Leaden Circles
"'Are you happy, Clarissa? Does Richard--" (47).
Points for Reflection
"Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street" (1922; 1923)
- Does this short story express the loss of young men in the Great War in a more concrete, less oblique way than did Jacob’s Room?
- What elements of this short story does Woolf pull into the opening of Mrs. Dalloway (1925), and what does she alter when composing the novel?
- What does Clarissa think about the monarchy?
- Which does Clarissa Dalloway value most--the past, present, or future?
- Does Clarissa appreciate the eye makeup applied to young faces?
- Is the wealthy Clarissa free to purchase whatever she wishes?
- What does Clarissa think of the modernist painting, probably an impressionist or pointillist painting, that she sees in a picture dealer’s window on Bond Street?
- Does Clarissa pity or envy Lady Bexborough?
- Does Richard share Clarissa’s altruistic impulses?
- What reasons does Clarissa find for continuing to live?
- Why does Clarissa not cower when there’s an explosion outdoors?
Mrs. Dalloway, pp. 3-93
- track the preponderance of similes in this book and see if you can identify any significant patterns.
- in what ways do the lives of this novel's characters intersect?
- how does Clarissa Dalloway's opinion of London differ from
that of Lucrezia Smith?
- do Septimus Smith’s thoughts strike you as simply the musings of a madman? Which of the ideas he utters aloud might Woolf intend for us to consider "insane"?
- what does the relationship of Lucrezia with her husband Septimus
suggest about the communal nature of disability? [Eli H]
- Clarissa claims that while the rest of humanity remembers and perhaps lives in their memories of past events, she embraces the present, “this, here, now, in front of her” (9). Does this appear to be true?
- how well does Clarissa understand herself?
- Clarissa appears to highly appreciate life and home, and Richard who “is the foundation” of both (29). Does she experience her life as an ideal one? [Lauren H]
- during Clarissa’s recollections of the Bourton estate and her youth, she reconsiders her relationship with Sally Seton and repeatedly questions whether what she once felt for her friend was “love.” Can the reader answer Clarissa’s question for her, and what operational definition of “love” should we apply to this question?
- what did Clarissa feel for Peter, and what does she feel for him now? Is she more glad than sad that she did not marry him three decades earlier?
- is Time an enemy or a friend to Clarissa?
- does Peter understand himself?
- Peter once identified as a Socialist, a bit of identity formation that apparently helped get him expelled from Oxford (50). Could he properly be classed as a socialist now, at the age of 53?
- as Clarissa notes, she and Peter have a “queer power of communicating without words,” a reflection that suggests profound knowledge of one another (60). How complete is this understanding?
- what does Peter so value in Clarissa?
- how has England changed in the five years since the Great War?
- how has the war transformed Septimus Warren Smith?
- in what significant ways do the primary characters’ perspectives on life overlap? Do such intersections make Septimus less insane than he might otherwise appear?
- REDUX: does Septimus’ state of mind constitute complete chaos, or order of a new and illuminating kind?
- is Septimus as critical of others as he is himself?
- do Dr. Holmes’s recommendations put the onus for mental health on Septimus or on outside factors?
- consider Peter's assorted thoughts about women. How do his ideas concerning women shape the reader's attitude towards Peter's plans to divorce and remarry?
- can you discover some implied explanation for why Peter so loved Clarissa back in the Bourton days?
- what is the "supreme mystery" Clarissa believes neither love nor religion can solve?
- are Septimus Smith
and Clarissa Dalloway more alike than they are dissimilar?
The Big Ben of Westminster (1900)
Anna Richards Brewster
Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu
