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Mrs Dalloway Summer Reading Project (Madi, Leah, Julia)

Page history last edited by Madison Rohrbaugh 14 years, 1 month ago

Tone and Irony within Mrs. Dalloway


Oppresion of Society, Happy Life?

 

Passage (pg 185 in the 1981 Harcourt Inc Edition)-

 

     "Somehow it was her disaster- her disgrace. It was her punishment to see sink and disappaer a man, there a woman, in this profound darkness, and she forced to stand here in her evening dress. She had schemed; she had pilfered. She was never wholly admirable. She had wanted success. Lady Bexborough and the rest of it. And once she had walked on the terrace at Bourton.

     It was due to Richard; she had never been so happy. Nothing could be slow enough; nothing last too long. No pleasure could equal, she thought... this having done with the triumphs of youth, having lost herself in the process of living, to find it, with a shock of delight, as the sun rose, as the day sank." 

     

     The tone of the first paragraph of this passage shows that Clarissa is deeply saddened and depressed by the death of Septimus.  The reader can see her sadness in the phrase "profound darkness" because the tone is dark and depressing. This tone is a result of Clarissa taking blame for Septimus's death. She feels accountable for his suicide because she accepts and gives into the the opression of the English society, which is why ultimately why Septimus ended his life. Living another day under opression was worse than the fear of death. The horrors of participating in war caused Septimus to have severe social problems that society didn't accept, causing him to choose death over living. With blame, Clarissa reflects on her life and how she has taken an unadmirable path and made shallow decisions in order to please society and boost her social status. This is all because she wanted success, which she thought would result in envy by others and life-long happiness.

 

     The tone of the second passage differs greatly from the first passage. In the second passage, the tone seems happier because Clarissa has dismissed the idea of blame and is in denial of her unhappiness that she showed in the previous paragraph. She re- justifies that her marraige to Richard was a good desicion, even though she hints she was and still is in love with Peter. She implies that Richard brings her happiness and even though she "lost herself in living", she still has a good life to show for it, that most would be envious of. 

 

     There is also irony in these two quotes.  In the first paragraph, Clarissa disagrees and looks down upon oppresion and regrets being involved with it when it comes to the death of Septimus. She even takes partial blame for the incident and seems sincere. However, in the next paragraph when reflecting on her life, she states that marrying Richard was the right choice because she has what seems like a perfect life that society not only accepts, but envies. She admits that she has lost her true self in the life she is living by giving into society, but that it is ok because she has something to show for it.

 

Those two ideas are completely contradicting and ironic because she thinks it is wrong to give into society's oppression, but she acts a different way by changing herself according to what society thinks in order to be a "more admirable person".  She decides to give into the oppression from English society, even though she thinks it is wrong

 

     The theme of giving into opression is seen throughout the book in most of the characters, but especially in Clarissa Dalloway. She tells us about her life through stories, and we drastically see the transformation that took place between her childhood and getting married. She changed how she acted and even who she married based upon money and social status, instead of who she really is and what she wanted. In some parts of the books she admits to this wrong doing and regrets it, like when Peter comes to visit her, however she never changes herself and how she acts because she cares too much about what people think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (1)

Mr. Mullen said

at 3:24 pm on Feb 12, 2010

A solid passage-based reading of the novel.
Noticing shifts in tone is a crafty close reading strategy.
You discuss irony, which is noble, but it could go deeper.
90

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