Virginia
Wolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” presents a modern narrative technique in which the
reader is drawn into the character’s consciousness. Wolf’s unusual style of
stream of consciousness technique give life to the characters’ insights
granting Wolf the freedom to manipulate time and place. Simply put, Mrs.
Dalloway revolves around a day in London, yet it accommodates many events and
thoughts regardless of the time or the place of the novel. While Wolf’s stream
of consciousness technique distorts the traditional notion of time it imitates
the post-war London’s modern structure of time that craves for efficiency and
swiftness. Despite the variety of characters inhabiting London, we see an
interconnection between them, alluding to the city’s inorganic but
multifunctioning structure which is linked to the city’s need for efficiency
and swiftness. In this essay I will analyze the ways in which the characters
inhabit the post-war modern London city, and I shall argue that the need of
efficiency and order is reflected in the characters’ consciousness and in the
city’s reaction to peculiarities and problems.
While
the use of stream consciousness highlights the character’s insights and grants
the reader the ability to understand the characters in a deeper level, it also
underlines how the characters are oblivious to each other indicating the
individualist and consequently pragmatist aspect of the modern city. To put it
another way, in Wolf’s stream of consciousness technique the reader acquires a
clear access to the character’s thought process, however as the plot unfolds,
we see that characters only share a small portion of their thoughts to each
other unveiling the superficial and mechanized structure of the characters
relationship. Calissa foreshadows people’s disinterested gaze on each other in
the beginning of the novel with an observation she makes “Peter—however
beautiful the day might be, and the trees and the grass, and the little girl in
pink—Peter never saw a thing of all that. He would put on his spectacles, if
she told him to; he would look.” (p.5) Peter’s pragmatist interest “It was the
state of the world that interested him” (p.5) fits to the city’s efficient and
swift structure. However, the “little girl in pink” or “the trees and the
grass” do not carry a value that can contribute to him. Peter’s view of the
world is the most appropriate view for the modern city that values rationality,
efficiency and individuality. Clarissa’s view of the world on the other hand,
offers a more comprehensive portrait of what people think and react. She dwells
on what other people do and what they think which makes her a precious
narration. However, the fact that she is crashed by her overwhelming thoughts
and concerns indicates how the modern city requires its individuals to build a
sort of barricade against other people. Calissa
tries to justify her decision to marry Richard by highlighting this need of
building a personal space “For in marriage a little licence, a little
independence there must be between people living together day in day out in the
same house;” (p.6) suggesting that individuality is required and
important for an ordinary modern city individual. This requirement of
individuality is then linked with efficiency and swiftness in the sense that
the characters do not really attempt to deeply understand each other, they show
a superficial and mutual affection and understanding to each other which is
only sufficient to maintain a superficial yet beneficial relationship.
Calissa’s marriage with Richard portrays an example of such a pragmatist view
of the world. Calissa is content with Richard yet the passion she holds for
Peter raises the problem and implies that the decision to marry Richard
depended on Calissa’s rationality rather than her emotions which weaves one of
the dilemmas that crashes her. Calissa’s inner conflicting nature implies her
struggle to fit in to the modern society and hence shows the modern city’s
nature to reward rationality and punish sentimentally only if you acquired the
modern mind-set.
The
modern city poses a sort of conformity punishing those who are different which
complements the modern city’s structure that craves for order and efficiency.
One of the most prominent examples that can be drawn from the text is
Septimus’s incurable state of madness which is not understood by any of the
characters. His unfathomable madness leads to his death which sheds a light on
how the modern city reacts to peculiarities or differences. Even though it is
an unanswerable question whether understanding Septimus would change the
outcome or simply delay it, the death of Septimus reveals that the modern city
individual’s mind-set faces problems by prioritizing swiftness and efficiency.
After Septimus throws himself out of window crashing onto the railways, Dr
Holmes and Mrs. Filmer try to obstruct Septimus’ wife from mourning. “She must
be brave and drink something, he said (What was it? Something sweet), for her
husband was horribly mangled, would not recover consciousness, she must not see
him, must be spared as much as possible, would have the inquest to go through,
poor young woman. Who could have foretold it?” (p.107) Dr Holmes offers a
solution that can only be produced by a rationalist mind-set that values
reasoning rather than sentimentality. In other words, Dr. Holmes produces the
most efficient solution which is using sedative drug on Septimus’ wife and
wiping out any trace of Septimus’ death. Dr. Holmes precisely utters the word
“brave” as an indication that the urge to mourn at that very moment should be
suppressed and the most reasonable decision should be taken. Even though it is
the fundamental nature of death that mourning occurs by the loved ones. Dr.
Holmes does not find it essential nor normal and finds it as a burden or an
agony “must be spared as much as possible”. Dr. Holmes’ reasoning rejects sentimentality
and values efficiency which reflects the modern city’s structure suggesting
that the city dictates a pragmatist and efficiency-based mind-set that
gradually devalues emotions.
In
conclusion, Wolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” depicts the modern London’s urbanized
structure that values efficiency. The character’s different approach to the
same scenes sets a distinctive portrait of how modern city’s mind-set project a
pragmatist view. More importantly, the ways in which this pragmatist view is
depicted in the characters’ consciousness and the city’s efficiency-based solutions.
Woolf, V., Pasquier, M.,
& Brugière, B. (2020). Mrs Dalloway. Paris: Gallimard.
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