Maddie Manning, Ayano Kondo, Sarah Somers 

"Did it matter then, she asked herself, walking towards bond street, did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely; all this must go on without her; did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely?  but that somehow in the streets of London, on the ebb and flow of things, here, there, she survived, Peter survived, lived in each other, she being part, she was positive, of the trees at home; of the house there, ugly, rambling, all to bits and pieces as it was; part of people she had never met; being laid out like a mist between the people she knew best, who lifted her on their branches as she had seen the trees lift the mist, but it spread ever so far, her life, herself."

-Woolf pg. 9

In Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, as Clarissa Dalloway walks down the street on the morning of her party she begins to consider her life and her death.  The irony of the situation is that she is thinking about the depth of life and death on her way to buy flowers for a party.  It is ironic because her life is seemingly shallow.  The most important decision she has to make is which flowers to buy and which guests to invite.  This quote also reveals the verbal irony because her tone is light and cheerful as she walks down the street considering her own mortality.  The quote also suggests that death is a positive thing.  The passage states that death is beautiful and freeing.  Through irony, this passage from Mrs. Dalloway reveals deeper themes of the novel like paradox and the metaphorical values of words.

The first theme this quote depicts is paradox.  Clarissa wonders to herself, "did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely? but somehow in the streets of London, on the ebb and flow of things, here, there she survived."  She states that death is just another part of life and that one must die in order to be perpetuated.  In death one becomes part of something greater and through this she lives on forever.  Clarissa realizes that she will die someday, but she also knows that death is the next step in life’s journey, so she no longer fears it.  Septimus has a similar view on life and death.  At the end of the novel, Septimus kills himself, however this does not end his role in the story.  News of his death reaches Clarissa and this has an impact on the way she chooses to live her life.  Therefore, Septimus continues to live on through Clarissa and the others that he touched through the course of his life.  The paradox of Mrs. Dalloway is that death is just another way of living.

Clarissa and Septimus also shared similar views on nature.  This passage uses a lot of imagery concerning nature.  It states that one remains part “of the trees at home.”  The tree represents the human soul.  Septimus also shares this point of view, which he shows when he explains that cutting down a tree is the equivalent of murder.  The appreciation of nature plays an important role in the novel and acts as an important metaphor.  Also, Clarissa compares the tree to the network of her friends and family, who will continue to live after she has died.  She compares her life to the mist that covers the tree because she will continue to impact her loved ones' lives even after death.  By comparing her life and her friends to a tree, the poetic value of Clarissa's words add to what we know about Clarissa's character.  Thus, this quote reveals to the reader the depth of Clarissa's character and foreshadows the rest of the novel through the use of irony, paradox, and metaphor.