Thursday, March 15, 2012
Mrs. Dalloway
Woolf's text seems concerned with the various forms of oppression. The very different characters in Mrs. Dalloway represent the many facets of this oppression. For example, Clarissa illustrates the stultifying social class divisions, always striving to uphold her "title". Septimus displays oppression in the form of some type of post traumatic stress disorder and subsequent depression. Overarching all these individual problems, Mrs. Dalloway expresses political and female oppression. A concern expressed throughout the novel is post-war socio-political impacts and the anxieties surrounding the imminent downfall of the British empire. Woolf expresses this concern in subtle ways though; the characters are often so focused with their own problems that they easily ignore the political issues (i.e., Clarissa with Peter/Richard, Septimus with his disillusionment). Female oppression is illustrated in an even more tacit manner. Clarissa, as a female protagonist, struggles to be both understood and loved. This female oppression also relies largely on social class.
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One of the most obvious displays of class divisions is when Elizabeth was leaving lunch with Mrs. Kilman. On her way home, Elizabeth makes note about how she is in a neighborhood that her family does not often go to. This distinction that Elizabeth makes is very slight, but in doing so, she is making it evident that her family is of higher social class than those that inhabit the neighborhood she is traveling through. There were many other subtle comments like this throughout the book that make it clear that Woolf was highly aware of the division of social class and was commenting on the importance of it in the society that she created in her book.
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