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Mrs. Dalloway (Narrative techniques (Narrator (The omniscient narrator…
Mrs. Dalloway
Narrative techniques
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Human personality
Described using memories and going back and forth from past to present, feelings and impressions.
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Time
The story lasts a day, in which Clarissa thinks about her life choices, analyzing her past and her present. Flashbacks of the past take up the majority of the novel.
The characters
Peter Walsh
A close friend of Clarissa's and Sally's, who once loved Clarissa. He asked her to marry him but she refused and he never really got over it. He has transferred to India after the refusal and comes back to London to organize his wedding. He lives in doubts and thoughts about his past.
Sally Seaton
A close friend of Clarissa's and Peter's. She was a handsome girl who smoked, said, and did everything she wanted. She and Clarissa were attracted to each other when they were young. Now she's married and lives in Manchester with her husband and her five children.
Septimus Warren Smith
A World War 1 veteran, suffering from shell shock. His vision of life and society is the same Clarissa has and he struggles to find a way of communicating with others, to the point of killing himself trying to escape from society.
Richard Dalloway
Clarissa's husband. A member of the Parliament in the conservative government. He plans to write a book about the Brutons, an important military family. He likes the country, he's a loving father and husband and appreciates the English tradition.
Clarissa Dalloway
A member of high society. She cares about what other people think of her. She struggles to balance her interior life with the external world. She wonders about the mystery of life and true happiness.
The themes
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The threat of oppression
Both Miss Kilman and sir William Bradshaw oppress other people. In the end, Septimus will kill himself to avoid this situation, while Clarissa will realize that everyone has a role in others' oppression.
Communication VS privacy
Mrs. Dalloway wants to communicate with others, but she also needs her privacy. She gives parties to make people meet and talk, but communication is not just chatting.
The fear of death
Septimus
He faces death with courage and desperation since he lives a difficult life. He chooses to kill himself in order to avoid a life characterized by the depression and she'll shock that haunts him.
Peter
Peter is insecure about his life (especially his love life) and fears death. He prefers to avoid the thought of death and doesn't face it.
Clarissa
For the whole day, she repeats a line from Shakespeare's Cymbeline that is a funeral song that celebrates death after a difficult life. She faces her mortality and accepts death.
The plot
Clarissa Dalloway is preparing for the party she will host that evening. She gets a visit from an old friend, Peter Walsh, who once asked her to marry him, but she had refused.
The point of view shifts to Septimus, a veteran of World War First who was injured and now suffers from shell shock. He goes to an appointment with a famous psychiatrist, Sir William Bradshaw, who doesn't listen to Septimus and decides to send him to a mental hospital.
Richard Dalloway, Clarissa's husband, eats lunch with Hugh Whitbread and Lady Bruton, members of high society. After lunch, he returns home to his wife with a bunch of roses for Clarissa.
Clarissa sees her daughter Elizabeth and her history teacher, Mrs. Kilman, who are going shopping.
Septimus is enjoying a moment of peace before one of his doctors, Dr. Holmes, comes to take him to the hospital. In order to avoid his fate, Septimus kills himself.
At the party, Clarissa meets both old friends and people that she doesn't like. When Sir Bradshaw arrives with his wife, he explains that one of his clients had killed himself.
Clarissa goes into a small room to think about life and Septimus' suicide, understanding it and realizing the oppression that life had on him and her role in the problem of society.