Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Introduction

"Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway (1925) takes place on a single June day. Clarissa prepares for a party. Septimus, a shell-shocked veteran, hears birds singing in Greek. Their paths never cross directly, but their fates are intertwined.

The Stream of Consciousness

Woolf dissolves the boundary between external event and internal experience. An airplane writing in the sky, the chiming of Big Ben—these become portals into multiple minds.

Septimus and the War

Septimus is Clarissa's double—the figure who feels what she suppresses. His suicide is both tragedy and defiance. When Clarissa hears of his death at her party, she recognizes something she understands.

Key Takeaways

• Consciousness is the true subject
• The sane and mad are mirrors
• A single day contains a lifetime