Mrs Dalloway quote collection and themes
AGEING AND OLDER WOMEN
- Time is a significant motif in Mrs Dalloway- Woolf sets up a contrast between internal
and external time, objective and subjective. Objectively, we are reminded of the
continuous and irrevocable passage of time through the repeated chiming of Big Ben.
Psychologically, time plays an important role- flashbacks, revelations and awareness
all comprise this- interaction between Clarissa’s young and old self. The core role of
time in relation to the theme of women is its function in exploring the ageing and loss
of value of older women in this society.
Clarissa Dalloway
- “Indomitable vitality”
- “She felt very young, at the same time unspeakably aged.”
- “This body, with all its capacities, seemed like nothing, nothing at all.”
- “Invisible, unseen, unknown; there being no more marrying, no more having of
children.”- being eligible for marriage and childbearing gave her value and validation,
made her visible. Once older women lose this, they lose their value, their visibility.
They are discarded.
- Miss Pym notices how Clarissa “looked older, this year”
- “She felt like a nun who has left the world.”- no longer a potential wife or mother, she
feels she has lost her place in society, no longer desirable or worthy of sex. Domestic
sphere she inhabits is compared to a convent, and she to the asexual nun.
- “Like a nun withdrawing or a child exploring a tower.” - oppositions- old vs young,
retreating vs exploring. But both isolated- child alone in the tower, nun withdrawing
from life.
- “Shrivelling, aged, breastless.” - loss of femininity with age- the thing that gives
women value, their body, begins to wither.
- “She feared time itself… the dwindling of life; how year by year her share was sliced;
how little the margin that remained was capable any longer of stretching, of
absorbing, as in the youthful years, the colours, salts, the tones of existence, so that
she filled the room when she entered.” - Makes her shiver, the thought of ageing,
how narrow what she can gain from life is becoming, how much life is no longer hers.
- Youthful excitement at life is contrasted with how she now feels it is “dwindling.” She
used to feel the exquisite moment of excitement like a “diver before plunging.”
- “Women must put off their rich apparel. At midday they must disrobe.” Middle age-
nobody is interested in female appearance anymore- no longer attractive, no
validation. Image of midlife where women have no value.
- “Narrower and narrower would her bed be. The candle was half burnt down.” -
dwindling of life. Sense of urgency- not much time left, less and less
freedom/opportunity. Candle symbolic of her body withering?
- “She could not dispel a virginity preserved through childbirth which clung to her like a
sheet. Lovely in girlhood.”
- “There contrasted the bed… and the candle half burnt”- stark contrast between the
immersive and intense experience of orgasm (“rapture/illumination/match burning”)-
, the epitome of sexuality- and her ageing sexuality, her withering life. Contrast
between swelling (“swollen with some astonishing significance”) and shrivelling
(“candle half burnt”)
- “She was not old yet…months and months of it were still untouched!”
- Dressmaker has retired- symbolic of how her time to be beautiful and attractive has
expired?
- Image of death created by reference to Cymbale- “That is all. Fear no more, says the
heart, fear no more, says the heart, committing its burden to some sea”
- “It was all over for her. The sheet was stretched and the bed narrow. She had gone
up into the tower alone and left them blackberrying in the sun. The door had
shut, and there among the dust of fallen plaster and the litter of birds’ nests how
distant the view had looked.” - ageing, retreat into unwanted chastity, away from
everything living (representative of fertility) outside. Locked away from the pleasures
of life. Repeated idea of narrowing bed- panicked dwindling of life.
- Idea of the “five acts of a play” that are now over- excitement and love is over for her.
- In Peter’s perspective, the narrowing of her life after marriage. “How could she
swallow all that stuff about poetry?”- she used to read poetry etc, now accepts
Richard’s distance from literature.
- “Save her from the Hughs and the Dalloways and all the other “perfect gentlemen”
who would stifle her soul (she wrote reams of poetry in those days), make a mere
hostess of her, encourage her worldliness”
-
Mrs Dempster observing Maisie Johnson.
- Maisie describes the small, romantic things in life- the “squirrels perching…dogs
busy… soft warm air washed over them.” Mrs D is cynical towards Maisie’s awe and
wonder at life in her youth- “that girl…don’t know a thing yet.” she thought.
- Maisie’s newfound freedom in moving to London vs Mrs Dempster’s entrapment in
the monotonous domestic life of marriage.
- Still, Mrs D “couldn’t help smiling at a girl like that. You’ll get married soon, for you’re
pretty enough.” Example of 2 women, one at the beginning of a woman’s life, full of
excitement- juxtaposed with one at the end of her journey Women become
disillusioned as they age, forced to confront the soul destroying realities of marriage
and life that will crush their dreams. Also an example of older women reinforcing
patriarchal conventions, projecting an expected life route onto younger women.
- Mrs D’s life- “eating, drinking, and mating, the bad days and the good.”- reduces life
to its most basic, physical needs in comparison to Maisie’s romanticised illusions.
Women's lives narrow as they age.
- “It’s been a hard life, thought Mrs Dempster”- also the trajectory Clarissa’s life
follows- feels life has lost value in ageing.
- Mrs Dempster feels “Pity, for the loss of roses. Pity she asked of Maisie Johnson,
standing by the hyacinth beds.” Flowers are symbolic. Roses represent Mrs
Dempster’s loss of youthful optimism and romance, a loss that characterises
women’s lives.
- Association of Maisie with flowers, hyacinths- associated with sexual virility and
fertility- she still has the potential to bloom, create new life, something Mrs Dalloway
and Dempster have lost.
AGEING AND OLDER WOMEN
- Time is a significant motif in Mrs Dalloway- Woolf sets up a contrast between internal
and external time, objective and subjective. Objectively, we are reminded of the
continuous and irrevocable passage of time through the repeated chiming of Big Ben.
Psychologically, time plays an important role- flashbacks, revelations and awareness
all comprise this- interaction between Clarissa’s young and old self. The core role of
time in relation to the theme of women is its function in exploring the ageing and loss
of value of older women in this society.
Clarissa Dalloway
- “Indomitable vitality”
- “She felt very young, at the same time unspeakably aged.”
- “This body, with all its capacities, seemed like nothing, nothing at all.”
- “Invisible, unseen, unknown; there being no more marrying, no more having of
children.”- being eligible for marriage and childbearing gave her value and validation,
made her visible. Once older women lose this, they lose their value, their visibility.
They are discarded.
- Miss Pym notices how Clarissa “looked older, this year”
- “She felt like a nun who has left the world.”- no longer a potential wife or mother, she
feels she has lost her place in society, no longer desirable or worthy of sex. Domestic
sphere she inhabits is compared to a convent, and she to the asexual nun.
- “Like a nun withdrawing or a child exploring a tower.” - oppositions- old vs young,
retreating vs exploring. But both isolated- child alone in the tower, nun withdrawing
from life.
- “Shrivelling, aged, breastless.” - loss of femininity with age- the thing that gives
women value, their body, begins to wither.
- “She feared time itself… the dwindling of life; how year by year her share was sliced;
how little the margin that remained was capable any longer of stretching, of
absorbing, as in the youthful years, the colours, salts, the tones of existence, so that
she filled the room when she entered.” - Makes her shiver, the thought of ageing,
how narrow what she can gain from life is becoming, how much life is no longer hers.
- Youthful excitement at life is contrasted with how she now feels it is “dwindling.” She
used to feel the exquisite moment of excitement like a “diver before plunging.”
- “Women must put off their rich apparel. At midday they must disrobe.” Middle age-
nobody is interested in female appearance anymore- no longer attractive, no
validation. Image of midlife where women have no value.
- “Narrower and narrower would her bed be. The candle was half burnt down.” -
dwindling of life. Sense of urgency- not much time left, less and less
freedom/opportunity. Candle symbolic of her body withering?
- “She could not dispel a virginity preserved through childbirth which clung to her like a
sheet. Lovely in girlhood.”
- “There contrasted the bed… and the candle half burnt”- stark contrast between the
immersive and intense experience of orgasm (“rapture/illumination/match burning”)-
, the epitome of sexuality- and her ageing sexuality, her withering life. Contrast
between swelling (“swollen with some astonishing significance”) and shrivelling
(“candle half burnt”)
- “She was not old yet…months and months of it were still untouched!”
- Dressmaker has retired- symbolic of how her time to be beautiful and attractive has
expired?
- Image of death created by reference to Cymbale- “That is all. Fear no more, says the
heart, fear no more, says the heart, committing its burden to some sea”
- “It was all over for her. The sheet was stretched and the bed narrow. She had gone
up into the tower alone and left them blackberrying in the sun. The door had
shut, and there among the dust of fallen plaster and the litter of birds’ nests how
distant the view had looked.” - ageing, retreat into unwanted chastity, away from
everything living (representative of fertility) outside. Locked away from the pleasures
of life. Repeated idea of narrowing bed- panicked dwindling of life.
- Idea of the “five acts of a play” that are now over- excitement and love is over for her.
- In Peter’s perspective, the narrowing of her life after marriage. “How could she
swallow all that stuff about poetry?”- she used to read poetry etc, now accepts
Richard’s distance from literature.
- “Save her from the Hughs and the Dalloways and all the other “perfect gentlemen”
who would stifle her soul (she wrote reams of poetry in those days), make a mere
hostess of her, encourage her worldliness”
-
Mrs Dempster observing Maisie Johnson.
- Maisie describes the small, romantic things in life- the “squirrels perching…dogs
busy… soft warm air washed over them.” Mrs D is cynical towards Maisie’s awe and
wonder at life in her youth- “that girl…don’t know a thing yet.” she thought.
- Maisie’s newfound freedom in moving to London vs Mrs Dempster’s entrapment in
the monotonous domestic life of marriage.
- Still, Mrs D “couldn’t help smiling at a girl like that. You’ll get married soon, for you’re
pretty enough.” Example of 2 women, one at the beginning of a woman’s life, full of
excitement- juxtaposed with one at the end of her journey Women become
disillusioned as they age, forced to confront the soul destroying realities of marriage
and life that will crush their dreams. Also an example of older women reinforcing
patriarchal conventions, projecting an expected life route onto younger women.
- Mrs D’s life- “eating, drinking, and mating, the bad days and the good.”- reduces life
to its most basic, physical needs in comparison to Maisie’s romanticised illusions.
Women's lives narrow as they age.
- “It’s been a hard life, thought Mrs Dempster”- also the trajectory Clarissa’s life
follows- feels life has lost value in ageing.
- Mrs Dempster feels “Pity, for the loss of roses. Pity she asked of Maisie Johnson,
standing by the hyacinth beds.” Flowers are symbolic. Roses represent Mrs
Dempster’s loss of youthful optimism and romance, a loss that characterises
women’s lives.
- Association of Maisie with flowers, hyacinths- associated with sexual virility and
fertility- she still has the potential to bloom, create new life, something Mrs Dalloway
and Dempster have lost.
