Clarissa in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf Term Paper

Clarissa in "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf is a novel that chronicles the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a woman torn between preserving her own identity and maintaining the image that she wants to present to the public. Through different characters in the novel, particularly Peter Walsh's character, Clarissa's character is given depth, and as the novel progresses, the readers' perception of Clarissa changes, from being an irresolute woman to being a determined one as the novel ends. The following texts discuss Clarissa Dalloway's transition from her dual self-perception and concept of herself as a woman and the woman and individual she has become upon learning of Septimus Smith.

In the initial phase of Clarissa Dalloway's character presentation in the novel, she is characterized as a woman confused of what she really is, what she stands for in the midst of a high-class English society. At the start of the novel, Clarissa shows to the readers her perception of herself as she plies by the streets of England.Clarissa is aware that her personality is split into two: the one wanting to keep her own identity, doing things "for their own value" and the other self wanting to please others, wanting to give a part of her to other people. In effect, Clarissa is a caring and humane person inhibited by the arrogance that her society (i.e., high-class society) she belongs to. The following passage illustrates Clarissa's own perception of herself as she ponders her problem of character 'duality': "She would not say of any one in the world now that they were this or were that. She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged. She sliced like a knife through everything; at the same time was outside, looking on... did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely... being laid out like a mist between the people she knew best, who lifted her on their branches as she….....