Mrs. Dalloway and Beyond: An Exploration of Woolf’s Novels
Virginia Woolf is one of the most important authors of the 20th century, continually pushing the boundaries of narrative form and exploring the inner lives of her characters. Mrs. Dalloway, published in 1925, is one of her best-known works and central to an understanding of her oeuvre. This article will explore the many elements of Mrs. Dalloway, offer a critical analysis, and provide insight into Woolf’s other novels.
A Brief Overview of Mrs. Dalloway
Mrs. Dalloway is a novel often considered Woolf’s breakthrough work. Based in London and taking place over one day in June, the novel follows two main characters: Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith. Clarissa is a middle-aged woman whose interior journey is highlighted by a party she throws that evening. Septimus is a young man whose experience in WWI has led to mental instability, and the novel follows his struggle with depression and anxiety. Interspersed are other characters, all of whom weave in and out of the narrative as the day progresses. In the end, Septimus takes his own life, leaving Clarissa to finally reflect on her own life.
Themes in Mrs. Dalloway
Themes of Clarissa’s internal journey, time, perception of mental illness, and the impact of war on individuals are all on prominent display in Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa’s complex emotions are explored throughout the novel, as she grapples with her own mortality and meaning in her life. Woolf’s use of stream-of-consciousness writing style presents Clarissa’s inner life in a raw, realistic way.
Time moves forward as the novel progresses, and its presence is felt throughout as characters look forward to their futures and reflect on their pasts. Mental illness is also at the forefront of the novel, with WWI veterans experiencing a widespread lack of understanding of the effects of war on an individual’s mind. Clarissa’s perception of mental illness often follows societal standards of the time in that she misinterprets Septimus’s behavior, yet she is also able to understand his inner struggles and isolates in her own life.
Analysis: Mrs. Dalloway and the World of Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway is often spoken of as the crowning jewel of Woolf’s work. It combines the internal life of Clarissa Dalloway and the outward action of Septimus Warren Smith, as well as other characters, to portray the slow passage of time and London life in the 1920s.
Woolf’s themes—time, mental illness, and mortality—are repeated throughout her other works, such as To the Lighthouse, where a deceased man speaks through flashbacks, and Orlando, which tracks a character living over 500 years. Woolf creates a timelessness by depicting characters that transcend the limits of convention and explore a variety of roles and emotions rarely seen in contemporary fiction.
Later Novels by Virginia Woolf
Below are some of Woolf’s later novels and a brief analysis of each one:
To the Lighthouse: This novel begins with a failed attempt for a family to sail to a lighthouse off the coast of Scotland, and follows the characters over a decade. Woolf alternates between sections highlighting the internal lives of the characters and periods of time from the childhood of one of the characters.
Orlando: Originally published as a satire on the traditional biographies of the time, Orlando is a cross-dressing whimsical adventure across hundreds of years. The novel uses gender and time as vehicles to explore creativity, relationships, and mortality.
The Waves: This experimental novel, written in six sections, follows the lives of six characters and speaks to the essence of being and life’s inevitability.
The Years: A novel about a family over generations, and one of the first novels to recognize women’s lives outside of marriage. Woolf uses the changing lives of the characters to give a snapshot of societal changes over the years.
Mrs. Dalloway is often considered Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece and the culmination of her life’s work. After its publication in 1925, Woolf turned her attention to the exploration of self and others in novels such as To the Lighthouse, Orlando, The Waves, and The Years. With her skill of telescoping into the minds of her characters, Woolf continually challenged the limits of storytelling to convey the complexity of individual lives and humanity over the years.
