Flowers abound in Mrs. Dalloway.
Parts of the plot are flower centric. The book begins with Clarissa going to buy flowers. Later on she reflects on the unique way Sally arranges flowers and how Sally kissed her after picking a flower. Richard brings Clarissa flowers when he comes home.
Flowers are also just briefly mentioned throughout the book.
When Peter follows a woman to her house his thoughts about Clarissa are interrupted by “The house was one of those flat red houses with hanging flowers of vague impropriety. (…) Well, I’ve had my fun; I’ve had it, he thought, looking up at the swinging basket of pale geraniums.” (53). It’s odd that Peter focuses on the flowers at all, given that his thoughts are mostly consumed by Clarissa and the other woman but it’s also interesting that Peter notes the specific type of flower.
Later Peter thinks about Sally and flowers: “Who was it who had done that? (…) Somebody who had written him a long, gushing letter quite lately about ‘blue hydrangeas.’ It was seeing blue hydrangeas that made her think of him and the old days — Sally Seton, of course!” (70). It’s weird that flowers are the thing that stood out to Peter again, especially since he doesn’t seem to have any particular interest in gardening.
It isn’t just Peter who thinks about flowers though. Septimus thinks Rezia “looked pale, mysterious, like a lily, drowned, under water” (87). Elizabeth thinks about how “People were beginning to compare her to poplar trees, early dawn, hyacinths, fawns, running water, and garden lilies” (131). Then Willie Titcomb does compare Elizabeth to most of those things: “She was like a poplar, she was like a river, she was like a hyacinth” (184).
Flowers are gendered objects, typically thought of as feminine, and all these flowery scenes are from male characters thinking about female characters so it could just be Woolf portraying a traditional way for men to objectify women by comparing them to pretty useless things.
I was struck by how often Woolf names specific types of flowers. Lilies might be pretty recognizable, but I know I couldn’t pick out a geranium, a hyacinth, or a hydrangea. Yet Woolf’s male characters seem to know their flowers pretty well. I think that flower types would have been more of a women’s thing in the early 1900s. In being so well versed in flowers are these men rejecting traditional gender roles for themselves while at the same time objectifying women? I think this could be Woolf depicting how complicated human beings are in a very small way.
On the other hand maybe Woolf was interested in flowers and this is just her own description peeking out in her character’s thoughts. Maybe everybody in upper-crust British society in the 1920s knew their flower types, regardless of gender. Do you think my interpretation is plausible?
I do think your interpretation is plausible. When I was reading the book, I never stopped to think about why Woolf was so specific in her choices especially when, as you pointed out, the ones who are narrating are male. While I do think that Virginia probably liked flowers, I find your suggestion that Woolf is subtly using them as a gender tick far more compelling. We know that women were supposed to stay home and tend the household (Clarissa comments on this many times) and so it makes the most sense for them to associate flowers with women. I'd be really interested as to why Woolf chose the flowers she did, especially since flowers have their own language and meaning.
ReplyDeleteWhen preparing for a panel presentation on Mrs. Dalloway I read part of an article that talked about how the novel was a critique of the aspects of science that called for looking at small pieces of the natural world in isolation, and of how humans saw nature as something inanimate and to be conquered. The author claims Woolf's descriptions of nature and how she intertwines nature and human life are examples of this critique. Although I'm not sure how much I buy that argument, I did think it was interesting, and the examples of how interspersed flowers are in Mrs. Dalloway that you mention fit in to it well.
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty interesting way of looking at it, Annemily. I admit I was pretty surprised too on the depth Woolf goes into with all the different flower types, but I never thought about it with the genders portrayed. I think you bring up a pretty good point, and it wouldn't surprise me if Woolf was throwing in the idea subtly, as she is a very meticulous writer and thinks about what she wants to portray in the bigger picture. Then again, maybe people were obsessed with flowers at the time.
ReplyDeleteI really like your observations, I didn't connect all these flower comparisons while I was reading, but now that you point them out it's fascinating how frequently in the novel that different types of flowers are brought up. I think part of why I didn't think about these until I read your post was because flowers are a very frequent device that is used in novel writing, especially novel writing at the time. I think that your ideas about gender roles being connected to these is a very compelling point, flowers being beautiful and delicate and also traditionally given by men. I think that in portraying the many different relationships in her story, this was probably something that Woolf thought about.
ReplyDeleteRemember, too, Sally's unique and scandalous way of beheading flowers and making them float in a bowl, and the fact that she and Clarissa literally stop to smell the flowers when they share their intense kiss. And, of course, Richard proudly walking home with a bouquet of roses for Clarissa (who has already been out purchasing flowers earlier in the day.) Flowers indeed seem to appear at pretty much every important moment in this novel.
ReplyDeleteIt makes a lot of sense that Woolf would be implying a sense of androgyny and gender confusion that lies inside everyone. For Clarissa it's a sense of independence in her life that is otherwise dependent on a man. For the men it provides a femininity to them. I wonder if this was Woolf's intention in her focus on flowers. Perhaps she was just really into flowers. It'd be interesting to find out.
ReplyDeleteI like this; I think Woolf's mention of flowers is definitely on purpose. It's interesting that flowers are emphasized when the novel is set in London, the opposite of the country and definitely not close to nature. Perhaps it's a way of grounding the novel, calling back to 'simpler' or 'more natural' pre-war times?
ReplyDeleteAnd I definitely like your point about how they may symbolize the complexity of humans.