Why do you think Mrs. Dalloway was chosen as protagonist? Why is she called Mrs. Dalloway rather than Clarissa Dalloway or Clarissa?
What is the effect of titling the novel Mrs. Dalloway rather than say, A Day in London or The Party?
What is the effect of limiting the scope of the novel to one day?
What are some non-traditional aspects of the stream of consciousness style? Are we entirely in the minds of the characters, or are there some exceptions? What enables us to move between the different characters?
What is the effect of these sudden shifts? (the inner consciousness of the characters seems to overlap, and they often recall related phenomena or worry about similar things, such as the nature of identity or their past)
How are punctuation and language used to convey the inner flow of consciousness? (punctuation needed for pacing, limits on formal punctuation emphasizes psychological interiority)
Would it have been unusual to center a novel on the interior life of a woman?
What are Clarissa's first memories? Are they mixed in tone? (3) In what order do we learn about her past and surroundings? (Peter Walsh, Westminster, time period after the first world war, worry over her lack of specific identity, sense of danger, 11)) Is it significant that we don't learn about her husband and daughter until somewhat later?
As Clarissa walks through the park in Westminster, what sense of identity or relationship to one's ambiance is conveyed? (sense of being a part of things, fluidity of identity, lack of specific identity, sense of impending danger, 11) What is her view of death? (dispersion, 12) Would this be consonant with her experience of identity?
With what gift is she credited? (of knowing people, 11) What is her relationship to others? (wants to please them, 12) In this way does she resemble other Virginia Woolf heroines? (Mrs. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse)
What does she believe is her relationship to Peter? (they "lived in each other," 12)
Would you describe sections of this novel as prose poetry? What are some examples, and with what topics are they associated? (sense of immensity, 5, 59, 86)
What are some features of Clarissa's social world? (bazaars, 13; she is modeled on Woolf's recently deceased friend Kitty Maxse, a hostess who had recently died after falling downstairs; she visits nursing home)
What is her ideal? (14, would have liked to be a different person, unlike her present self)
What perceptions does she have of her own body? (feels invisible, unseen, without a body or existence, 14)
Are there ways in which she exhibits a sense of class feeling? (dislikes schoolteacher Miss Kilman, 16)
What do you make of her increasing sense of hatred since her illness? (17) What have been some other changes? (increasingly likes to be alone)
How does she respond to flowers? (18, loves them, is a discriminating purchaser)
What is the origin of the sudden noise everyone near her hears? (a motor car--perhaps starting up?, 19)
How does she respond to the noise and stir of the passing dignitary, e. g., possibly the queen? (24, respect) What is the tone with which her response is narrated? (gentle irony, 26-27) Who else responds in a similar way? (Septimus)
What does Maisie Johnson see as she walks through Regent's Park for the first time? (sense of totality, 38, startled at Septimus, sense of horror, 39)
Are there some instances in which the reader finds it difficult to follow the syntax or sequence of a passage?
What are Clarissa's responses on returning to her own home? (pleased, 42-43) What irritates her and makes her feel old? (husband has been invited somewhere she hasn't, 44-45)
What do we first learn about Septimus? What is his problem, and what has caused this? (PTSD, madness) How does he respond to skywriting? (31) To other everyday phenomena? (birds sing in Greek, 36, believes there is no death and himself a prophet, 36-37)
Are there similarities between Clarissa's sense of a dissolved and invisible self and that of Septimus? (both feel a sense of lost identity but also the sense that there can be no death)
How are these responses perceived by Lucrezia? (worries, tries to distract him from his obsessions, 34) What do we learn about her past? (had married him innocently in Italy, and had desired to see England)
What do we learn about Clarissa's marriage to Richard Dalloway? (46) Do we see this from within? (through jealous perceptions of Peter Walsh)
To whom had she been deeply attached? (Sally Seton, 47) What do you think may have been the grounds of attachment? (Sally is unconventional and uninhibited,49-50, had loved ideas, had kissed her, 52--cmp. Vita Sackville-West) What epiphany accompanies this relationship? (47) Is it common to find a same-sex attachment between two women in the conventional 19th-20th century novel?
What book had Sally sent her, and why was this controversial? (49, something by William Morris, perhaps News from Nowhere) What books does Clarissa read under her influence? (Plato, Morris, Shelley)
What do we learn about her illness? (feels it has aged her, 54; she has turned almost white) What does she feel as she looks in the mirror? (54, 55, need to fix identity)
What is her relationship with her employees/servants and their view of her? (they like her, according to her, 58; they help her to be "gentle, generous-hearted") How is she contrasted with other employers? (gives permission to be out late if asked, 57) What does this indicate about expectations for servants at the time? (57) What does Lucy think of her mistress? (56, admires her)
What fantasies does the narrator ascribe to Lucy? (57, wishes to attend on royalty)
What are some of her topics of conversation with Peter? (their youth together, 62, her father) How is their conversation described? (66, a combat)
What does he tell her about his life in India? (he hopes to marry "a girl in India," 67, who is a married woman and he has come to England to help with the divorce) What had been his politics in youth? (a socialist, 75)
What does she see as life's essential task? (making something of the parts of a life, 64) Does this resemble the purposes of a writer?
What important question does Peter Walsh ask her, and is it important that she does not answer due to interruption? (she feels alone, he asks if she is happy) Who interrupts, and how does she behave? (Elizabeth says very little, 71)
What seems to be their relationship? (they understand one another yet also quarrel and judge one another within the limits of social politeness, 67)
How does he react to a procession of youths in uniform carrying guns? (one has to respect it, 77; believes he too has sacrificed for his ideals) Is the writer's tone here detached or ironic? (gently mocks pretenses to heroism, 77) What emotions overtake him? (delight, in the wake of understanding and philanthropy, 78)
Under what circumstances does Peter experience a later epiphany? (78, pleased to feel young and alive; excited by the sight of a young woman and follows her, 85) What does he feel about London and his society in general? (apex of civilization, 83) Is this related to beliefs about social class? (mentions butlers, girls in their security, 82) Why do you think these thoughts come to him as he is passing through a park? (82, sense of totality, is seeing his fellow English after an absence)
What are some of his thoughts of Clarissa? (To what does he object in her? (coldness, sense of impenetrability, 91) What emotion does he still feel towards her? (91, love)
What is Peter's view of Clarissa's friend Hugh? (80-81) What does he nonetheless expect from his former connections? (some patronage and money, 112) What do they think of him, and will they provide this?
Why do you think Woolf presents Clarissa's courtship mediated by the passage of 30 years? What is the point of remembrance? (one sees intensely through time)
What are some advantages of aging according to Peter? (119, memory; compare Woolf's statements in "A Sketch of the Past"; ability to be alone, 120)
What thoughts are prompted in him by listening to a singer in the park? (sings of past love and the pageant of the universe, 123) What are his thoughts toward his expected future wife Daisy? (121, feels ambivalence)
For what traits does Peter admire Clarissa? (she is a good judge of character, making a world of her own wherever she happened to be, 114--sense of presence, "there she was"--cmp. Mrs. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse; he also sees her as skeptical but kind, good for the sake of goodness, 118)
At times do Peter and Clarissa seem different aspects of the same character, or at least balancing allies? (comp. Waldo and Lyndall in The Story of an African Farm)
What are some features of Septimus's madness? (speaks of killing himself, 100, 139; has fantasies of grandeur, 102, and ecstasy, 104; loss of feeling toward immediate objects and persons, 131) What seems to be his condition? (manic depressive, schizophrenic)
Who does he imagine returns to him from the dead? (Evans, 130) What had been his education and career before the war? (educated in an ordinary way but had written poetry and prose; had had a promising business career before the war, 129) What is the tone of the author's description of this background? (a bit of snobbery, 127)
What had been his relationship with Evans? (a close tie, they had enjoyed one another's company)
How do he and Lucrezia differ on the issue of whether to have children? (she wishes them; he doesn't want to bring children into the world)
Whose return from the dead does he envision? (Evans')
What has happened to Sally Seton in the intervening years? (has married a respectable and successful industrialist) What is Clarissa's view of this, and hers of Clarissa's marriage?
How is the eminent psychologist Sir Richard Bradshaw portrayed? What qualities seem to evoke the narrator's scorn? What does she think of his family life?
What remedies does he prescribe? At the time, could more have been done? (unlikely in the days before medications, 150) To which of his prescriptions do you think the author objects, and what may have been the basis for prescribing them? (total isolation--perhaps because mental illness related to family traumas)
With whom does Richard have lunch without Clarissa? (Lady Bruton, Hugh, and Miss Brush, 164) What is the topic of conversation? (Lady Bruton wants to further an emigration scheme to send British orphans to Canada, 165) Does this make sense at such a late date, and would there have been other alternatives? (Bernardo Home program sent children to Canada 1869-1936.) What does the narrator/Clarissa seem to think of such plans? (neutral, might be futile)
What prompts Richard to buy flowers for Clarissa? (174, Hugh had looked at jewelry for his wife) What do we learn about his preoccupations? (concerned with social reforms, such as curbing police malpractice, 175) Does the narrator seem to present these as important? (no)
How does he respond to the memorial to Queen Victoria? (177, he likes continuity and tradition)
What is he unable to say to his wife? (181, that he loves her)
What does Richard think of Clarissa's propensity for giving parties? (too exciting for her health, 183)
What is Peter's view of her parties? (these reflect her desire to be surrounded by great people, 183; he disapproves and finds her manner as a hostess insincere) What does she herself believe is her motive? (wishes to bring people together, 185; a form of life, "What she liked was simply life," 183)
Whom does she not wish to invite, and why? Does Richard agree? (no, he saw no reason to be unkind to her cousin, 182)
In what contexts does Clarissa seem to think of death? (185, many, some not directly related)
Are religions and love able to bind people together, according to Clarissa? (193)
What do we learn about Miss Kilman's past? What is her view of Clarissa? (she is condescending, a member of the cultivated rich, 186-87) What had caused her to lose her job? (had refused to say that all Germans were despicable, 187) What emotions does she feel toward Clarissa? (jealousy, wishes to unmask her, 189)
What emotions does she feel toward Elizabeth as they have tea? (love, frantic unhappiness, 200)
Where does Miss Kilman go to pray? (Westminster Abbey, 202-203)
What are some of Elizabeth's thoughts as she travels through London? (would like a career but is too lazy, admires the energy of the London streets)
What has happened to Septimus in the meantime? (asks his wife to write down his incoherent thoughts, 214-15)
What does he fear? (doesn't want to be separated from his wife, 223, fears isolation)
What precipitates his death? (visit from Dr. Homes, 226--fears he is being entrapped) How do people attempt to help Rezia? (given a drug to induce sleep/unconsciousness)
Is there symbolism to the fact that he leaps from a window, and falls on the railings beneath?
What ironic response does Peter Walsh have as he hears the ambulance? (sees it as a sign of community, 229) What emotions does he feel in response to his day? (feels like weeping, also feels a sense of things coming together, 230)
What does Peter remember of Clarissa's past statements about her identity? (was everywhere, 231, parts of herself will haunt certain places after her death, 233) What is his continuing relationship with her? (mental, she enters his thoughts, 233) How does he react when receiving an actual letter from her? (unhappy, 234) Why? (feels she won't let him alone, influences him)
What had been her politics in youth? (234, radical) Can we see any evidence of this?
What evidence does the narrator give of Peter's own attractiveness? (237, he's a contented man who is gentlemanly though not "manly") How had Daisy responded to him? (238, eagerly)
What would be the disadvantages for Daisy in marrying him? (she would lose her children, 239--clearly she shouldn't do it!)
What does he enjoy about daylight savings time? (people are out enjoying themselves to a later hour, 246)
What is the servants' view of the party, their employer, and their roles? (positive--one servant admires her mistress and the second fantasizes about serving royalty, 250-51; the cook pays no attention to any of this)
What does the employment of extra servants for the occasion indicate about the Dalloways' financial and social position? 254) How many in total seem to be used for the party? (4, a butler/manservant, the house servant, a server and a cook)
What are Clarissa's emotions as the party begins? (quite nervous, 255, feels sense of unreality, 259)
What do we learn about her cousin Ellie Henderson, and the latter's income? (256, she lives on 300 pounds a year) In context, is this seen as a high income? (it's actually a middle-class income for one person, but the implication here is that she lives in a limited way)
Who joins the party unexpectedly? (Sarah Seton, 260) What does she do during the event? (talks with Peter while they wait for Clarissa)
What important personage attends the party? How do the others respond to him, and to whom does he talk? (262, the Prime Minister talks with Richard Dalloway, others are very conscious of his presence)
What is Peter's opinion of Hugh? (dislikes him as a hanger on in high places, 263)
What emotions does Clarissa experience as the party progresses? (265, feels a hollowness, also triumph; is braced by the thoughts of her enemies [surely a sign of tension?], 266; her emotions fluctuate)
How are the artist and musician who attend described? (artist's paintings are a parody of Victorian landscape taste, 266, discusses music briefly with musician, 268)
What does Lady Bruton think of Clarissa? (likes her, thinks she has been unable to help Richard in his work, so that he has failed to attain a cabinet post, 273)
How does she respond to Sally and Peter? (sense of a shared past, 277) To the Bradshaws? (doesn't like William Bradshaw, 278) What significant topic does Sir Bradshaw introduce? (shell shock, 279)
How does Clarissa respond to the news of Septimus's death? (at first feels it is an intrusion, then meditates on the meaning of death, it is a preservation, a rebellion against the blockage that separates people from one another, 281, feels that death is a form of embrace, 281, intuits that he too must have hated Sir William, 281)
What causes her to feel a sense of fear? (no apparent cause exception the news about Septimus, with whom she identifies in some way) Alternately what other emotions overcome her? (is excited by the thought of death, 282) Why does she feel gladness that Septimus has died? (283-84, has preserved his rebellion, also his fate has contrasted with hers, "He made her feel the beauty".)
On what grounds does Sally disapprove of Clarissa's marriage? (Richard a sportsman, 288) Is this what we would expect from the description of him and his charitable works? On what grounds does she believe Clarissa disapproves of her? (class, 290) Does this seem to fit with Clarissa's actual thoughts as we know them?
What is Sally's judgment of Clarissa's character? (is hard on people but kind, 291--what distinction is she making? possibly that Clarissa judges people but also tries to help when she can) From what we know of Clarissa, does this seem a fair judgment?
What important assessment does Sally make of human relationships? (separation between persons, we cannot know one another, 293) Does this view reflect those of a famous Victorian critic whom Woolf had read? (Walter Pater, conclusion to The Renaissance)
What views do Sally and Peter express on the topic of aging? (294)
Why does no one speak to Ellie Henderson? (296) Does it seem rude that no one tries?
What may be signs that Elizabeth is closer to her father than her mother? (moves toward him, he admires her) If so, why do you think this may be the case?
How does the novel end? (Clarissa comes toward Peter and Sally, Peter thinks, "There she was." 296) Does this seem a fit and adequate conclusion for the issues explored by the novel? (novel partly consists of a record of Peter's view of Clarissa?)
What are some ways in which the novel represents the interconnectedness of life and consciousness? (unities of time and place, the free movement from one consciousness to another, the parallels between the fears and exulting sensations of each character, the several occasions on which we see the same person or event from several perspectives--for example, others judge Hugh and Peter, who judge in return)
What is Peter's function in the narrative? (serves as an interpreter and admirer of Mrs. Dalloway, fills in much of her past and present)
What seems Woolf's/the novel's tone and attitude toward its protagonist? To what extent is the portrayal of her intended to be favorable? Is she undercut at some points?
What would you say is this novel's basic theme? (meditates on identity within flux, as our everyday consciousness contains both contradictions and extremes)
Is the novel's portrayal of characters always consistent or convincing? Are there difficulties in representing characters who to some degree share a consciousness yet must also be rendered as distinct?
What may be some autobiographical motifs or incidents in this novel? (Woolf sees herself in Septimus in his encounters with the doctor and his suicidal thoughts; in Clarissa's consciousness and fears, and in Peter Walsh's more abstract thoughts; Richard has some of the traits of Leonard, wants her to rest, provides support, 182)