Light readers may
get intimidated by its dense prose, long sentences, and paragraphs that
sprawled across a full page. This modernist novel, written in ‘stream of
consciousness’ style and told through shifting perspectives, totally orient with
serious readers.
The entire
story is summarized into one single day of June 1923 in post-war London where
Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is busy with preparations for a party. During the course
of the day, Clarissa chooses flowers, repairs her party dress, meets her old
paramour, mingles with society’s glitterati, talks to a female friend with whom
she was in love once, and muses on life’s existential concerns. In parallel, on
the same day, there is yet another story unfolding - that of Septimus Warren
Smith, a shell-shocked war veteran, whose rambling mind is unraveling rapidly.
The death of his friend Evans during the war has led to his PSTD. Struggling
with her husband’s illness and her own ennui, his wife Lucrezia, takes Septimus
to a specialist with the hope of a cure. As the day progresses, the two strands
of the story intersect leading to a powerful climax that impacts the fate of
the two protagonists.
The plot may
appear wafer thin but the manner in which the story has been told is absolutely
stunning. This book Virginia Woolf employs a psychological realism that is
quite unlike the others. The plot unfolds from multiple perspectives – many
points of views and many voices. In some ways, narrative technique is cinematic
that includes flashbacks, rapid cuts, and panning between various characters as
they respond to the same external event. For example, there is one scene where
an aircraft is skywriting something and we see the event unfolding from the
perspective of different characters, through their internal dialogue. Such
amazing passages thrive in the book.
Temporality
and death loom large in the book. First, there is Clarissa who, having lost her
youthful beauty, and lacking an occupation or an independent social role, fears
that the drama of her life has ended. Then, there is Septimus Warren Smith who
is very conscious of life and death and perhaps has better understanding about
it than even his doctors. Clarissa and Septimus are intertwined because of
their similar views on life and death. Finally, there is Peter Walsh,
Clarissa’s old flame, who, frantic at the idea of death, stalks an unknown
woman through the streets to forget about it.
Virginia
Woolf’s handling of Septimus’ mental illness is tear-jerking. Here is a
tortured soul who, having witnessed the death of his friend at the war front,
blames himself because he did not feel anything at that fateful moment. But
now, many years later, as demons begin to gather and hallucinations grow, he
finds the face of his friend speaking to him from the branches of the trees. He
is also let down by the medical profession as they fail to understand his
plight and are more interested in committing him to a nursing home. According
to these experts, it is improper for human beings to openly display the
feebleness of their mind in society.
The book is
far from dark and brooding as it might appear from the plot. Actually, the
party that ends the novel is a life-affirming parade for Clarissa. Her meeting
with Sally Seton, a mother of five who had been an object of her crush many
years ago, and her exchanges with Peter Walsh, a restless man she nearly
married, affirm the choices that she made in the past. While proving us a
glimpse of the hidden memories, troubled feelings, and fear of death that
pervades the pompous and frivolous London society at her party, Clarissa also
senses their bravery behind the façade that they put up. Despite the horrific
news that she receives during the course of the evening, Clarissa and the novel
come across as a tribute to optimism, endurance, and survival. To many minds, Mrs.
Dalloway is the work of a genius.
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