Comparison of Tess and Dalloway
Themes
Tess Dalloway
Nature Imagery Flower- purity/ virginity Flowers- Flowers are a recurring motif throughout
“mobile peony mouth” the novel, often associated with a figure with more
“Large innocent eyes” independence than Clarissa herself – Sally Seton.
BIRDS “she would buy the flowers herself”
-liberty or suppression It begins ‘in media res’, an idiosyncrasy of the
-evokes or contradicts their traditional modernist era- they are an enormous source of joy
spiritual association with a higher realm of for Clarissa, who cherishes the beauty of everyday
transcendence. Both the Christian dove of
life.
peace and the Romantic songbirds of Keats
Flowers are also a crucial aspect of Clarissa's
and Shelley, which symbolize sublime
memories:
heights, lead us to expect that birds will
have positive meaning in this novel. Tess Sally went out, picked hollyhocks, dahlias – all
occasionally hears birdcalls on her frequent sorts of flowers that had never been seen
hikes across the countryside; their free together – cut their heads off, and made them
expressiveness stands in stark contrast to swim on the top of water in bowls. The effect was
Tess’s silent and constrained existence as a extraordinary – coming in to dinner in the sunset.
wronged and disgraced girl. When Tess goes (Of course Aunt Helena thought it wicked to treat
to work for Mrs. d’Urberville pet finches are flowers like that). (2.14)
frequently released to fly free throughout Sally Seton… thought of him when she saw blue
the room. These birds offer images of hope hydrangeas--Blue – Connected to frigidity, turning
and liberation. (irony) making us doubt down a romantic proposal, asking for forgiveness,
whether these images of hope and freedom and expressing regret.
are illusory. Trees, with their extensive root systems, suggest
Mrs. d’Urberville’s birds leave little white the vast reach of the human soul, and Clarissa
spots on the upholstery, which presumably and Septimus, who both struggle to protect their
some servant—perhaps Tess herself—will
souls, revere them. Clarissa believes souls survive
have to clean. It may be that freedom for
in trees after death, and Septimus, who has
one creature entails hardship for another,
turned his back on patriarchal society, feels that
just as Alec’s free enjoyment of Tess’s body
leads her to a lifetime of suffering. In the cutting down a tree is the equivalent of
end, when Tess encounters the pheasants committing murder.
maimed by hunters and lying in agony, birds “first that trees are alive”
no longer seem free, but rather oppressed
and submissive. These pheasants are no Water- Memory- ebbs and flows
Romantic songbirds hovering far above the o lacks boundaries or control
Earth—they are victims of earthly violence, o Links to Septimus death which was by a
condemned to suffer down below and never river (what a lark! What a plunge!)
fly again. o Clarity and serenity
Attraction to water
Feels natural in it
Clarissa’s mermaid dress
“Like the flap of the wave, the kiss of a wave”
“the waves which threaten to break”
Waves and water regularly wash over events
and thoughts in Mrs. Dalloway and nearly always
suggest the possibility of extinction or death.
While Clarissa mends her party dress, she thinks
about the peaceful cycle of waves collecting and
falling on a summer day, when the world itself
seems to say “that is all.” Time sometimes takes
Themes
Tess Dalloway
Nature Imagery Flower- purity/ virginity Flowers- Flowers are a recurring motif throughout
“mobile peony mouth” the novel, often associated with a figure with more
“Large innocent eyes” independence than Clarissa herself – Sally Seton.
BIRDS “she would buy the flowers herself”
-liberty or suppression It begins ‘in media res’, an idiosyncrasy of the
-evokes or contradicts their traditional modernist era- they are an enormous source of joy
spiritual association with a higher realm of for Clarissa, who cherishes the beauty of everyday
transcendence. Both the Christian dove of
life.
peace and the Romantic songbirds of Keats
Flowers are also a crucial aspect of Clarissa's
and Shelley, which symbolize sublime
memories:
heights, lead us to expect that birds will
have positive meaning in this novel. Tess Sally went out, picked hollyhocks, dahlias – all
occasionally hears birdcalls on her frequent sorts of flowers that had never been seen
hikes across the countryside; their free together – cut their heads off, and made them
expressiveness stands in stark contrast to swim on the top of water in bowls. The effect was
Tess’s silent and constrained existence as a extraordinary – coming in to dinner in the sunset.
wronged and disgraced girl. When Tess goes (Of course Aunt Helena thought it wicked to treat
to work for Mrs. d’Urberville pet finches are flowers like that). (2.14)
frequently released to fly free throughout Sally Seton… thought of him when she saw blue
the room. These birds offer images of hope hydrangeas--Blue – Connected to frigidity, turning
and liberation. (irony) making us doubt down a romantic proposal, asking for forgiveness,
whether these images of hope and freedom and expressing regret.
are illusory. Trees, with their extensive root systems, suggest
Mrs. d’Urberville’s birds leave little white the vast reach of the human soul, and Clarissa
spots on the upholstery, which presumably and Septimus, who both struggle to protect their
some servant—perhaps Tess herself—will
souls, revere them. Clarissa believes souls survive
have to clean. It may be that freedom for
in trees after death, and Septimus, who has
one creature entails hardship for another,
turned his back on patriarchal society, feels that
just as Alec’s free enjoyment of Tess’s body
leads her to a lifetime of suffering. In the cutting down a tree is the equivalent of
end, when Tess encounters the pheasants committing murder.
maimed by hunters and lying in agony, birds “first that trees are alive”
no longer seem free, but rather oppressed
and submissive. These pheasants are no Water- Memory- ebbs and flows
Romantic songbirds hovering far above the o lacks boundaries or control
Earth—they are victims of earthly violence, o Links to Septimus death which was by a
condemned to suffer down below and never river (what a lark! What a plunge!)
fly again. o Clarity and serenity
Attraction to water
Feels natural in it
Clarissa’s mermaid dress
“Like the flap of the wave, the kiss of a wave”
“the waves which threaten to break”
Waves and water regularly wash over events
and thoughts in Mrs. Dalloway and nearly always
suggest the possibility of extinction or death.
While Clarissa mends her party dress, she thinks
about the peaceful cycle of waves collecting and
falling on a summer day, when the world itself
seems to say “that is all.” Time sometimes takes
