Mrs Dalloway

Mrs Dalloway is one of Virginia Woolf’s masterpieces and was first published in 1925. Many readers consider it one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. The story follows a single June day in 1923 as Clarissa Dalloway prepares for her evening party in London. Woolf portrays the stream of consciousness of Clarissa and several other characters in long, fluid passages that move like flowing water. Because of this style, the novel can be challenging for English learners; I managed to read it by using the Japanese translation alongside the original.

The novel opens with the famous line: “Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” Peter Walsh, Clarissa’s old friend who has just returned from India, visits her and brings back memories of their youth. He once loved her, and there was also Sally, another close friend. Clarissa learned about sexuality and society through Sally, who awakened in her a youthful, almost romantic admiration. In the end, Clarissa refused Peter’s love and married the dependable Richard. Peter, devastated, left for India.

Miss Kilman, Elizabeth’s history teacher, is another important figure. A devout Christian who sees herself as a victim of misfortune, she resents Clarissa’s brightness and atheism. Woolf sets Miss Kilman in deliberate contrast to Clarissa.

The story of Septimus Warren Smith forms a parallel narrative. He volunteered to fight in the First World War and loved his comrade Evans. After Evans was killed, Septimus suffered severe shell shock and lost his emotional stability and sense of reality. He speaks to Evans as if he were still alive and repeatedly contemplates suicide. His young Italian wife, Rezia, can only watch in confusion and despair. Eventually, Septimus throws himself from a window.

Although Clarissa and Septimus never meet, Woolf wrote that Septimus is Clarissa’s “shadow.”


She had once thrown a shilling into the Serpentine, never anything more. But he had flung it away. They went on living ･･･. They would grow old. A thing there was that mattered; a thing, wreathed about with chatter, defaced, obscured in her own life, let drop every day in corruption, lies, chatter. This he had preserved. Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate, people feeling the impossibility of reaching the centre which, mystically, evaded them; closeness drew apart; rapture faded; one was alone. There was an embrace in death.
 But this young man who had killed himself -- had he plunged holding his treasure?

The novel was not only difficult for me but also bitter. I felt as though Peter Walsh, Septimus, and even Miss Kilman were shadows of myself. If you sympathize with Clarissa, you must be a fascinating woman. I imagine that Clarissa’s passion for her party symbolizes her longing for life—shot through with a momentary temptation toward death. To me, this book is ultimately about life, death.

In 1941, after leaving brief farewell letters for her husband and her sister, Woolf ended her life by drowning herself in a nearby river, unable to escape her depression.