Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

A few weeks ago, I worked out how I could commute to work by subway and bus rather than driving. The drive to church on the 101 from downtown through the Cahuenga Pass is only about 20 minutes when there’s no traffic, as on a Sunday morning. But on a weekday mid-morning it’s more like 30 or 35 minutes and it can stretch to nearly an hour when trying to drive home on a weekday evening. On the other hand, the walk to the train, riding the train, the bus, and the walk from the bus stop to the church, including the wait times for the transfers, takes a pretty consistent 55 minutes. So the transit commute is a little longer, but not terribly longer, and I don’t have to pay for gas, and most importantly, I have nearly a half hour of time on the train that I can spend reading instead of driving in traffic. I can’t really read on the bus portion of the trip because it’s a shorter ride and I have to pay more attention to the stops. The walk from the bus stop to church is through a lovely residential neighborhood with people walking their dogs and so on, so that’s quite nice. Since I started with a demanding full time job again in August, I’ve been regretting that I don’t have as much time to read. Now I have a little.

Over the Thanksgiving week, Jim and I were in New York. We went to the Met one night for the premiere of Kevin Puts’ new opera The Hours, based on Michael Cunningham’s novel, which I read, and enjoyed when it came out in 1998. I also saw the movie. Although I had read enough of Virginia Woolf at the time to know what Cunningham was doing, structurally, I hadn’t actually read his most important reference, Mrs. Dalloway. Seeing the opera reminded me of that lack. And so, looking for something to read on the train, I picked up Woolf’s novel.

The novel takes place entirely over one day, a Wednesday, in mid-June, 1923. (That would be either June 13, or June 20, I looked it up. Most likely June 20, midsummer’s day). The book begins in the morning as Clarissa Dalloway, who lives in the Westminster neighborhood of London, is planning for a party she will host at her home that evening. Clarissa is a wealthy woman, fifty-one, married to Richard Dalloway. He’s a member of the House of Commons, competent and kind, but perceived as somewhat a failure because he never became a cabinet member. They have a teen-aged daughter, Elizabeth.

At age 18, Clarrisa spent a summer at a country home named Bourton, which she reflects on throughout the novel. In that memory, she was courted by a friend named Peter Walsh, and shared an intense friendship with a woman named Sally Seton. Peter went to India after Clarissa chose Richard instead of him. He’s now back in London seeking a divorce from a woman he married in India. Sally has married and become Lady Rosseter, a mother with five sons.

From the opening scene of Clarissa walking through London to buy flowers for her party, the novel unfolds through a series of casual meetings or overlaps between a dozen or so characters, the narrative thread being handed off and handed around, the hours advancing through the day, ending finally, that evening, with the party at the Dalloway’s home.

The novel has several similarities with Joyce’s Ulysses. Both novels take place on a single June day (June 16 into 17, 1904 in the case of Ulysses). Both novels are geographically limited to a single location: Dublin for Joyce, the area of London around Westminster for Woolf. The locations are very specific in both novels, street names and parks, and so on. (For that matter this narrow geographic and chronological scope is much like Dostoevsky and St. Petersburg in Crime and Punishment as well). But in Ulysses, Joyce tracks only two characters, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus and stays close to one or the other until they meet. In Woolf’s novel, Clarissa Dalloway is the hub of a collection of characters but she is often absent from the scene entirely. Woolf gives us the inner thoughts and actions of the other characters equally with Clarissa’s, and even the thoughts of many very minor characters. Joyce’s novel is particular about the hours assigned to each chapter. Woolf is looser. We are sometimes given a time reference when a character notices a clock, but often time passes unmarked. The Dalloway home in Westminster is close enough to Big Ben that Clarissa can hear its chimes. Stylistically, Ulysses is known for Joyce’s nearly impenetrable experimentation and prose techniques that change with every chapter. Woolf’s prose is free, and stream-of-conscious, but highly readable and consistent throughout the novel. Her references are usually clear. All the interior thoughts are rendered in the same manner, the characters distinguished by content, not style.

Besides Clarissa Dalloway and her circle of friends, one other character claims prominence in Mrs. Dalloway. This is Septimus Warren Smith. He’s a war veteran, age thirty or so, suffering from shell shock, or what we would call PTSD, today. Septimus and his Italian wife, Rezia (for Lucrezia, he met her in Milan at the end of the war) live in a separate world from Clarissa Dalloway and her friends. Their story is brought into the interweaving strands of the novel as they and other characters cross paths in Westminster throughout the day, but Septimus and Rezia don’t know Dalloway’s friends or have any social connection to them. Clarissa’s story is of her family and reconnecting with old friends and ends with a party. Septimus’ story is of suffering from mental illness, a visit to a doctor, and ends with his suicide. The two stories connect only in the final party scene when the doctor who had consulted with Septimus and his wife earlier in the day ends up a guest at Clarissa’s party. He apologizes for being late because he was called after the suicide of his patient. The news causes Clarissa to reflect on life and death.

The book is composed of a series of scenes, arranged chronologically, each scene focused on a different character and place, linked together in glancing ways. There are no chapter breaks but the scenes are distinct. Each scene is short, and all about the same length, except for the final party scene, which is about four times longer than the others. Here are the scenes:

page 1. Clarissa walks from home to Bond Street to buy flowers. She meets Hugh Whitbread. She recalls the summer at Bourton when she was 18, and remembers her friends: Peter, Sally, and Richard. In the street outside the flower shop, a car backfires startling everyone.
13. Septimus hears the car. People in the street wonder if it is a royal personage in the car. Septimus and Rezia walk toward Regent Park.
20. people in the park notice a skywriting airplane and try to figure out what it is writing. It turns out to be an advertisement for toffee. Septimus and Rezia sit in the park.
29. Clarissa at home remembers her friend Sally Seton at Bourton.
39. Clarissa mends a dress to wear at her party.
42. Peter Walsh, back from India, visits Clarissa. It’s 11am.
51. Peter leaves Clarissa and follows a pretty girl walking through the streets.
60. Peter at Regent Park. He falls asleep. He remembers the summer at Bourton, the day Clarissa met Richard Dalloway and when he and Clarissa broke up.
69. Rezia and Septimus sit in Regent Park. He has a vision of Evan, a soldier he knew who was killed in the war. It’s 11:45am
76. Peter Walsh at Regent Park. He muses on Clarissa’s friends and Clarissa especially. He gives a coin to a beggar woman as he gets into a taxi.
89. Septimus remembers the war and his mental struggles in the five years since the end of the war. He and Rezia walk to an appointment with a doctor.
101. They visit with Dr. WIlliam Bradshaw. It’s 12pm.
110. Hugh Whitbread and Richard Dalloway have lunch at Lady Bruton’s. It’s 1:30pm
122. Richard buys a bunch of flowers and walks home planning to tell Clarissa he loves her.
127. Clarissa in her drawing room visited by Richard, Elizabeth, and Miss Killman (a poor, older, religious woman whom Elizabeth has befriended). It’s 3pm.
139. Elizabeth and Miss Killman have tea at a store. Miss Killman goes on to Westminster Abbey. It’s 3:30pm.
146. Elizabeth takes a bus to the strand. She walks a little. She takes another bus home.
151. Septimus and Rezia at their home. Rezia trims a hat, which is her profession. Dr. Holmes arrives who had been advising them on Septimus’ health before referring them to Dr. Bradshaw. Septimus kills himself by jumping from a window. It’s 6pm.
164. Peter Walsh hears the siren of the ambulance. He walks to his hotel. He changes clothes, shaves, and dines at the hotel. He walks to Clarissa’s party.
179. The party. The scene begins with the servants. Guests arrive. Folks meet and pass and reconnect with others, very like the construction of the novel itself but now in miniature. We meet most of the characters that appeared earlier in the novel again, plus many other party guests are named and briefly mentioned. The Bradshaw’s arrive late because the doctor had been called after Septimus’ suicide. Clarissa meditates on life and death. Peter Walsh and Sally Seton have the final scene: a long chat, catching up. The party ends.