"Mrs Dalloway" and "The Hours"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how, through the novel "Mrs Dalloway", Virginia Woolf captures the character of a whole society. In comparison, it looks at how, through Clarissa Vaughan in "The Hours", Michael Cunningham takes the reader through a literary time-travel and a coming to terms with change, ageing and societal restrictions.

From the Paper:

"After having alienated herself, Clarissa returns to the party, and having conquered a feeling of loneliness, she is now filled with a sense of life. She needs to be with the people who have been important to her: Peter and Sally. And the reader, just like Peter, becomes filled with 'extraordinary excitement' because Clarissa is there. It is not so much what Clarissa does that makes her important enough to carry the title of the novel. In fact her actions and the sequence of her day are rather superficial: she buys flowers, prepares for a party and hosts that party perfectly well. She represents a shallow upper-class woman with a very singular outlook on life. However, it is her omnipresence that is of considerable significance."

More papers on "Mrs Dalloway" and "The Hours":

• Book Review # 74949 : "Mrs Dalloway" and "The Hours"
• Book Review # 103057 : "Death in "Mrs. Dalloway"
• Comparison Essay # 46342 : "The Hours" and "Mrs. Dalloway"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: