had not been encountered before, and to reason that perhaps Woolf wrote Mrs Dalloway to try and draw public attentions to the reaction to events that the general public, politicians and all the social classes had no idea how to deal with. At the same time the essay will use these points to connect the novel and Woolf to its modernist roots. Woolf began writing what would become Mrs Dalloway in the summer of 1922 shortly after World War 1 had ended. Public suffering from the war was still inflicting its massive after effects, and Woolf wanted to write an expression of what she felt was happening. On my initial forays into researching Virginia Woolf my opinion was very closed, I felt she was very insular. Commenting on the outside world from the safety of her own well educated and wealthy life. But now I feel I passed judgment too quickly. Woolf came from a challenging background, loosing her mother at a young age and coping with depression at different stages of her life. She was an imperative aspect of a groundbreaking generation of people who were trying to shake off their Victorian roots and reach for something new, something different. Which is what we now know as the modernist era, where all absolute truths were questioned and life was about asking the where, why and who, of what they were. Septum also calls to Evans For Gods sake dont come! He calls this to Peter Walsh, mistaking him for Evans during a flashback he experiences, Lucre allies he Is having a flashback but despairs at It, because It Is yet another example of him not being the man she married. 4 Although Reseal explains Tanat seen NAS removed near waling-ruling Decease It Is now too big for her, how does Septum interpret this action? By removing her wedding ring Septum sees it as a sign that their marriage is over, Their marriage was over, he thought, with agony, with relief. He sees things very black and white, and therefore links his wifes taking off her wedding ring, to it being a sign she doesnt love him anymore and that the marriage is over. When ironically, he has removed her wedding ring because she loves him so much, if she didnt love him completely, she wouldnt have lost so much weight due to the stress of losing her husband mentally, and therefore the ring would still fit and she would be able to keep it on. However, due to Septum condition he is only able to see things in black and white, for instance he sees Evans thus Evans is able to be seen by everybody. Lucres takes of her wedding ring thus the marriage is over. He is unable to see the background of each situation and is therefore also unable to see that he really is very . Septum sees himself as the lord of men singled out to hear the truth, to learn the meaning. He believes he has been given the supreme secret and knows profound truths. Explain the role he thinks he has been given. Septum sees himself as able to see things more clearly than anybody else. He can see Evans. He believes that people are against him, especially doctors, who want him to lose his family, like he lost his friend. Ironically, he is the character who is able to see things the least clearly; he is deluded and cannot therefore learn the meaning f any situation because we have already seen him misinterpret the removal of his wifes wedding ring therefore showing that he doesnt hear the truth. . His body was macerated until only the nerve fibers were left. It was spread like a veil upon a rock. Comment on the use of figurative language here. How effective is this as an image of suffering? The language used here is extremely emotive. The imagery causes us to see the very nature of Septum condition, he can only feel hence nerve fibers he feels despair, sadness, and chock at what he has flashbacks to, and the choice of words are very art rock but th en contrast with soft imagery veil. The contrast shows suffering to an even more intense extent because it also creates confusion with the mixture of textures, and makes his condition seem even worse because it worsens in incoherent intervals. 7. Septum thoughts oscillate between comforting visions of beauty and Heaven as divinely merciful, infinitely benignant and hellish visions of flames and death. How do you react to this unhappy couple? Do you Just see him as mad? / DO you feel sorry for him? / Do you feel any sympathy for his wife? Ca ten warren-smelt s an unhappy couple Is Jumping to conclusions, In ten way that they used to be happy They went to Hampton Court on top of a bus They had happy times, but then as she progresses through her thoughts we as readers become more sympathetic towards Lucres Suddenly he said, Now we will kill ourselves She was enjoying her day, and then to hear her husband who she loves say that must be a feeling non comprehensible to anybody that hasnt experienced it, but we still feel so rry for her, because she has to witness it. TO some extent we feel more sorry for her than we do Septum, because although hes the one suffering erectly, he is deluded and doesnt see it as a mental problem, to him it is one hundred percent real, his wife on the other hand has to witness her husband digress in to madness every day. 8. When Peter Walsh walks past the Warren Smiths, he concludes that they are lovers squabbling under a tree. As readers, who have Just shared their internal worlds, we know very differently. So, what is Wolf highlighting about perspective here? Everybody perspective is different. To Septum he is back in the war reliving it in everyday situations. To Lucrative, she is losing her husband and doesnt know what else she can do to help him. Whereas Peter Walsh who knows nothing of the Warren Smiths concludes that they are squabbling, But I am so unhappy Septum we know just how devastated Lucrative is by this situation but to anybody else it could Just be a mere row between a young couples. Wolfs point about perspective here, shows how important the internal monologues she includes throughout her novel are because without them, we have no idea the true meaning behind what we see, Just as Peter Walsh misinterprets a couple in desperation with a couple having a petty argument.