When I began reading Mrs. Dalloway I finally felt like I knew London as a city. I can understand what Clarissa hears when she describes "a particular hush, or solemnity; an indescribable pause; a suspense before Big Ben strikes"(2). I can also relate to Mrs. Dalloway as she says "I love walking in London" (3). It is one of the first books I have ever read that I truly understood and envisioned the setting on the novel.
While walking around Westminster for our class field trip, I feel that everyone became a little bit closer to the city as a whole. It was a sad and serious day due to not only the real life tragedy of losing a teacher at our school to suicide, but also losing Septimus in the same way. How death is described in this story is extremely sad and also very eye-opening about how some people see the world. It makes it more clear to me why some people feel that death is the only escape, although I will never be able to fully grasp the concept of someone taking their own life. “Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate; people feeling the impossibility of reaching the center which, mystically, evaded them;” (163). Clarissa sees Septimus' death as a positive thing and wishes she had the strength to do the same. It is amazing how through nature and death, Virginia Woolf is able to beautifully portray such a sad and confusing thing.
Taking Mrs. Dalloway out of London was also created an even more interesting story line. We were able to see her mentally, physically, and emotionally in the movie Hours. We were also able to see Virginia Woolf as a writer and realize more about why she wrote this story. By watching Hours, I felt I was more connected to the characters in the story and more importantly I was more connected to Virginia Woolf. Several of the books we have read this year have had a lot to do with the authors and by getting to know the authors I have developed a much greater understanding of why these books were written.
No comments:
Post a Comment