Criticism / A Moment Caught in the Act of Being
A Moment Caught In the Act of Being
The text of Mrs. Dalloway exists in the form of a novel in two ways: it exists in its physical form in terms of the how the text itself is constructed, and exists also apart from its physical presence in terms of the text means. Mrs. Dalloway weaves in and out of the general milieu of London life and the far more personal milieu of the lives of a group of starkly different individuals—the characters of the novel. Mrs. Dalloway weaves in and out between one character’s consciousness and that of another, and does so in a manner that is at once seemingly self-defeating and contradictory, yet perfectly suited all the same: Woolf’s simultaneous use of free indirect style and stream-of-consciousness. In and out again and seemingly a jumble of contradictions piled one top of the other, Virginia Woolf’s, Mrs. Dalloway is remarkable for its fragmented nature—at nature that surprisingly lends itself so easily to melding into one whole, cohesive object. For surely the novel is best seen at a distance or even in retrospect; only then can the novel been seen in its entirety, for what it is and as it exists at its most basic yet important element. As one day—one moment in time: London, June 24, 1923.
One gets the impression that Mrs. Dalloway ought much rather be a collection of short stories rather than the one novel that the story actually forms. It is in fact the physical form in which the text is written that allows for a book with distinct narrative and plot lines to work so well as one cohesive whole. Woolf utilizes seemingly contradictory elements of writing in order to accomplish this, namely: Woolf blurs the distinction between first and third person narration by writing in the free indirect style. As if the constant switch between narrative styles were not enough on its own, Woolf also makes smooth, almost unnoticeable transitions from one narrator to another, constantly switching from character to character. The result is a recurring sense of confusion, as of not knowing whose thoughts one is looking in upon at any given moment in the novel. The free and direct style allows Woolf to relay her characters’ most intimate thoughts and concerns, as in first person narrative, whilst maintaining the convenient all-knowing aspect of third person narrative at the same time, because free indirect style is in fact, a first person narrative under the guise and written in the style of a third person narrative. And free indirect style is so specialized a mechanism for Woolf’s writing that the constant switching between first and third person narrative comes rather as a constant flow, so smooth and the transition often goes unnoticed, resulting in what can be called a sense of confusion as to whose narrative is being followed at any particular point in the novel.
Free indirect style is Woolf’s weapon of choice when it comes to mechanism Woolf utilizes by which to relay her characters’ thoughts in the novel specifically. Free indirect style is coupled for the whole of the novel by Woolf’s preferred style of writing: stream-of-consciousness. Again, stream-of-consciousness is a style of writing typically associated with first person narratives. Mrs. Dalloway, however, is written only partially in first person narrative therefore it would appear that Woolf’s use of stream-of-consciousness should result in an awkward sort of novel, at times flowing perfectly and at times at odds with itself. The truth is that Mrs. Dalloway flows as smoothly as the simplest plot-driven novel while examining her characters’ personalities and thoughts to such a depth as not plot-driven novel could ever achieve. Woolf’s pairing of the free indirect style with stream-of-consciousness is so effective in fact, that the novel’s true fragmented nature is not only overlooked, but goes entirely unnoticed by the reader the vast majority of the time.
But Woolf’s ingenious mechanism cannot be fully appreciated until it is observed at work. More intimately and in one of the most revealing moments in the novel, the conversation between Clarissa and Peter before the party, Woolf demonstrates just how effective her style of writing truly is. The reader is presented with the both Clarissa and Peter’s most intimate thoughts and opinions in this scene, all at the same time and sometimes on the same page. The reader is able to compare Clarissa’s continued awe at Peter’s free spirited nature with Peter’s own self-loathing because free indirect style allows the reader to look into Peter’s mind and personally witness Peter’s brand of the same self-deprecating complex Clarissa herself is in possession of. And thus their most intimate thoughts can be compared to one another.
Free indirect does not stop there, however. In addition to ushering a comparison between characters’ intimate thoughts, the aspect of free indirect style’s third person narrative aspect gives this same scene between Clarissa and Peter a new dimension: objective space. While this may seem as though a given, there are several scenes in the novel, such as this particular one, in which the psychological interludes between the characters are so consuming that the reader is liable to forget that there is actually something going on outside of the characters’ minds. And this is a key aspect of the novel because, given that a large portion of the novel takes place within the thoughts of one character or another, it goes without saying that the characters in this novel appear quite unable of objective thought.
It would then seem that the novel would be entirely devoid of not objective thought, but anything objective—solid—against which the characters’ thoughts and opinions can be contrasted—objective space.
In the scene between Clarissa and Peter for example: “I know all that, Peter thought; I know what I’m up against…Clarissa and Dalloway and all the rest of them; but I’ll show Clarissa…” (Woolf 46). This part of the scene exists inside Peter’s mind whereas: “If I had married him, this gaiety would have been mine all day!” (Woolf 47) takes places entirely within Clarissa’s mind. Free indirect allows the reader to see not only the conviction with which Peter pledges to affirm himself to the people who so long have looked down upon him (or so he thought) but the reader is also able to see that Clarissa stills thinks constantly about what her life would have been like, had she accepted Peter’s proposal those many years ago. The reader is able to witness both characters’ thoughts and see just how truly unaware of each other they are. This is the objective space that free indirect creates: the reader. The manner in which free indirect is written in third person style allows the reader to see not only what is going on inside the characters’ minds, but the reader is also able to see what is actually going on in the scene itself, outside the characters’ minds. In the above scene, for example, the reader is able to read Peter’s thoughts, dogmatic and full of conviction, and contrast those same thoughts to what Peter actually does immediately after thinking them, i.e., burst into tears. Clarissa then, once again laments her loss for not having accepted Peter, but her actions are cool, calm, collected—seemingly indifferent. And it is a constant juxtaposition—struggle—between what is physically happening in the novel and what is happening within the characters’ minds. Unfortunately for Clarissa and Peter, their actions certainly speak louder than their words or even their thoughts, and it appears they will never know how the other truly feels about him or herself—only the objective reader, who at once knows what both characters are thinking and can see exactly what they are doing—only the reader truly knows.
And so it would seem that the objective space created by Woolf’s use of free indirect style has a name: time. Time, whether it be the amount of time it takes the reader to finish novel or the brief amount of time the novel actually takes place in, time functions as an objective space and means by which the characters in Mrs. Dalloway can be examined, scrutinized, and understood whilst doing what they do best: living. Virginia Woolf uses free indirect style to relay the story of one day’s happenings in the lives of a group of people, leaving not one stone unturned and not one person unexamined. The reader knows what the characters are doing and even what they are thinking and feeling at the very moment they are thinking and feeling it—it gives one a sense of living vicariously. As the snapshot of one rather ordinary day in London, Mrs. Dalloway is a portrait of life as it exists not only for the people in the novel itself, but as it is in general. Life, as seen in this one snippet of time—one day—as seen through the eyes of a group of distinct individuals being who they are, and nothing more—just being.
It is a moment caught, in the act of being.
Work Cited
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 1953.
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“The result is a recurring sense of confusion”
No kidding! Mrs. Dalloway is a difficult book to read. I had a hard time following this essay. It may have made more sense to me had I recently read Mrs. Dalloway. As it is, it has been several years since I picked the book up. This isn’t a bad critique – but it seems overly wordy, as if you were trying meet a minimum word count for your grade. It is insightful and makes some very good points.
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My suggestion would be to make a thesis statement in the first paragraph and then support that statement in the next three paragraphs with a concluding paragraph to tie back into the thesis statement. You don’t have to like a piece of work to write about it. You can write about what you do not like, but there has to be some kind of personal connection with the work. I felt that you were being repetitive in place of being connected. You have some good information in here, just needs to be re-organized and watch for repetitiveness. Your first paragraph is the weakest and the paragraph that starts with “In the scene between Clarissa and Peter for example…” is your strongest. I felt like you were wandering around trying to find something to grab ahold of and couldn’t really get intimate with what you were writing.
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