So, I'm not re-reading Mrs. Dalloway right now because I read it a few weeks ago for a class. I did write a paper on Modernist Literature using Mrs. Dalloway, however. So, I'll go ahead and post that paper to get any discussion rolling. Half of the paper is about Lawrence's "Women in Love," so just disregard the first part of the paper.
A Modern Prison: Living Within Society’s Conventions
ReplyDeleteIt has been said that Modernist literature generally contains elements of individualism, mistrust for institutions, and the questioning of absolute truth. D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway are both novels that can be classified “Modern” because they both contain characters that come from long lines of conventional tradition, yet eventually stray, if only in conflicted thought, from their deeply traditional upbringings. For the purposes of this paper, I will show how the characters Clarissa Dalloway and Gerald Crich have been affected by experiences in their lives that changed their perspectives of the traditions taught to them by the conventions of the societies in which they live. Furthermore, I will show how those experiences affect Gerald and Clarissa in their interactions with conventional society as adults.
The first novel I will be examining is Women in Love. One does not have to read Women in Love for long before realizing that the characters live in a society filled with traditions and conventions. By examining the textual events of Gerald Crich’s life, one can see that he comes from a world steeped in ritual and tradition. For example, speaking of Gerald’s upbringing, the narrator provides a few clues to the world in which Gerald was raised. We read, “The whole unifying idea of mankind seemed to be dying with his father, the centralizing force that had held the whole together seemed to collapse with is father…” (221). While waiting for his father to die, Gerald realizes that the traditions he was taught seem to be fading out and changing with the younger generations. The fact that Gerald notices the changing social climate of his time provides evidence that Women in Love can be generalized as a Modernist novel.
Gerald realizes that his father’s world is quite different than the world he now lives in. Gerald’s awareness of the changing conventions of his time may be due to his relationship with his best friend Birkin. Birkin and Gerald share a special bond, one that may be a bit more than friendly. We read, “He looked at Gerald with clear, happy eyes of discovery. Gerald looked down at him, attracted, so deeply bondaged in fascinated attraction, that he was mistrustful, resenting the bondage, hating the attraction” (207). Gerald and Birkin are oddly, in the context of the time, attracted to each other, but the attraction is foreign enough to the conventions in which they were both raised that they become confused, imprisoned by their attraction for one another.
Even more is revealed later in Women in Love about the conflict between Birkin and Gerald’s attraction for one another. After a botched marriage proposal from Birkin to Ursala, Gerald and Birkin engage in a rather intimate naked wrestling match. After the tussle, Birkin and Gerald share their feelings about the world with each other. Gerald addresses Birkin, “I don’t believe I’ve ever felt love for a woman, as I have for you…you see, I can’t put it into words. I mean, at any rate, something abiding, something that can’t change” (275). Here, Gerald reveals the conflicted nature of his attraction to Birkin. Gerald has never loved anyone but Birkin, not even a woman. Furthermore, the attraction to Birkin is something so foreign to anything Gerald has been taught that he can’t put his unchanging feelings into words.
Gerald and Birkin’s relationship appears to be the catalyst for how they now view the world; that perhaps the conventions in which they were raised are not absolute truths, but merely traditions. Even though Birkin and Gerald realize the nature of their attraction for one another, they both remain painfully aware of society’s constants. We read, “We are different, you and I…but there is only one road” (276). Birkin realizes that he might be different than the world in which he was raised and he feels conflicted because there only seems to be one path for his life to lead. Without the ability to embrace what appears to be natural love, Birkin and Gerald remain imprisoned by society’s conventions. Because Birkin and Gerald are forced to see the world from outside typical convention, Women in Love proves to be a Modernist novel.
ReplyDeleteMuch like Women in Love, Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway also shows how non-conventional relationships affect certain characters in such a way that their perspectives of the world change. For example, one of the main characters, Clarissa Dalloway, is raised in the upper echelons of twentieth century Britain, a time and place that were typified by convention. For example, during this time period women were often expected to fulfill a specific, often limiting, role in society. We read, “[Clarissa] had the oddest sense of being herself invisible, unseen; unknown…this being Mrs. Dalloway; not even Clarissa any more; this being Mrs. Richard Dalloway…a lady is known by her shoes and her gloves” (10,11). Here, Clarissa explains her observations of the society in which she lives, a society that seems to value women only by appearance. In addition, Clarissa doesn’t seem to own her identity, an identity that appears to be directly attached to her husband. Clarissa’s recognition of the seeming unfairness of the traditions and conventions in which she lives may be a direct result of an experience she had as a teenager.
Much like Birkin and Gerald from Women in Love, Clarissa begins to question some society’s conventions after having unconventional feelings for her childhood friend Sally. Sally only lived with Clarissa for a short time, but because Sally defied many household rules (such as running around the house naked and smoking cigarettes), Clarissa began to see that life could be lived in more than one way. The narrator explains how Sally impacted Clarissa, “Sally it was who made her feel, for the first time, how sheltered life at Bourton was” (32). Before Sally arrived at Bourton (Clarissa’s childhood home), Clarissa was not aware of sex or social problems. Clarissa eventually falls in love with Sally, which further changes her perspective of the conventions that control her life.
The unconventional love Clarissa feels for Sally changes the way she views the world as an adult. Much like Birkin and Gerald, Clarissa’s broadening perspective of the world becomes more of a prison than enlightening freedom. The narrator explains how Clarissa struggles with the conventions of her world:
suddenly there came a moment – for example on the river beneath the woods at Clieveden – when, through some contraction of this cold spirit, she had failed [Peter]. And then at Constantinople, and again and again. She could see what she lacked. It was not beauty; it was not mind. It was something central which permeated; something warm which broke up surfaces and rippled the contact of man and woman, or of women together. (31)
Clarissa feels like a failure because she does not feel complete within the bounds of society. What Clarissa lacks is not specifically described, but it seems that what she lacks is a central part of her being, perhaps something natural. Clarissa’s experience with homosexual attraction and counter culture appears to awaken her to the flaws in her society. Yet, Clarissa, as an adult, feels incomplete and failed.
ReplyDeleteAn analytical comparison of the relationships between Gerald and Birkin and Sally and Clarissa seem to reveal a parallel, in a Modernist sense. For example, both of these relationships seem to awaken the characters into an unpopular understanding of society’s conventions (perhaps one could even label the acute awareness of these characters as individualist, a major component of Modern literature). Furthermore, these characters are seemingly self-aware and learn to mistrust the institutions and conventions in which they were raised, proving Women in Love and Mrs. Dalloway worthy of the Modernist brand.
Wow, that looks a lot longer in blog format than it does in Word.
ReplyDeleteI have a much simpler response-- Jacob's is well thought out and very well written- mine is much more plain.
ReplyDeleteI am struck by two elements of this book. First, I found it interesting that it so closely resembles the stream-of-consciousness style of James Joyce. I guess they were publishing at about the same time- -and the emphasis on inner thoughts and impressions is sort of like looking at an impressionistic painting. The plot almost seems unimportant, but the inner life of the person is rich and insightful
My second observation is similar to Jacob's above. VW has been known for quite some time as an early feminist- I believe-- she gives a rich voice to the character of Clarissa that is rarely heard in male writing. Think of the last book we read BNW within which the linear plot line is everything and the inner thoughts (even for the women in the story) are very male-ized and reside at the intellectualized. VW characters live in an feeling--and thinking-- but from a clear perspective of (at least one) woman's view. She is unafraid to expose the legitimate contrast between that style of thinking and feeling to the typical male writing of the world she was immersed in.
My last thought has to do with writing. This book is a clinic for how to use the colon and semi-colon-- and for sentence structure. What a classic in that regard. The power of this writing is engaging.
O.K....4th time I've tried to post, and my thoughts are getting about as short as my temper with this.
ReplyDeleteI was at first surprised by the stream-of-consciousness writing style. The over-long sentences, running into paragraphs were distracting, without warning.
Clarissa's feelings for Sally made me go back and re-read a few pages. This was not something openly discussed in classic literature, that I'm aware of. Had to make sure I was interpreting what I was reading correctly.
Since I mostly read for information or escape, I was enlightened by Woolf's writing style. It would have been difficult to fill out one of those book report forms from junior high with this kind of reading, for sure! What was the plot? I kept waiting, but realized that wasn't the point.
An interesting way to view the world - through the stream of thoughts of each character, rather than conversation or events/story line.
I haven't seen the cover for "As I Lay Dying", but I need to comment on it, as I just finished it. Faulkner is an amazing writer. An incredible ability to switch from one character to another, slowly drawing you into the story and the lives of the people. He did a terrific job of helping me hate, then pity, then hate Anse Bundren. Faulkner deftly showed Bundren's passive aggressive ability to control his children and the people he interacts with - impressive, I thought. Were some of the bizarre thought processes of the characters supposed to show their mental dysfunction throughout the book? Skillful. Although dark, the writing compels you to read more, and more....Looking for more Faulkner books. (by Mom)
ReplyDelete