1172 Woolf, Virginia
peculiarities and differences in her characters allows
Virginia Woolf to highlight wider social issues and
concerns.
Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class, middle-aged
socialite, embodies typical gender stereotyping. She
defines herself as Mrs. Richard Dalloway, bred
simply to marry and procreate: “She had the oddest
sense of being herself invisible; unseen; unknown;
there being no more marrying, no more having of
children now.” With the introduction of Clarissa’s
daughter Elizabeth, Woolf exposes us to the “new”
type of woman, emerging from the atrocities of war
and indifferent to the old-fashioned values exempli-
fied by characters such as Clarissa and Lady Bexbor-
ough, who stand for the pre-war world of strict class
hierarchy and gender definition. Elizabeth’s paid
companion, Miss Kilman (“kill-man”), is an extreme
feminist, insensitive to her looks, impoverished, and
burning to change the world of privilege as exempli-
fied by Clarissa.
Women in Mrs Dalloway are associated symboli-
cally with flowers: “[Clarissa] turned her head from
side to side among the irises and roses and nodding
tufts of lilac with her eyes half closed, snuffing in”;
“Girls in muslin frocks came out to pick sweet peas
and roses”; “Rezia came in, with her flowers, and
walked across the room, and put the roses in a vase”;
“Elizabeth . . . was dark . . . like a hyacinth sheathed
in glossy green, with buds just tinted, a hyacinth,
which has had no sun.” Disturbance from any reverie
on flowers is almost always caused by a male hand,
frequently in the form of noise from motorcars or
explosive noises of some sort: “The violent explo-
sion which made Mrs Dalloway jump . . . came
from a motor car.” This particular interruption leads
directly to the introduction of the other main char-
acter in the novel, Septimus Warren Smith, who
happens to be walking by at that moment. Though
separated by gender, Woolf ’s two protagonists share
several characteristics, which unfold as the novel
progresses, including a physical similarity of “beak”
noses.
Men always intrude into the narrative with
noise and sharpness. Peter Walsh, for example, is
constantly playing with a penknife throughout
the novel: “He took out his knife quite openly . . .
and clenched his fist upon it.” For Woolf, it is still
a male-dominated world, but in this novel she
attempts to show how times are changing, thanks to
the sacrifices made during the war. Women are now
freer, wearing makeup, and deciding for themselves
whom and when to marry.
Women who do not conform to gender ste-
reotypes—for example Lady Bruton, who is more
powerful than most of the men around her—display
sharp, angular movements, normally associated in
this novel with male characters. The interconnec-
tion with flowers in such cases is an uneasy one,
since Lady Bruton does not know what to do with
them, as shown by “The red carnations which Lady
Bruton (whose movements were always angular)
had laid beside her plate.” Even her lunch parties
are described as “masculine” affairs. Yet, although
she displays the characteristics of a man, her defer-
ence to men is nonetheless absolute, highlighting
the fact that even powerful women cannot act in the
same way as men. The future for women lies in the
hands of young women such as Clarissa’s daughter
Elizabeth, encouraged by the likes of Miss Kilman,
who informs her: “Law, medicine, politics, all pro-
fessions are open to women of your generation.”
Miss Kilman, like Lady Bruton, is not a “feminine”
woman; when offered flowers by Clarissa, she
“squashed the flowers all in a bunch.”
Woolf also underpins the differences between
men themselves through her use of flower symbol-
ogy. Richard Dalloway shows Clarissa he loves her
with a “vast bunch” of red and white roses, which
he bears “like a weapon.” His awkwardness is juxta-
posed with Septimus, who derives a moment of hap-
piness in helping his wife trim a hat with flowers: “It
was wonderful. Never had he done anything which
made him feel so proud.”
Mrs Dalloway hints at new approaches in the
relationships between men and women of all classes,
brought about by the Great War and by the human
sacrifice made by war veterans such as Septimus.
A new interwar social structure is seen emerging,
highlighting gender issues to be resolved.
Gerri KimberSocIaL cLaSS in Mrs Dalloway
One of the most significant themes addressed by
Virginia Woolf in Mrs Dalloway concerns the social