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In the first scene of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Clarissa is walking around London on a mission to buy flowers for a party she is hosting that evening. We can learn a lot about Clarissa's identity just by following her train of thought as she walks. Clarissa feels a connection with the other city dwellers and has an empathy with them. However, as one progresses through the novel, the walk appears to be more of an escape from her traditional social identity rather than a true illustration of her character. It is through the use of other characters that Woolf allows us to truly see inside Clarissa Dalloway’s mind.
For example, we soon begin to see that Clarissa has a class snobbishness about her when she shows annoyance over the fact that "her own daughter, her Elizabeth, cared not a straw for neither [gloves nor shoes]." Clarissa obviously cares for gloves and shoes, and considers them very important: she has funneled her emotions into material objects like gloves and shoes instead of people. Clarissa also describes Miss Kilman, a poor woman who has been cheated by the world, and whom she despises. Kilman was dismissed from a school during the war because she would not renounce the Germans; and she is of low social class and hasn't many other chances. Clarissa hates the character of Miss Kilman for complaining about the injury to her reputation during the war, which shows a lot about Clarissa’s own character as well. Clarissa seems much less empathetic than she did during the early part of her stroll through the city.
The scene featuring Clarissa's musings about the past and preparations for her party is followed by the introduction of Septimus Warren Smith, a shell-shocked veteran on the verge of madness. Septimus and his Italian wife, Lucrezia, both see a motorcar containing royalty traveling down the street, as Clarissa does. Woolf describes the motorcar mockingly as "a face of the very greatest importance against the dove-grey upholstery". Septimus views it is a pretentious symbol of status that is merely being flaunted for show. He essentially sees the car as a horrible oppressive thing, while everyone else, including Clarissa, holds great respect and curiosity for it. By using Septimus as a direct contrast to Clarissa, Woolf is able to emphasize even further the unmistakably materialistic values of her protagonist. Still, Woolf does try to get under the surface of all the conventions, to not just show Clarissa on the surface, but to also show her personality and sensitivity.
For example, when Clarissa comes back home to find a note that Richard has been asked to Lady Bruton's to lunch, but she has not been invited, she is quite hurt at being rejected by one of the grand ladies of her society. These hurt feelings inspire her to reminisce about her youth spent at Bourton, her father's summer home in the country. Through these memories of other characters, and how Clarissa feels about them, we are able to see that in addition to being overly class-conscious, she also has many endearing qualities. When she thinks of her love for Sally Seton, she seems much deeper and more complex than the traditional socialite, as Woolf illustrates on page 34: "The strange thing, on looking back, was the purity, the integrity, of her feeling for Sally. It was not like one's feeling for a man"
Even Clarissa's servant Lucy sees dual sides of Clarissa’s personality, which can be seen on page 38 when she reflects, “Of all her mistress was the loveliest--mistress of silver, of linen, of china" and later discusses how she was not like that when she was young. Clarissa has her identity in these things due to her class position; in Clarissa's position, the only options available for identity socially are in a husband and in things. Independence is not an option for her; she is trapped by class and money.
Clarissa’s husband Richard is also used in many ways to help define the protagonist’s personality. When Richard arrives home with roses for Clarissa, this is the first time we see the couple interacting. He ends up never telling Clarissa he loves her, but assumes that she knows. After five minutes of small talk, he takes off for a committee meeting, for the Armenians--or as Clarissa wonders "or perhaps it was the 'Albanians'". This shows Clarissa's unawareness and disinterest in both her husband’s activities and of the injustices and social problems going on in the world.
Clarissa has many thoughts of self-awareness, but continues to retreat inside the role of “hostess” so that she can mask her real feelings. If not for Woolf’s detailed descriptions of other characters; how they react to Clarissa and how she reacts to them, the character of Mrs. Dalloway would not be nearly as interesting or complex. Even the title is representative of how her character is defined by others in that “Mrs.” is used instead of “Clarissa.”
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