Clarissa Dalloway in Love????
I
think love is a very interesting theme in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
Throughout the novel Clarissa experiences many different and unconventional forms
of love. Her first two relationships represent the passion and curiosity of
youth while her final relationship represents a traditional upper-class woman’s
ending. Each of Clarissa’s loves represents a different stage of her life.
Clarissa’s
first love, Peter Walsh, was insecure about their class difference which led to
lots of misunderstandings and fighting. Compared to her later relationships and
love interests I think Clarissa’s relationship with Peter had hints of youthful
immaturity and passion. Both parties’ inability to work out their issues, while
trying to maintain a relationship that obviously wasn’t working out, represents
the younger and more energetic stage of Clarissa’s life. Clarissa’s fleeting
love with Sally, while also passionate like Peter’s, had a warm reminiscent
tone to it. Because of social conventions and scrutiny, they were never able to
pursue a relationship with each other. In Clarissa’s life Sally will always be
a giant “what if?” that she never really forgets about.
Clarissa’s
relationship with Richard is the least explored and by far the most complex. We
are never able to see their relationship development through Clarissa’s point
of view, and there is more grey area around her feelings about him. Clarissa is
also significantly older and more tired than she was in her previous two
relationships. Her previous two unsuccessful endings also helped prompt her to settle
for a more boring and demonstrative marriage. Thinking about Clarissa’s
relationships and how her versions of love have changed was interesting and
helped me better understand her character development. Thanks for reading!
I think that Clarissa's relationship with Richard is really interesting too since we don't often see things from Richard's perspective. From the beginning of the novel, he kind of seems like a cold-hearted guy; however, when we finally get to hear some of his thoughts while he is at lunch with Lady Bruton, he seems really thoughtful while he thinks of buying Clarissa flowers. It's interesting to read since we know that Clarissa does not truly love Richard.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that each of Clarissa's relationships represents a different stage in her life is really interesting. I agree that Peter represents a more young and immature stage in her life because it felt like they were always trying to prove themselves to each other. Richard, being the more boring man compared to Peter, represents settling down, which can be thought of as boring.
ReplyDeleteEven though Richard might be considered the more "boring" option, I still feel as though he was the best option. He really just seems like a shy person that doesn't even know how to tell Clarissa that he loves her (remember the flower scene). On the other hand, Peter remains immature, and Sally Seton also seems to have settled down, perhaps making her more "boring" too.
ReplyDeleteExamining her different love interests throughout her life and associating them with certain feelings and time periods is an interesting idea. Knowing that Clarissa often thinks about her old love interests and what would have happened if she had stayed with them makes me think that this is possibly her way of showing that the feelings of warmth and youthfullness (which she had with Peter and Sally) are things that she wished she had in her current relationship with Richard.
ReplyDeleteIts true! I think that for someone like Clarissa who was unable to really get any extensive education, it might've been a "safer" bet to marry Richard in the first place as he seemed to have feelings for her and had lots of potential to earn the money that Clarissa would not be able to (due to her lack of education as well as social/gender norms at the time). I think it would've been interesting to see what the other relationships would've been like (Slarissa??? Clareter?????? wtf) but I don't think that those would be very realistic for the time and likely wouldnt've helped Woolf solidify her point.
ReplyDeleteThis post is great. Reading how you connecting these stages of Clarissas love life, has also helped me to further understand Clarissa as a character. As well, it makes it easier to understand why Clarissa settled down with Richard, which was a part of the story it took me a while to grasps and understand, helping me more at understanding Clarissa and the entire book.
ReplyDeleteI agree that love is a really important theme in Mrs. Dalloway. I like how you use it as a way to signify the different moments in Clarissa's life and how it led her to the situation she lives in during the present parts of the story. I think another relevant point of discussion could also be how the loves were different from each other, like for example it seems like her love with Sally Seton is much more passionate than the other two, and I actually saw her relationship with Peter as one-sided love where Clarissa saw him as more of a friend.
ReplyDelete