"The Hours" and "Mrs. Dalloway"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that in "The Hours", Michael Cunningham freely admits that he drew deeply on Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway". The author relates that both Clarissas led fulfilling lives, but they are looking back at pivotal times in their lives when decisions may have cost them happiness and inner peace. The paper points out that, in both novels, the authors use flashbacks to structure their presentation of the lives of these characters

From the Paper:

""The Hours" opens with writer Virginia Woolf's suicide, where she contemplates before she drowns herself, "She herself has failed. She is not a writer at all, really; she is merely a gifted eccentric" (Cunningham 4). Woolf did indeed commit suicide, and the book, opening as it does, immediately lets the reader know this book was written in homage to Woolf, as well as the characters are all based on Woolf's own characters in "Mrs. Dalloway." Clarissa Vaughn and Clarissa Dalloway are both planning a party as they begin their stories. Clarissa Vaughn is a successful book editor in New York who has a happy lesbian relationship with her lover, Sally."

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

• Comparison Essay # 100834 : "A Comparison of "The Hours" and "Mrs Dalloway"
• Book Review # 93767 : "Light and Darkness in "Mrs Dalloway"
• Book Review # 103057 : "Death in "Mrs. Dalloway"

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