“Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself…” goes the story by Mrs Woolf and Michael Cunningham picks up this moment to say three separate stories about three separate women. All three have more in common with one another than it is immediately obvious and all three are affected in one way or another by Mrs Dalloway. The first woman is, of course, Virginia Woolf in the process of writing the novel. The second is Mrs Brown, a housewife in the late forties, trapped in her picture perfect life and finally there is present-day Clarissa Vaughn getting ready to throw a party for her terminally ill friend. All three stories mirror Mrs Dalloway’s day either in a direct fashion (Clarissa starts her day by buying flowers for the party she is throwing) or in a more indirect way such as Laura Brown being deeply affected by a passing kiss she shared with Kitty.
Clarissa’s story is by far the one most obviously mirroring Mrs Dalloway in the sense that even the character names are either the same or variations of the original characters. What is more interesting however is how actually the characters do not really represent their namesakes. For example, Sally, Clarissa’s partner, is actually closer to Richard Dalloway than to Sally Seton. In the same sense Richard in Clarissa’s story echoes Septimus rather than Richard Dalloway. The distinctions might appear fine but they are actually quite crucial. Clarissa’s story is easily the one that moves the plot forward, however this story is truly not plot driven. We are privy to the innermost thoughts of the leading ladies throughout and that is exactly what the point of the story is. With that in mind it comes as no surprise that my favourite story is that of Mrs Brown.
I know, leave it to me to pick the Drama Queen as my favourite character but hear me out here: Laura Brown is by far the most exciting of the three simply because she is quietly trapped. Virginia Woolf, battling mental illness and prejudice, is trapped in (rural at the time!) Richmond but there is nothing quiet about her. In a sense, Virginia Woolf is much more liberated than Laura Brown. Virginia Woolf knows exactly what it is she wants. Laura Brown doesn’t. That is exactly what makes her story more fascinating, she is at the very beginning of her self discovery. We just glimpse one day at the very start of her biggest plot line. The other thing that makes Laura Brown truly stand out as a character is the weird mixture of self-pity and clear cut realism: She fantasises about people being shocked if she committed suicide but a paragraph later she realistically evaluates the damage such an action can cause and what she perceives as her moral responsibilities.
At times I felt Virginia Woolf’s storyline was only there as a guide. It felt, in a way, as if the story had only been added so that the reader can make the connection between Mrs Dalloway, Laura and Clarissa. Adding the author’s suicide (that’s not a spoiler! You must have known she’d killed herself!) in the prologue was only there to make some subtle symbolism in Laura’s story click, at least in my eyes. Short of him saying: “See what I did there, reader? I painted the room turquoise!” he did everything in his power.
What really got to me though, in my own selfish level, was how deep and meaningful every single thought by pretty much everyone was. All the time! Is it just me that can spend ages trying to make up my mind in the supermarket about yogurt A vs yogurt B (the price is right, but will the taste be up for it?) and looking at my phone bill perplexed? These women can probably only put the laundry on while mentally debating what their choice of detergent really says about their inner morality! I feel exceptionally trivial but I can’t help but think that if I had such a constant flow of self-evaluation and re-evaluation my brain would melt. But maybe that’s just me…
Enjoyed it: Hmmm… I don’t think it can be classified as enjoyable but I gained a lot from reading it.
Read again: Probably.
332 days remaining – 10 books down, 90 left.
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