Monday, March 24, 2008

Blogs on Mrs. Dalloway!


I agree with you Emily! I was expecting it to be fun and easy too, but that’s why they say “don’t judge a book by its cover”. In order for me to pick up this book to read was much more painful than I thought. Maybe I just need to get use to the style. Anyways, when I started to read this novel, I thought it was hard because of the language and style of writing. It was helpful for me to look up the history of post-war society because that the whole book itself takes place at that era. But I want to start by answering Faedra’s first question of why Woolf writes so that we are able to understand the life of each character by having the key to their thoughts. Mr. G mentioned in class that it was a style referred to as a stream of consciousness. Woolf writes the book based on a single day in post–World War I London. She goes back and forth between the past and the present within a single day through Mrs. Dalloway. I think she is trying to emphasize basically on our conscious (which reminds me of watching Polis is this, where Mr. G said pay attention to your attention). I was researching some things about her and it mention that she believed that the writing style should reflect the variety and complexity of everyday life. So lets just say every moment counts. Because the plot basically traces the footsteps and thoughts of Clarissa Dalloway, as she prepares for a party she is holding that evening. Woolf’s style of writing seems very complex to me because she’s writing according to how our conscious works. I mean I can’t even keep track of my conscious. But it is a unique style that’s probably why it’s hard for me to read.



December 3, 2007 6:17 PM









In the beginning of the story Mrs. Dalloway and Miss Pym hears the violent explosion from the motor car. What is the purpose of having the car there when in the end no one knows exactly who it is? Well my theory is that there is a connection to her fear of death because previously when she was walking to the flower shop, she reads the quote “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun nor the furious winter’s rages”(9), she contemplates about death and Woolf decides to add another element, which is the cars sound to emphasize how weak and scared she can be on a such a small matter when comparing it to death it is something that she’s deathly scarred of. Another theory of mine is Woolf uses the car to transfer to Septimus POV. She shows not only Mrs Dalloways perspective of the car but Septimus too. There’s a parallel world between Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus because they some what reacts differently to the event. And though they’re there at the same place and time they do not see each other. Septimus was also scarred by the sound of the car, Septimus thought that “this gradual drawing together of everything to one centre before his eyes, as if some horror had come almost to the surface and was about to burst into flames”(15) While everyone is wondering about who’s in the car, Septimus thinks of something insane. Also I thought every one who witness the car and thought it was one of the royals had a sense of patriotism in them. For instance, after the “car had gone, it had left a slight ripple which flowed through glove shops and hat shops…for thirty seconds all heads were inclined the same way”(17). Everyone had a million things running through their mind of which royal it was. And then she talks about a small crowd gathering at the gates if Buckingham Palace.

And Emily I do agree with you about how in the Portrait and Mrs. Dalloway there is this stream of consciousness and self-awareness. I remember reading somewhere that Woolf praise the James Joyces style of writing. Maybe she was influenced by him.

December 8, 2007 8:50 PM


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