19. Mrs. Dalloway: (pp. 182-183): “The clock began striking. The young man had killed himself; but she did not pity him…She felt somehow very like him – the young man who had killed himself…The clock was striking….But she must go back.”:
Mark Hussey suggests that Virginia Woolf relates to the man who committed suicide and she communicates this through the character of Mrs. Dalloway. If a reader knew the background of Woolf, they would realize that this is very plausible. Woolf heard voices and got headaches just as she depicts her character, Septimus. Woolf felt like she would welcome death; she wished that she could throw life away. But the rules of society made her move forward as if alive although she felt dead inside. Social norms made Clarissa return to the party. The clock striking emphasizes these thoughts. Time will continue no matter what people choose to do – to live or to die. Woolf uses sound imagery of the clock striking (time moves forward) and the depressing tone of the situation of suicide; together these things emphasize the theme of isolation.
Hussey, Mark. Preface. Virginia Woolf. Mrs. Dalloway. By Virginia Woolf. 2005 by Harcourt Incorporated. 27 September 2009.
“Virginia Woolf her life and works.” Mantex. 2000-2008. 30 August 2009. http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a319/woolf-01.htm
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A lot of great things happening in this entry -- my only concern is how much of these ideas are your own and how many came from the sources you reference? The language sounds inherently you which is excellent -- I can hear your voice in this -- just a matter of pushing yourself to a place where you can make some of these connections using primary source material
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