Mrs Dalloway (1925)

1. Septimus Smith and Clarissa Dalloway are often considered to be 'doubles'. How does the narrative convey the parallels between them?

• Both are married to people they don’t particularly care about.
• They are connected through events: e.g. the aeroplane (multiple focalisation). They see the same parts of London and reflect on the past.
• They don’t fit into society anymore: Septimus is traumatised and is haunted by his past, while Clarissa is nostalgic/stuck in the past.
• Both see death as something not to be feared, as consolation. In the end, Septimus commits suicide while Clarissa chooses life.
• References to/descriptions of nature. Nature is a reminder of life and the present for Clarissa, while it brings thoughts of terror and trauma for Septimus.
• Septimus is Clarissa’s male counterpart. → Androgyny in Woolf’s works: Childs argues that Clarissa and Septimus inherit traits that are prescribed to the other gender, but Clarissa chose to “follow the social custom”. → “Sally brings out what Woolf calls Clarissa’s ‘masculine’ side, Richard Dalloway brings out her ‘feminine’ side, and Peter represents a different possibility because he is androgynous.” (Childs 174) ⇒ “Both Clarissa and Septimus have submerged their sexuality in the social convention of marriage and neither has sex with their spouse. As a consequence, through an inability to express androgyny both have effectively chosen celibacy.” (Childs 175)
• Shakespeare quote p. 9 (pdf 16) Fear no more the heat o’ the sun Nor the furious winter’s rages.

→ Woolf originally created for Clarissa to die, then created Septimus as a double

“Septimus and Clarissa are linked by their marginal position in patriarchal society: she as a woman, he as a shell-shocked soldier. Woolf shows their similarity in her portrayal of their alienated minds. The thoughts of each are often apparently disjointed, seemingly random but actually associative. The difference between the two characters is that Clarissa retains the ability to draw her fragments together while Septimus cannot.” (Childs 179)

2. Modernist literature is often described as ‘urban’. How is London represented in Mrs Dalloway? And are there any references to nature in the novel?

• Nature (in the city) is seen as a hybrid space: wild, then domesticated. → Clarissa in the flower shop ⇒ civilised
• Modernity: “she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they love life. In people’s eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and the uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June.” (pdf 12) → Inwards description of London: historically accurate, but the focus is more on experience and social constructs of London. → Clarissa embraces modern transformation, her generation was not very impacted by the war.
• Septimus: suppression by the city
  • (scene of him in the park)