Comparison Within Clarissa Dalloway Essay, Research Paper

Virginia Woolf creates interesting contrast within the character of Clarissa Dalloway using

stream of consciousness narration in her novel Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa?s inner thoughts

reveal a contrast between her lack of attraction to her husband due to her lesbian feelings

and her fear of loosing him as a social stepping stone. These contrasts and many others

can be seen throughout the novel using the literary device of stream of consciousness

narration.

Clarissa?s character reveals to us early in the book her lack of attraction to her

husband. This revelation can be seen in the passage that states: ?…through some

contraction of this cold spirit, she had failed him…she could see what she lacked…it was

something central which permeated….? The ?cold spirit? that she talks of is her sexuality,

in being attracted to women, and her lack of understanding why she is this way. This is

the main reason for her lack of attraction. She feels that she has let him down because she

cannot complete her duties as his wife. Clarissa had lost both a sexual relationship and

sexual attraction with her husband since the birth of her teenage daughter Elizabeth:

?…she could not dispel a virginity preserved through childbirth which clung to her like a

sheet.?

Clarissa tells us of her true sexuality as she remembers her girlhood friend Sally

Seton. Sally is the only person that Clarissa has ever had any real passionate feelings for.

?But this question of love, this falling in love with women. Take Sally Seton; her relation

in the old days with Sally Seton. Had not that, after all, been love?? Although Sally held

her heart, her homosexual feelings were not socially acceptable. Clarissa is therefore

obliged to enter into a marriage to Richard Dalloway for social purposes.

A contrast to Clarissa?s lack of attraction to her husband is seen in her fear of

loosing him. Richard provides for her a stepping stone for her to be the socialite that she

strives to be. When Richard is invited to a lunch with Lady Bruton, a twinge of fear is

evident in Clarissa that she is loosing her husband: ?Fear no more the heat o? the sun; for

the shock of Lady Bruton asking Richard to lunch without her made the moment which

she had stood shiver….? Without him, she would be nothing in society, so Clarissa is

scared of loosing him even though she has no attraction towards him.

A contrast in the ?deeper? self of Clarissa Dalloway can be seen in the stream of

consciousness narration in Mrs. Dalloway. She reveals her lack of attraction for her

husband and her fear of loosing him through her inner thoughts. This provides for us the

ability to see the weaknesses of Clarissa and many of the other characters.