Ernest Hemingway's Voice

Ernest Hemingway has a destinctive voice. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway speaks with a subtle yet alluring tone. The words are not excessively descriptive nor profound, which is exactly the cause of the fluidity of his text. When novelists focus on intense moments, they employ precise and forceful words, yet Hemingway uses concise and simple words to expand on thoughts in The Sun Also Rises. Not only are the adjectives in The Sun Also Rises vague, so are the adverbs (or the lack thereof). Very seldom does one find adverbs in Hemingway's sentences, yet the novel retains a profound feeling.

The remaining effect of using simple language is that the reader is free to interpret the sequence of events on a deeper personal level. With the lack of descriptive words, the imagination is set free to wander on a broader range of possibilities and Hemingway is especially effective at enforcing this because he is simple and straightforward in writing. The manner of speaking is so down to earth (perhaps contrast The Sun Also Rises with Mrs. Dalloway to get a better sense of Hemingway's ability in speaking with simple language while at the same time, capturing such a broad picture) that it makes it easy for the reader to catch the small details which make the story so rich. For example, in The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway is able to make a three dimensional character without even talking to the reader. The simple thoughts that pass through Jake Barnes' mind (the protagonist in The Sun Also Rises), such as the snyde, yet seemingly unintentional comments about Jake's Jewish "friend" Robert Cohn, are perfect examples of how Hemingway employs simple language, which helps the reader create his/her personal image of each character (especially of Jake) of how they act and think.

Even without the eloquent words that scholars throw around, Hemingway is able to construct a vivid novel. Perhaps he sought to play with the reader's mind by having them be the ones who build the characters while he acts just as a messenger of events.

The Hours: What's Happening?

My first impression of the novel/movie was rather distasteful. The constant jumping around three different perspectives not only confused me, but also made me lose track of the connections between Virginia Woolf and the story being told in The Hours.

After some post-review, many of the small things in the movie began to give light to new connections. In the movie, Woolf seems disconnected from yet trapped in the world around her and writing Mrs. Dalloway is an outlet for her "wild side". The Clarissa in the movie is perhaps the Clarissa that took the path not taken by the original. The most important differences between the Clarissa in The Hours and the Clarissa in Mrs. Dalloway is, one, she marries a woman, and two, Richard (who, in Mrs. Dalloway, was married to Clarissa) is the character with disease that prevents him from going out. 

Going back to my previous post where I mention that Clarissa's choice in marrying Richard Dalloway cannot be judged fairly because the reader does not know what would have happened if Clarissa took a different path, I believe The Hours attempts to portray a different path that Clarissa took.

The third perspective (the first and second being the perspective of Virginia Woolf and the perspective of Clarissa, in no particular order) is from a woman named Laura Brown who is reading the novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The way she acts is completely mysterious, but as the movie progressed, I felt the vibe that Laura was applying situations from Clarissa's relationships to her own. For example, when Laura's neighbor, Kitty, arrives at her house for a favor, Laura sees confidence masking the Kitty's true feelings, so Laura kisses her, which may be Laura perceiving her neighbor as a Clarissa-like entity who is hiding many things and needs reassurance in her life. The importance of this perspective is that it reflects the effect the novel, Mrs. Dalloway, has on people's perceptions.

The three different plots working in conjunction provides a thorough portrayal of Clarissa Dalloway, and leaves it to the viewer to decide which choices Clarissa should have made throughout her life: whether to live with her first lover, or whether to choose to live the epitome of a standard middle/upper-class life.

Clarissa's Choices

In Mrs. Dalloway, Peter and Richard play Clarissa's opposing love interests. Why did Clarissa terminate her relationship with Peter after he returned from India for her? I believe it is due to her aging personality. She may have been marginally wild as a young girl, which would have been compatible with Peter's beliefs, but after aging, she has lost a large portion of ambition. She may hold onto memories of adventure, but she acts on these feelings with only a portion of her gusto (it is not known whether she is capable or not of doing so). For example, she kisses Peter only to follow by rejecting his proposals and putting a wall between herself and him. Instead, she remains, distant but together, with Richard. Human compatibility is a mysterious topic but one simple explanation for Clarissa's decision to remain with Richard is that she seeks to lead a stable life. This typical habit of seeking a stable partner is evident in real-life representations such as The Bachelor. On The Bachelor, the (wo)man starts out with selecting the (wo)men he/she is attracted to, but in the end it is the person who seems most husband-like that is selected. In the time period which Clarissa lived, Richard's status and occupation made him an ideal husband, as opposed to Peter, who represented a relatively less-dependable source of support.

Of course, in the end nobody will know whether Clarissa's decision to stay with Richard was for the better because of the dynamic of human nature. Who knows what Clarissa may have become if she decided to marry Peter the first time around. We will never know, except that Clarissa did only what most vanilla people would have done.

Septimus' Death

Septimus is a major character in Mrs. Dalloway. He is a troubled man who's experiences have completely changed him, but for the better or for the worse? At first glance, Septimus' gawky behaviors and the way he thinks are too bizarre to be considered potentially sane. But when you take a step back and look at what Septimus is attempting to bestow upon the reader, his insanity becomes legitimate. Extrapolating from many different interpretations of Mrs. Dalloway, an important idea that many critiques have in common is that Septimus is about mutual love. Being a veteran of World War I, Septimus' longing for peace and love throughout society is a completely sane and valid request. The fact that he is mentally unable to do anything to truly impact society with his seemingly modest and humble ideas is what induces this question of whether or not Septimus' goal is legitimate. By extension, Virginia Woolf could also be questioning society: if it takes a mentally ill man to dream of love and peace, then how healthy is mankind, really?

Virginia Woolf's Intentions

When processing interpretations of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, you have to keep in mind her intentions in writing this novel. The major point that invalidates a large amount of arguments about the meaning of Mrs. Dalloway is that Woolf's goal was to create a novel that perfectly portrayed the natural human being down to the smallest specks of detail. Even though this idea may not completely invalidate arguments about the purpose of the novel, it is pertinent enough that people should keep it in mind when reading critiques. Ideally, if Woolf's true intentions for the novel were somewhere else, the plot, setting, and characters can definitely be said to not be ideal. In fact, the factors that make up Mrs. Dalloway are exactly right if you evaluate her writing as a depiction of the true state of the mind.

This argument against the many critiques of Mrs. Dalloway is in no way completely correct, nor is it negligible. But sometimes it makes me wonder whether or not people are extrapolating too deeply into novels of which the author's actual intentions are plain as day.

Peter Walsh

Peter Walsh is a major character in Mrs. Dalloway. He contrasts with Clarissa Dalloway's character in that his and Clarissa's personalities create a new depth to each of the characters. Clarissa, in the present moment, represents a socially-bound character whose outer life is much more tame than her self-conflicts. On the other hand, Peter represents the opposition to Clarissa's lifestyle. One particularly interesting trait about Peter is his tendency to fiddle with his pocket knife. Whenever he is conflicted or nervous, he pulls out the knife and fiddles around, following the curves of the knife with his fingers, which possibly represents his instability. I think this is an important aspect about Peter, because even though Peter seems narrow-minded and set on his ideals when the novel follows his perspective, the way he fumbles with his knife shows that he is uncertain about what he is usually very straight about. This shows how similar Peter and Clarissa actually are, because on some level, they both are very self-conflicted. Even though they seem so different at first glance, they really do share similar traits. This is why Peter plays such an important role, he aids in categorizing the type of person Clarissa is by acting as a skewed reflection of Clarissa's self.

Mrs. Dalloway and Sally Seton

Sally Seton, in Mrs. Dalloway, is shown to have lived a very dynamic life. She was portrayed as wild and free-living when she was younger, and yet she calmed and settled as she grew older. Sally plays many roles in the novel. Right off the bat, Sally seems to be the woman in the novel that helps build Mrs. Dalloway's (Clarissa Dalloway) character. The pair has shared intimate and personal experiences which aid in character development, for example the kiss the two shared, or the plans of reforming the world that they shared together.

Sally, may have played the role of a foil character, but I believe she has her own story to express. As Virginia Woolf tends to do in her novels, she uses each and every possible being to its full effect. In the case of Sally Seton, Woolf not only uses the character to enhance the portrayal of Clarissa, but she also creates a new story all together with a specific theme: in society, the norm is that with age leaves naivety and ambition. This theme ties in with the story well, as it accurately reflects society in its most candid form, unlike other novels in which the plot runs on nearly unbelievably coincidental events. This theme about aging is exemplified by comparing Sally Seton's adolescence with her current state in the novel. She was a free, boundary-breaking girl who lived to her own accord, who, together with Clarissa, did things that society could not imagine at the time. For example, the intimate relationship between the two. As the reader is returned to the present, Sally had settled down with a husband and five sons. Even though she questioned Clarissa's way of living, even at the present (with the parties and such), Sally is the symbol of human aging and how even the wildest of children become disciplined.