Abstract This paper analyzes the heroine of Virginia Woolf's novel, "Mrs. Dalloway" and examines the many inner conflicts that Clarissa struggles with, namely the upper class life she chose and the sentimental memories of her youth.
From the Paper "In the novel "Mrs Dalloway", Virgina Woolf presents the character of Clarissa Dalloway the society wife of a Parliament member. The narrative is essentially the story of day in Clarissa's life as she prepares for a party that she and her husband are hosting."
Abstract This essay examines the ideological roles of women in society. Clarissa Dalloway's unhappiness in marriage reflects defiance in the social ideal. Clarissa's marriage to Richard Dalloway is an action, which supposedly, should make her feel complete. Instead, marriage contributes to her sense of non-being. Clarissa's internal and external state of being is analysed in the first section of the essay. This section looks at Woolf's narrative technique. Woolf uses juxtaposition of male, female; internal, external thought to highlight Clarissa's inability to act upon desire. The second topic of analysis in the essay is Clarissa's loss of identity. Clarissa becomes "Mrs.Dalloway" and defines herself by her new title. She plays the role that is expected in her social group. Though she works hard to maintain the perfect image she is not truly happy with her life. The third part of the essay examines Clarissa's interest in alternative lifestyles as a result of her unhappiness. Clarissa dreams about achieving goals that are unheard of for women of the time. She thinks about alternative relationships with both men and women. Though to weak to act upon such thoughts, Clarissa expresses defiance through her desire. Clarissa's internal resistance is intimately connected to the ideology of her social system.
From the Paper "In Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, the actions, thoughts and experiences of Clarissa Dalloway reflect the pressures on women to play ideological roles in society. Clarissa is an upper class mother, wife and hostess, whose thoughts and desires challenge her domestic role. She is not happy, yet she chooses to maintain the illusion of happiness in her life as a means of survival in a society that shuns independent women. Woolf's narrative serves to deconstruct the politics of gender and masculine privilege through Clarissa's internal discontent. Clarissa Dalloway is externally controlled by the dominant systems of belief in her high-class society. Clarissa's internal resistance to social order is apparent in her state of division, loss of identity, and interest in alternative lifestyles. Through the social interactions and thoughts of Clarissa Dalloway, the ideological and the internal are intimately connected."
Abstract This essay focuses on Samuel Richardson's "Clarissa" and Clarissa's position in eighteenth century patriarchal society. It examines Clarissa's goodness against the immoral desires of her family and an oppressive society. The author describes how throughout her struggle, Clarissa maintains her goodness and remains admirable in contrast to the immense social forces that stand against her.
From the Paper "Clarissa Harlowe is shaped by eighteenth century patriarchal society. As her individual goodness conflicts with the immoral desires of her family, she reacts against their oppressive expectations. The Harlowe family is driven by economic interests, which overpower human decency and love. Clarissa's lasting goodness becomes her defense and only power over those of whom she is constrained. Clarissa desires to challenge the roles set for her in society. In her struggle to escape, Clarissa discovers that she is very much a part of the patriarchal world that has shaped her. In Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, Clarissa Harlowe remains an admirable character despite the powerful social forces against and within her."
Tags: control, harlowe, lovelace, oppression, patriarchy, society, oppression, goodness, love
Abstract This paper compares and contrasts the character of Clarissa in Virginia Woolf's novel "Mrs Dalloway" to that of Clarissa in Michael Cunningham's novel "The Hours". It will point out the similarities and differences between the two characters and explain whether the two characters are continuous or not.
Abstract This paper reviews the poem, "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope, with a focus on Clarissa's speech. It contends that due to Pope's clever use of poetic devises, Clarissa's speech also points to Pope's critique of high society's overall vanity and shallowness. It also discusses how Clarissa's moralizing therefore addresses universal human issues that Pope deftly examines throughout the poem.
From the Paper "Clarissa begins the speech by noting that beauty is the most honored and valued attribute in a woman, and she poses the rhetorical question to her audience: "why are Beauties prais'd and honour'd most..." Society is so obsessed with beauty, claims Clarissa, that appearances are even the "wise man's Passion." In fact, women are so valued for their physical beauty that they are likened to celestial beings: they are "Angels called," and "Angel-like adored." Clarissa further states that men are so taken by women's looks that they will crane their necks, going out of their way to admire feminine physical charms."
This paper discusses "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham and "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf, specifically, the characters of Clarissa Dalloway and Clarissa Vaughn.
Abstract 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."
Abstract In Virginia Wolf's "Mrs. Dalloway", the role of death represents the disappointments both Septimus and Clarissa have experienced in their lives. This paper explains how Septimus brings his own death to escape the frustrations he experiences in life. Clarissa sees death as the hope of discovering what is a meaningful life.
From the Paper "In Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, the character of Septimus is an elderly man whose mind is consumed with haunting memories of his days in war. Ever since his traumatic experiences in World War II, he finds nothing in his life worthwhile, and consequently chooses death as an alternative to boredom. Clarissa, who is the wife of Mr. Dalloway, knows her life has a greater function than serving as the ?perfect hostess.? She desperately wishes for the afterworld to rationalize what she believes is a life without purpose."
Abstract This paper discusses how "Mrs. Dalloway" portrays London's tradition of social oppression, particularly focusing on the issues of gender oppression and the oppression of poverty and class discrimination between London's peasants and the elite class. The paper discusses how, in the novel, oppression becomes an option and a way of life for Clarissa Dalloway as a result of the war's devastation. The paper further highlights how oppression was so deeply embedded in the English psyche that it become an acceptable and expected behavior among the English people.
Outline:
Introduction
The City as a Manifestation of Clarissa's Deliberate Choice to be Subjugated
The City as a Cloak, Hiding the Realities of Poverty and Stratification
From the Paper "In the novel "Mrs Dalloway," the character of Clarissa Dalloway figured as the most dominant element in the author Virginia Woolf's narrative. In it, readers are able to witness the life as it occurred to English society during its post-World War I years. However, in the midst of the recovery of the nation lies a deep-seated tradition of social oppression, which has been initially left not confronted by the society, but experienced first-hand after the war has ended. Thus, during its post-war years, English society is undergoing the stress of experiencing the loss of lives, livelihood, and re-establishing the nation from where it had left off, prior to the start of World War I."
Abstract The biography of Clarissa Harlowe Barton cannot be written without also writing at least in some measure the history of the American Red Cross as well as that of the history of nursing. This paper examines the work of the founder of the American Red Cross, looking at both her own life and at her work during the major battles of the American Civil War. In order to set her work in the proper historical framework, the paper also provides a very brief overview of the history of nursing as a profession, a profession which Barton is ? along with Florence Nightingale ? responsible in many ways for creating in its contemporary form.
Although this paper focuses on the work that Barton performed during the Civil War, it also mentions her relief work in the yellow-fever pestilence in Florida (1887); in the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood (1889); in the Russian famine (1891); among the Armenians (1896); in the Spanish-American War (1898); and in the South African War (1899-1902). The last work that she personally directed was the relief of victims of the flood at Galveston, Texas, in 1900, before she died in Glen Echo, Maryland, on April 12, 1912.
From the Paper "During the depression of the 1930s, many nurses were unemployed, and the number of schools declined. World War II, however, brought about another increased demand for nurses. The Cadet Nurse Corps, established in 1943, subsidized nursing education for thousands of young people who agreed to engage in nursing for the duration of the war. Since the end of World War II, technological advances in medicine and health have required nurses to become knowledgeable about sophisticated equipment, to learn about an increasing number of medications, and to design nursing care appropriate for the health care delivery system during a period of rapid change. Barton's nursing work on the battlefield helped lay down the fundamentals for nursing during wartime, and the work of nurses in MASH and other military units throughout the 20th century owes much to what she saw and did during the Civil War."
Abstract This paper examines how Ian McEwan's novel, "Enduring Love", is a psychological thriller of a novel that tells the story of Joe Rose and his lover, Clarissa. It looks at how the theme of the paradoxically enduring nature of unhealthy, fixated love emerges in Joe's struggle to evade the grasp of the stalker, Joe Parry. It also discusses how this theme emerges in what seems to be a quite minor character and in a comical and incidental scene where Joe is attempting to buy a gun to free himself of his attacker.
From the Paper "At times, Clarissa often acts in a mother-like fashion towards Joe, from preparing his food to soothing his supposedly foolish anxieties. In this scene, however, another mother-like figure emerges. Perhaps the most poignant character, however, present in the commune-type environment is the woman who serves food and cooks for most of the characters in the home. Joe Rose notes, again with a barely concealed sneer, that he always used to wonder what happened to such women. He notes that the lifestyle of such hippie women somewhat predated feminism, and it seemed that their function in society was to bake the hash brownies and to clean up after the men around them."
Abstract 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."
Abstract This paper provides a brief introduction to the stream of consciousness and its history in literature. It looks at Woolf's narrative technique and her employment of the stream of consciousness and in particular, how external objects encourage shifts in the narrative and convey that all minds are joined to one another. It also analyzes the character of
Clarissa.
From the Paper "The image of "icy claws" fixing in Clarissa could be the cold shiver of a sneaking suspicion crawling up her spine and sinking its jagged claws into the base of her skull. It is realisation gripping her. This image could also relate to Peter's perception of Clarissa, describing her as "cold" and unfeeling. "There was something cold in Clarissa, he thought." Woolf compares time metaphorically to water droplets, each second trickling away "as if to catch the falling drop..." The motif of water recurs as Woolf describes Clarissa "plunging" into the depth of the moment. The description of Clarissa's appearance as "delicate pink" is symbolic of her interior. Despite the contradiction of her sharp, "pointed", front she is a delicate, reflective character. "
Abstract This paper examines the psychological pathology of madness that arises within the novel "Enduring Love" by Ian McEwan. The characters Joe, Jed, Clarissa and Mrs. Logan are critically analyzed through a narrative perspective, which divulges the pathology of madness that is present within the novel.
From the Paper "The central theme of Ian McEwan's novel Enduring love revolves around the subtext of guilt, shame, and remorse that Joe Rose must face after failing to rescue a boy from a balloon. In the Chilterns, Joe Rose and his wife Clarissa witness a balloon accident where a boy is trapped within balloon that has gotten out of control. In an effort to try and brig the balloon back down the ground, Joe and two other men fail to pull the balloon downwards. Although Joe and Jed had dropped off as the wind took the aircraft in a sudden gust, the third man, John Logan, falls to his death because of a late release. "
Abstract This paper examines how, in Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway", death is a driving force for the development of the characters and the novel's dramatic action. The paper looks at how, originally titled "The Hours", the novel delves into the thoughts, memories, and experiences of Clarissa Dalloway, a wealthy middle-aged woman as she goes about a single, normal day in her life, with Big Ben marking each passing hour. The paper also discusses how, although the theme of death pervades the novel to its core, Mrs. Dalloway is not the ominous foreshadowing of its authors eventual suicide, or a reflection of Virginia Woolf's obsession with death, but a reconciliation of the fear and mystery of death, a celebration of life, and ultimately one character's triumphant ability to find purpose and comfort in the passing of life.
From the Paper "The first few pages of Mrs. Dalloway establish the themes of death and life that are prevalent throughout the novel. Clarissa experiences life with fervor and vivacity, and it is her strong and intense love of life that makes her fear death. She feels that the morning of her dinner party is, "fresh as if issued to children on a beach" (Mrs. Dalloway, p 3), and though she is middle-aged, Mrs. Dalloway's passion for the beauty and nuances of everyday life is strong. While her love of life is unremitting, it mixes with the sorrowful knowledge that her youth is over, and almost immediately her memories return to the time of her greatest happiness and her youth at Bourton. While Clarissa takes great joy out of the memories of her youth, she is more concerned with the present moment, observing that, "everyone remembered. "
Abstract This paper analyzes Virgina Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" and James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". The paper relates that both works are modernist works that depict the struggle between the world and the individual, between knowledge and consciousness. The paper further relates that the conflicts that the novels' protagonists, Clarissa and Stephen, experience represent this struggle and that these struggles are marked by the opposition between "freedom" and "imprisonment". Freedom is associated with the expression of individuality and imprisonment is connected to the demands of society. The paper substantiates the points made by describing the life experiences of the protagonists and the conclusions they come to about the lives they lead.
From the Paper "In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus goes through the same conflict as Clarissa but his conclusion is different in the end. From childhood, Stephen is conscious of the restrictions that the world places on his individual form of expression. Later in life, he likens those restrictions to chains that hold him from flying. The standards of society, derived from patriotism, culture and religion, constitute hindrances to free individual manifestations. Since Stephen is an artist, this reality affects him deeply, placing him in an equivocal position and creating a conflict between the values and beliefs of society and the values and beliefs of art. Social codes are challenged by the freedom that art inspires and by its vast scope and multiple possibilities. Thus, social values are seen as imprisoning and art as liberating. Stephen's conflict is marked by the sudden change from one extreme to the other. "
