Mrs Dalloway Q&A

On the surface, there are few similarities between these characters as they differ not only in their position in life but also in their natures and even genders. Yet, the author continually indicates that they similarly view the world. This is achieved by both of the characters often quoting or thinking about the same lines from a Shakespearean play. They are both struggling to understand the purpose and meaning of life. The similarities in their viewpoints are constantly seen through the shifts in perspective during the course of the book. In the end, Clarissa hears about Septimus’s suicide, and though she has never met him or known of him before, she understands why he had chosen to commit the act.

Mrs. Dalloway is a form-breaking book, that makes use of an experimental literary form throughout the narrative. Firstly, there is no single perspective of the plot since the book features several minor characters in addition to the two central characters that we follow. Woolf chooses to exclude the use of quotation marks so that readers have a harder time understanding the difference between the inner and outer aspects of a character. Lastly, the book takes place over a single day, just like Ulysses by James Joyce.

Sally Seton notices in their youth that Peter seems to turn to the knife when he is feeling anxious or agitated. Clarissa notices him playing with the knife when he comes to visit her, and his unstable emotional state is evidenced by the fact that he starts crying a few moments later. Lastly, he takes out the knife just as he is about to go into Clarissa’s party. To Clarissa, the knife is an indication that Peter is still his old flawed self.

Clarissa feels confined by her narrow bedroom, and by the choices that she has made in life. She is married to Richard, but she spends nearly that whole Wednesday morning thinking about the choices she could have made. She could not have been with Sally, because society would never have accepted them, and she could not marry Peter because he could not promise her any safety in life. She feels trapped by the choices that she has made. On the other hand, physical confinement is more of an immediate threat for Septimus who chooses to jump out of the window rather than be confined in a rest house.

The two doctors that treat Septimus are both seen as antagonists and presented to be directly responsible for Septimus’s suicide. Septimus seems to see them both as the worst permutations of human nature that have been sent forth to torture him. Doctor Holmes dismisses all of Spetimus’s issues and claims that there is nothing wrong with him, while Sir William sees another vulnerable mind that he can dominate.