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Woolf Response
“…she paused by the open staircase window which let in blinds flapping, dogs
barking, let in, she thought, feeling herself suddenly shrivelled, aged, breastless, the
grinding blowing, flowering of the day, out of doors, out of the window, out of her body
Virginia Woolf does a tremendous job at addressing the serious human problem of
Dalloway”. The novel exposes many, if not all, of the character’s thoughts in opposition
to what they appear to the outside world. Woolf’s characters can be seen repressing their
true feelings and hiding behind the “masks” of the approved social code. These hidden
desires or concealed thoughts can be seen in Clarissa Dalloway and Peter Walsh (among
feelings have been masked by the social approval of others. Being an aristocratic
woman, Mrs. Dalloway views herself as a hostess, and yet somewhat dreads that life.
She imagines what life might have been like if she had married Peter when they were
young, and she imagines Sally Seton who “did the most idiotic things out of bravado
(34). These are the people she admired, the people who appeared “free”. There are many
references in the novel to the sea, which represents a sense of loneliness, but also a sense
of freedom for Clarissa Dalloway. She comments, “[I] had a perpetual sense, as [I]
watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone…”(8). Later, when she
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is mending her dress, more references to the sea are made, “Clarissa, plunging her hand
into the softness, gently detached the green dress and carried it to the window… By
artificial light the green shone, but lost its colour now in the sun” (37). This sense of
loneliness is the “true colour” in Mrs. Dalloway that is rarely exposed to the world (the
sun), and that she secretly wishes to be free of her “artificial” societal role as hostess.
Not only Mrs. Dalloway, but Peter Walsh also maintains hidden feelings that are
unapparent to the outside world. After reappearing some number of years after he left for
India, Peter comes to the residence of Clarissa Dalloway, unknowing that he would soon
be reminiscing about the past with his former love. He appears to be fine with the whole
conversation about the past, however, Woolf comments, “Then, just as happens on a
terrace in the moonlight, when one person begins to feel ashamed that he is already
bored, and yet as the other sits silent, very quiet, sadly looking at the moon, does not like
to speak, moves his foot, clears his throat, notices some iron scroll on a table leg, stirs a
leaf, but says nothing – so Peter Walsh did now” (42). This feeling is hidden, however,
by the fact that he decides to tell Clarissa that he has fallen in love, “And with a curious
ironical sweetness he smiled as he placed her in this ridiculous way before Clarissa” (45).
Peter deliberately tries to provoke a response from Mrs. Dalloway because he is trying to
hide the fact that she is actually the woman that he is in love with. Peter knows, however,
that he has nothing to offer Clarissa Dalloway and “she would think me a failure, which I
am in their sense, he thought; in the Dalloways’ sense… compared with all this – the
inlaid table, the mounted paper knife… - he was a failure!” (43). Peter is also hiding
behind a “mask” by not telling Mrs. Dalloway his true feelings for her as opposed to
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Not just the specific characters, but also the townsfolk of London are also
something they are not, they almost forget the importance of being an individual. For
example, when the mysterious car drove into sight, everyone put their daily lives on hold
in order to view this spectacle, which no one really knew whether it was it was a
The motor car with its blinds drawn and an air of inscrutable reserve proceeded
towards Piccadilly, still gazed at, still ruffling the faces on both sides of the street
with the same dark breath of veneration whether for Queen, Prince, or Prime
Minister nobody knew…greatness was passing, hidden, down Bond Street,
removed only by a hand’s-breadth from ordinary people who might now, for the
first and last time, be within speaking distance of the majesty of England… (16)
These people almost tried to pretend that they were someone of importance for whom this
car should be stopping. Of course they know that this occurrence will probably be the
only time they will ever be close enough to feel the importance they feel right at that
moment. Even the “men of robust physique, well-dressed men… stood straighter, and
removed their hands, and seemed ready to attend their Sovereign, if need be, to the
cannon’s mouth, as their ancestors had done before them” (18). These men thought
nothing of themselves until they saw the motor car pass, then their social appearance
significantly improved. These people of London, as well as Clarissa Dalloway and Peter
Walsh, all fall into a problem of social appearance versus the reality of what they feel.
These two aspects are rarely parallel in the characters of “Mrs. Dalloway,” but this