The plot of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway is fairly simplistic -- Clarissa Dalloway goes through the preparations for the party she is throwing that evening. It's the way that Woolf tells the story that really makes the novel worth reading. Instead of writing in a fourth-wall disconnected manner, Woolf places us as readers inside the heads of the characters. In this way, she can achieve much more than if she was just floating on the surface. She allows us to see everyone's personal reactions to the events that take place, and as an audience I find that some ordinary actions are much more interesting and even relatable.
This way of writing reiterates the point she makes in her essay Modern Fiction. Woolf believes that a story should be driven by the characters instead of having the characters exist to take on specific roles in the plot of the novel. I think this makes the story a lot more life-like since each of the characters have distinct personalities and the ways that they interact are more natural. Their reactions to things are relatable because sometimes have opposing views of what just happened in front of them, much like real people. This effect could not be achieved as effectively if we were not allowed to see inside all of the characters' thoughts since some fourth-wall styles of writing seem to have a pre-existing idea of what the reader's conclusion should be. Thus, allowing the story to be plot driven. Mrs. Dalloway allows for more freedom of interpretation.
Because Woolf's style is so different, I had some trouble following the course of the novel at first, especially keeping track of whose point of view the description of the action was coming from. Her all-knowing narrator transitions so easily from one thought to the next that you almost don't notice it. As we got further in the novel and met more characters, I learned to recognize the vocabulary and tone of specific characters. This is especially noticeable in Septimus' paranoid and poetic view on the world as opposed to Rezia's stressed recounting or Richard's timidity. Overall I find her writing style very intriguing.
I agree with you that entering the characters' minds is a very compelling part of the novel. I enjoy that personal feel and openness that Woolf incorporates into the story. The only issue that I have with the way that Woolf writes is her lack of punctuation. That causes me to be confused as to who's perspective I'm actually reading about, but after a while you get used to it. Ignoring that, though, I have to say that I really am enjoying this book a lot.
ReplyDeleteIt is also important to note that aside from the fact that she employs free indirect discourse upon characters alone to achieve depth of personality, she also uses it with each character to flesh out others around them externally as well. This is one of the ways that she so easily transitions between various people's minds within the narrative; by having people take notice of others in the same place, it is a simple situation of moving the story to the observation by the subsequent character.
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, Woolf shows us opposing views between characters, but she also shows us the contradictory thoughts and feelings that characters have within. For example when Peter is reminding himself that he is not in love with Clarissa during the party. We can see him shift from loving her, to criticizing her. Clarissa also has this many times throughout the novel, sometimes repeating phrases like she is confirming something with herself.
ReplyDeleteI love the connection that you make with Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and the Modern Fiction piece. It is very refreshing to see her ideas/opinions reflected in her writing style. I think Mrs. Dalloway's character driven plot is actually what makes the novel fairly complex. Though the story line is made to be a pretty ordinary event, the constantly changing perspective is what adds a lot of unique and interesting qualities to the book and specifically the characters themselves.
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