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World Literature Both Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and The Hours based on the novel of Michael Cunningham are two brilliant masterpieces that narrate against the oppression of the human soul and for the celebration of diversity. Both works carry a nostalgic mood, heavily overlaid with the sense of memory. Mrs.
Dalloway mostly takes place before World War I, and the rest of the novel focuses on vivid moments in memory that define lives and relationships. The Hours, although it takes place in three different times, relates all three women to the novel Mrs. Dalloway, and portrays a picture of three lives lived by depressed women under the oppression of the emotionally patriarchal society. Virginia Woolf's use of language is quite powerful. Although some might get lost in her numerous metaphors, others find the classical complexity astounding. Woolf's thoughts are not constrained allowing her to express emotions freely, although a little rough sometimes.
The Hours use of language is similar to Woolf's; it sweeps the viewer off his feet with the amount of emotions expressed, yet to some, it appears strong, biased, and discriminatory. In the novel Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa, Septimus, Peter, Mrs. Dalloway, and others look for a way to find means of communication as well as sufficient privacy, and it appears to be difficult to balance the two.
Clarissa, for example, throws parties to bring people together, while realizing that celebrating independence brings along loneliness. Peter also engages in exploration of communication and privacy by comparing ones soul to a wish that swims along in murky water then rises quickly to the surface to frolic on the waves. Since the war, peoples understanding of what English society should be has changed, and the gap between supporters of the tradition and the leaders of change causes difficulty in making social connections. At last, Clarissa believes that Septimus death was an act of desperate, yet legitimate communication.
In the nineteenth century, World War I was a violent reality check for the invincible British Empire. After the 1916 Battle of the Somme, more than 60, 000 Englishmen were killed, and most of English citizens have lost faith in the empire after the war. In Mrs. Dalloway, the feeling of failure of the empire brought Clarissa, Peter, and Septimus closer to feeling their own personal failures. The English empire was facing a forthcoming end, leaving young generations at loose ends and older generations, those who still admired English traditions, a part of the past. In The Hours, Laura Brown portrays Clarissa.
Laura was once a scholar, who loved to read and wanted to go to college. Just like Clarissa, however, Laura has also lost her sense of individuality after the war and put her dreams aside to marry Mr. Brown. Unlike Clarissa, though, Laura chooses to act upon her feelings and emotions, and eventually leaves her husband. This action relates her to Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway, who took his life to escape oppressing reality.
Awareness of death that Clarissa, Septimus, and Peter come across in Mrs. Dalloway makes ordinary communications significant, sometimes even frightening. Clarissa's citation of Shakespeare Fear no more the heat o the sun / Nor the furious winters rages shows that she celebrates death as a delivery from difficult life. Clarissa has experienced her fathers, mothers, and sisters death and believes that leaving one more day could be dangerous. Septimus suicidal embrace of death, although faced most directly, allows her to be at peace with her own mortality. Peter Walsh, being timid of his identity, follows a woman through London to forget about death.
Septimus, last, but not least, is frightened by death but finally chooses it over the alternative to live another day. In The Hours, Virginia thinks of death as an end, rather than beginning. To her, it is a peaceful, intoxicating nothingness, which she is not afraid to experience, confirming her stand with a suicide. In Mrs. Dalloway, oppression constantly threats Clarissa and Septimus, and Septimus takes his life to escape social pressure to be traditional.
Oppression is disguised by science, religion, and social gatherings. In fact, Miss Kilman and Sir William Bradshaw are two major oppressors in the novel. Both, in the race for power and domination, want the world to adopt their belief system, thereby oppressing those who are exposed to them. The Hours portrays a picture of an oppressive society as well.
All three women are forced to perform traditional functions of a woman, and all three oppose it. Virginia, like Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway, takes the short cut and commits a suicide. Clarissa and Laura in The Hours portray an image of Clarissa in Mrs. Dalloway by opposing the patriarchal society, but not taking action against it.
Clarissa refuses to bake a cake for her husband, and Laura, after taking long care of Richard, realizes that she has devoted her life to him and has not lived it the was she would choose to. In Mrs. Dalloway, time organizes thoughts, memories, and meeting that compose the novel. Big Ben, being a symbol of England's power, reminds Clarissa, Septimus, Peter and others of passage of time and existence of death with each sound of the hour. The sound of Big Ben also symbolizes how momentary time is its leaden circles dissolved in the air. The ancient woman, however, symbolizes that life is not bound by time by singing the same song for almost her entire lifetime.
The Hours picks up on the theme of time circularity by setting the stage in three different lives in a course of one day that spreads almost over an entire century. Numerous images of trees and flowers in Mrs. Dalloway suggest differences between people who are comfortable with their emotions and the ones who are not. Both Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours portrays Clarissa, Septimus and the three women as characters who are comfortable with expressing their emotions and feelings through colours, beauty, and nature of flowers. On the contrary, Lady Burton in Mrs.
Dalloway is uncomfortable with flowers, metaphorically signifying that she is a slave of suppression. Waves and water in Mrs. Dalloway mainly associate traditional English society with a tide that pulls under those who are not able to stand on their own. The novel suggests fluidity overall by making characters thoughts appear, intensify and then fade away. Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway sees everything under water before his suicide, and Virginia in The Hours drowns herself, thereby both metaphorically symbolizing the oppressive society morals and their denial of its function.
Both works of Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours reflect on the cultural, political, economic, and religious imperialism and male stubbornness and insensitivity. The main concern of the two works is the role of women in a patriarchal society. Although a patriarchal regime was more evident in Mrs. Dalloway, The Hours reflected upon the subconscious patriarchal regime that still exists in society today. To conclude, the ideology of women belonging in a home to provide a civilized influence on men prevails in both Mrs.
Dalloway and The Hours throughout the spread of the century. Bibliography: web Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf, Harvest Books; 1 st Harvest/HBJ edition (September 24, 1990 web The Hours, Michael Cunningham, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998. web The Hours, Paramount Home Video, c 2003.
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Research essay sample on Virginia Woolf Patriarchal Society
