Book Review: Mrs. Dalloway. Writer: Virginia Woolf.
'To express or to suppress, that is the question'! There come many situations in life where a human being is in a conundrum regarding expression or suppression of his feelings. While expression 'can' result into a great outcome, but there are instances where faith has rewarded the ones who held their horses. In today's technologically equipped yet emotionally challenged world, it is hard to come by someone who has struck a 'just right' balance between expression and suppression, and much of that is the work of the sapient being.
When it comes to being a sapient and making the right decisions, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway, an upper class English Elite lady is far from it and at least considers herself to be so, because all her life she has been struggling within herself, evaluating her decision of leaving her great love, Peter Walsh, the rowdy nomad who would have done anything for her and marrying the stable and intellectual Parliamentarian Mr. Richard Dalloway, instead, in contrast with the life of Septimus Warren Smith, a mentally challenged soldier retired from war and Peter Walsh himself.
It is said that time is the best healer, and time makes things easier. But, does not time also make things harder than ever? Why is it that when we least expect it, or least want it, the best memories of life resurface to our detriment? Time, as healing as soothing as it may be, is also cruel and can make long lost wounds seem fresher than ever and though reduce their effect, the fact of the wound staying and memories only amplifying it makes the writing poignant.
The book characterizes three different people, from three different classes of England, and the effects that the aftermath of the First World War has upon them. Woolf's charm is in her casual and accurate exposal of man, who may exhibit saintly or pedantic behaviour outwardly and so well as to the extent of exuding charm, but the inward urge for validation which would albeit temporarily empty the hole in his heart which he seeks to fulfill through academic precision and pedantry. She understands man, his need for appreciation and his eternal disappointment when he does not get it.
Clarissa tries to assuage her loneliness by throwing parties, gathering people and showing off her flower arrangements which she takes great pains to get done. Her family supports her, but is both ambitious and bored to death by her idea of parties. As Clarissa throws parties and roams among reams of people feeling a constant contradiction between her imagination of what her life with Peter would have been like, and what tribulations would she have to endure with her current life of comfort and luxury, the reader understands her plight but also feels like the bargain worked in her favour. Clarissa, is not just an analytical person. She is a good one, and that makes things harder for her as is often the case with good people.
Woolf characterizes Clarissa as a person that most of us are, persons who wonder what it would be like to take risks, what it would be like to live a life of adventure fearlessly, and mostly whose actions are just steps taken towards being loved. It is one thing to love and totally another to be loved. As the book analyses Clarissa, it also analyses love, relationships, the gradually changing definitions of love in a marriage as it matures, and of course, the wonderful joy of parenthood.
The brilliance of 'Mrs. Dalloway' is in the trenchant portrayal of the happening of a single event differently in different people's lives. As Clarissa, Peter and Septimus live their different lives in a post war world, they are still bound by the happening of this single event. War may have the effect of dividing nations, it does have the effect of unifying humanity, and Woolf''s writing is a stream of human consciousness.
A highlight of the book is that although Clarissa is quite quotidian and may appear fearful or meek, she is brave. Although Clarissa may not express much, she makes sure she is there for everyone who needs her and in that she wins hearts. Peter and Clarissa may have remained an unfinished business, but Clarissa was definitely a great player at the cards she had been dealt. The time lapse in the book is perfect and increases the reader's anticipation. The most wonderful part of the book is suppression of Woolf's personal opinion regarding war in her story, yet the reverberation of what war does to a person in her writing.
The book makes the readers question themselves and ask if out of sight really means out of mind, or what it really does mean is 'out of sight is always in mind?' and is absence the strongest form of presence and whether it would be right to risk what we have for what could have been?, because what could have been always seems better, easier and closer to the heart.
'Mrs. Dalloway' mesmerizes, asks questions and moves the reader. Not only will it adorn the reader's bookshelf, it will urge the reader to explore the many layers of their own personality. 'Mrs. Dalloway' is for everyone with an open mind and a deep, thinking, feeling heart.
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Very well written , your concept of supression and expression I liked the most
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