The Hidden Unhappiness of Mrs. Dalloway

 One thing I saw when I was reading Mrs. Dalloway were the subtle hints that Mrs. Dalloway makes about her happiness. For example, whenever she talks about her husband Richard, she almost always does it in a critiquing manner. Very rarely does she say good things about him. She says that she is comfortable with him (financially) and that he gives her a good life, but the passion is missing. She talks about other love interests in a way that shows that she doesn't love Richard in a true way. She isn't truly happy with Richard. 

    Another example was when Peter Walsh asks her if she is happy and, just by "coincidence", Elizabeth walks in and interrupts the conversation before she can answer. This is a very interesting touch because that way we don't actually get a definite "yes or no", and we can continue to wonder if she is truly happy. Another place in the book where we see a little hint of this is on page 36, where she says- "She had just broken into her fifty-second year. Months and months of it were still untouched. June, July, August! Each still remained almost whole...". The interesting part is the "almost whole". If the months haven't passed yet, why would they be "almost whole"? I think this is because her life is not satisfying to her and she needs something more: passion, love. This is why she seems jealous when Peter says that he has fallen in love with a girl from India: it is passionate love.

Comments

  1. locally locayleeSeptember 17, 2020 at 8:06 PM

    I like your mention of the lack of passion in life. I hadn't thought about how the reason behind her frequent thoughts and disgust of Peter may be fueled by jealousy. That would make sense that when thinking about Peter, she reminds herself why she refused him. Reasons such as "she wouldn't get the life she wants without money" or " she would have no freedom" (not quotes from the book) all sound like she's trying to convince herself from this point of view. Nice post!

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  2. JonathanSeptember 18, 2020 at 12:46 PM

    I really think that if Clarissa had married Peter, on the other hand, that she would still be incontent, wondering what her life would have been like living with the security that Richard brought. The way I kind of understood it was Clarissa choosing between individuality and security, that Peter or Richard respectively brought. I wonder if Clarissa will get a chance to rethink this decision, like if Peter will ask her to run away with him or something. Then we could see how much she really regrets the situation.

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  3. KatieSeptember 18, 2020 at 3:34 PM

    I feel like Mrs. Dalloway has just an overhanging doubt as she goes about her day, about Peter, about moving out of the stage of motherhood, and general thoughts about her past, her future, and death. I think some of this is due to the fact that she just overcame the flu, and so I think after battling illness she would be inclined to think about life again, after coming close to death. So while she has moments of happiness throughout her day, she can't help but return to the underlying worry.

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  4. RylandSeptember 18, 2020 at 4:04 PM

    But on page 4 she thinks to herself "...in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June." I would say that although at different points in this story it has been hinted at that she possibly is not satisfied, she is definitely comfortable. Maybe their is something inside her that wonders if things could be better but I don't think she believes that where she is now is bad in any way; she loves where she lives and the life she lives.

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  5. Eliza D. TerzievSeptember 20, 2020 at 8:50 AM

    You bring up fair points but I wouldn't consider Clarissa not content or unhappy regarding the life she lives. She does often ponder the past and how things could have gone differently but from what she's indicated so far I don't think it's coming from a place of dissatisfaction or despair but rather something of a curiosity. I think when it comes down to it she's nostalgic in a sense but knows she made the right choice for her in the end. The other possibilities (Sally or Peter) are interesting for her to entertain but unrealistic.

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  6. Katya S.September 20, 2020 at 3:15 PM

    I don't think there is passion in her relationship with Richard; she seems to respect him but I don't think there is true love there. However, I don't think she would be happy with Peter either. Peter seems to often criticize her. This works when their relationship is purely as friends, but I think she would get annoyed with him if she were to marry him. I would also like to comment on your jealousy statement. I personally don't think Peter is passionately in love with Daisy. Clarissa seems to assume he is, but after we get to go inside Peter's head, we see that he is still obsessed with Clarissa. He barely thinks about Daisy.

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  7. Aakash V.September 20, 2020 at 5:34 PM

    I like that you mentioned the passage where Elizabeth "coincidentally" walks in right when Peter asks about Clarissa's happiness and that we don't actually get an answer, leaving room only for speculation. This was something I noticed when I was reading as well and I feel like many authors do this for crucial character/plot points, either for the reader to question the character or for the character to question themselves. If she had time to answer, what would she have said? I also liked that little detail in the passage you mentioned about how the months were filling, but they were not completely full or whole (I remember you bringing this up in class). This shows a great deal about Clarissa and how she feels about herself. Here there were some "untouched" months, yet they were already not whole. Interesting! Awesome ideas here Zo!

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  8. MitchellSeptember 23, 2020 at 1:48 PM

    There may be some latent jealousy that Peter is somehow still in the stage of life where he falls "in love"--Clarissa seems at one point to lament that this phase of her life is over, and his generally less conventional way of life has meant that he's somehow still in this phase. But there's a good deal of eye-roll in her response, as well: "that's so Peter, always in love, what'll it be next?" She's got some skepticism, which seems justified when Peter acknowledges that he hasn't thought of Daisy (the married woman in India whose divorce he's in London to arrange) all day. Is he in love with her, or did he just want to throw this particular news item in Clarissa's face and see what she'd say?

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  9. DinaOctober 1, 2020 at 11:56 AM

    Although Clarissa isn't 100% satisfied with her marriage, isn't that the case for most marriages? I feel that there is rarely a case where there is someone out there that is completely perfect. I mean, human nature is not perfect, so how could there be the perfect pair? There could be a situation where one partner compliments the "downfalls" of the other partner, but there are definitely issues where partners will clash. Marriage has love involved but in the end I see it as a compromise for the best you can get, which is how Clarissa sees marriage. Let's be honest, even if it seems nice to her now, if Clarissa married Peter there would still be problems in the relationship.

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