CHERY
Lucas
LLCER Anglais
M. Tholoniat
COMMENTARY
Virginia Woolf was a Modernist writer, she thought that the new life of the 20th century had
to be captured by new types of writers, and that is what she did in her novel Mrs Dalloway which
was published in 1925. The excerpt that we are going to work on is from the beginning of that
novel. The story is about Clarissa, the main character, who is going to throw a party in the
evening, the all novel lasts for a single day, and our passage is found at the beginning when
Clarissa picks flowers for her party at Mulberry’s the florists. What is striking about this passage is
that it has to different moments, the first being Clarissa’s dark mindset, she’s upset and angry
because of Mrs. Kilman, her daughter’s guardian, who is changing the little girl in way that
Clarissa does not like at all, and the second being her arrival to Mulberry’s which change
completely the atmosphere in a cool and peaceful one, and create a discrepancy and a contrast
within the text. We also have a complete stream of Clarissa’s thoughts thanks the omniscient
narrator. So to what extend this narrator is making us live the jump of Clarissa to a hatred and
mental world to a cool and peaceful physical one ? And how does the stream of Clarissa’s
consciousness is underpins by this new setting ? A first part is going to work on the narrator role
in the excerpt and a second will focused on the setting and its links with Clarissa’s mind.
When the excerpt starts it deals with the hatred that Clarissa has over Mrs. Kilman, her
daughter’s guardian, and she disapprove what she is doing with her daughter. In the first line we
immediately know what Clarissa feels about Mrs. Kilman, she has actually her senses that tell her
that she is bad for her daughter. Indeed we have a vocabulary concerning the sense of hearing
like « rasped », and « hear » line 1, which allude to what she is living. Then the narrator makes it
possible for us to feel Clarissa’s pain, and it is not only a mental suffering but this hatred is
spreading on her body and she is actually suffering physically. We have the verb « feel » two times
line 2 and line 4, and the narrator emphasizes the fact that « this hatred » line 4, « gave her
physical pain ». She is so full with it that it is spreading on her body. Continuing throughout the
excerpt the narrator also hints at the sense of smell, this when Clarissa is at Mulberry’s. There is
the lexical field of the smell, like the verbe to breath line 16, the word « smell » line 17, and line 21
we know that the place has a « delicious scent », knowing the amount of flowers that the shop
has.
As said before Clarissa passes a threshold when she enters the florist’s shop, therefore the
atmosphere changes and the hatred comes to an end at line 9 when she pushes « the swing
doors ». All of the sudden she is elsewhere, and the image of the « doors » is making us think of a
passage through some other world. There is a contrast within the text because it deals with two
different feelings, the hatred opposite to the agreeable. But the thing is that Clarissa let the
agreeable coming through her, whereas for the hatred and the pain she doesn’t want it at all. In
fact she reproches to herself the thoughts that she has, for example line 9 when she speaks
saying « nonsense, nonsense ». This is one of the two part in a direct speech, and it emphasizes
even more Clarissa’s feeling because when we speak to ourself we want to put in evidence what
should be right for us. So the narrator has an important role in this excerpt, he is omniscient so
thanks to him we see and feel through the protagonist and we know more.
At the beginning we know that Clarissa is on her way to Mulberry’s, but we don’t have any
kind of indication regarding her external environment, as readers at that moment we are aware of
what she feels but no more. This is only when she crosses the door of the shop that we are
somewhere else. As soon as she enters in the shop she seems immediately more self-confident
and reassured, we can see it line 11 where there is a ternary rhythm with those three adjectives :
« light, tall, very upright » which show us a new image of the protagonist. And we no longer see
her as a mother who doesn’t even know what is right for her daughter.
Lucas
LLCER Anglais
M. Tholoniat
COMMENTARY
Virginia Woolf was a Modernist writer, she thought that the new life of the 20th century had
to be captured by new types of writers, and that is what she did in her novel Mrs Dalloway which
was published in 1925. The excerpt that we are going to work on is from the beginning of that
novel. The story is about Clarissa, the main character, who is going to throw a party in the
evening, the all novel lasts for a single day, and our passage is found at the beginning when
Clarissa picks flowers for her party at Mulberry’s the florists. What is striking about this passage is
that it has to different moments, the first being Clarissa’s dark mindset, she’s upset and angry
because of Mrs. Kilman, her daughter’s guardian, who is changing the little girl in way that
Clarissa does not like at all, and the second being her arrival to Mulberry’s which change
completely the atmosphere in a cool and peaceful one, and create a discrepancy and a contrast
within the text. We also have a complete stream of Clarissa’s thoughts thanks the omniscient
narrator. So to what extend this narrator is making us live the jump of Clarissa to a hatred and
mental world to a cool and peaceful physical one ? And how does the stream of Clarissa’s
consciousness is underpins by this new setting ? A first part is going to work on the narrator role
in the excerpt and a second will focused on the setting and its links with Clarissa’s mind.
When the excerpt starts it deals with the hatred that Clarissa has over Mrs. Kilman, her
daughter’s guardian, and she disapprove what she is doing with her daughter. In the first line we
immediately know what Clarissa feels about Mrs. Kilman, she has actually her senses that tell her
that she is bad for her daughter. Indeed we have a vocabulary concerning the sense of hearing
like « rasped », and « hear » line 1, which allude to what she is living. Then the narrator makes it
possible for us to feel Clarissa’s pain, and it is not only a mental suffering but this hatred is
spreading on her body and she is actually suffering physically. We have the verb « feel » two times
line 2 and line 4, and the narrator emphasizes the fact that « this hatred » line 4, « gave her
physical pain ». She is so full with it that it is spreading on her body. Continuing throughout the
excerpt the narrator also hints at the sense of smell, this when Clarissa is at Mulberry’s. There is
the lexical field of the smell, like the verbe to breath line 16, the word « smell » line 17, and line 21
we know that the place has a « delicious scent », knowing the amount of flowers that the shop
has.
As said before Clarissa passes a threshold when she enters the florist’s shop, therefore the
atmosphere changes and the hatred comes to an end at line 9 when she pushes « the swing
doors ». All of the sudden she is elsewhere, and the image of the « doors » is making us think of a
passage through some other world. There is a contrast within the text because it deals with two
different feelings, the hatred opposite to the agreeable. But the thing is that Clarissa let the
agreeable coming through her, whereas for the hatred and the pain she doesn’t want it at all. In
fact she reproches to herself the thoughts that she has, for example line 9 when she speaks
saying « nonsense, nonsense ». This is one of the two part in a direct speech, and it emphasizes
even more Clarissa’s feeling because when we speak to ourself we want to put in evidence what
should be right for us. So the narrator has an important role in this excerpt, he is omniscient so
thanks to him we see and feel through the protagonist and we know more.
At the beginning we know that Clarissa is on her way to Mulberry’s, but we don’t have any
kind of indication regarding her external environment, as readers at that moment we are aware of
what she feels but no more. This is only when she crosses the door of the shop that we are
somewhere else. As soon as she enters in the shop she seems immediately more self-confident
and reassured, we can see it line 11 where there is a ternary rhythm with those three adjectives :
« light, tall, very upright » which show us a new image of the protagonist. And we no longer see
her as a mother who doesn’t even know what is right for her daughter.
