MRS Dalloway

Essay by ailyncheUniversity, Bachelor's September 2014

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Mrs Dalloway

During the novel we are presented with different types of love. We see this in the relationship between the characters of Mrs Dalloway (Clarissa) and Sally Seton, Clarissa and Peter Walsh and Septimus and his wife Lucrezia. The scene is set in post World War I London, were everyone bears the scar of the war, this is most reflected in the character of Septimus, due to the lost of his friend he is consistently considering death.

Sally's extroverted personality and free spirit complements Clarissa's personality, as result both women share a strong connection. Sally's free spirit is showed in Clarissa memoirs of their time at Bourton "What a shame to sit indoors" (Woolf, 1925; as cited by Collins, 1996 p.32); Sally has taken all for a walk. I would argue that Clarissa and Sally shared more than strong friendship; they had an inclination of love for each other.

Their love, which Clarissa openly admires for its 'paradisal' innocence and purity, is consummated by a kiss that she describes in terms of a 'religious feeling'.(Douglas L. H . Vol 12. 1998. P152) .We witness it in the following passage "Sally stopped; picked up a flower; kissed her on the lips" (Woolf, 1925; as cited by Collins, 1996 p.31). This moment is remembered by Clarissa thirty years later as "the most exquisite moment of her whole life" (Woolf, 1925; as cited by Collins, 1996 p.31); this moment has most commonly been read as evidence of a repressed lesbian identity or dismissed as representing the innocence of childhood friendship as explain on (Haffey, Narrative Vol 8, No2. May 2010).

Clarissa cherishes the kiss as a "diamond, something definitely precious" (Woolf, 1925; as cited by Collins, 1996 p.32). Unfortunately both women lived in a male oriented society and if caught this would...