Being new to Virginia Woolf’s prose, I am fascinated by and obsessed with her style. If you don’t like feeling like a spectre that simultaneously follows and observes the stream of consciousness of people, this book probably isn’t for you. As a stylistic choice, stream-of-consciousness-style writing perfectly develops a slice-of-life story. How better to make the daily routines and activities of life seem momentous than through delving into the innermost thoughts of the story’s characters? Page-breaks are rare and the story does not include chapters, which gives the book the sense of having a very fluid plotline that tethered to neither the present, past, nor future. The story is centered around its namesake protagonist, Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa Dalloway struggles between being fully present and being caught in the past. She spends a chunk of the first part of the book reflecting on her past love interests, which include Peter Walsh, Sally Seton, and her now-husband Richard. As she walk...
An analysis of Virginia Woolf's 1925 novel, Mrs. Dalloway.
