As we discussed Clarissa’s difficulty with finding loving
relationships in class, I wondered how well the important people in her life
actually know Clarissa.
Peter, although he is a very important part of Clarissa’s
life, doesn’t seem to really know her well. Shortly after he first sees her,
Peter thinks “Here she is mending her dress; mending her dress as usual (…)
here she’s been sitting all the time I’ve been in India” (40). But he is wrong,
because normally a maid would mend the dress for Clarissa. More importantly, Peter
thinks that Clarissa is completely occupied by domestic tasks. Clarissa has
perhaps been physically occupied by domestic tasks but mentally, her life is more
complicated than Peter gives her credit for.
Richard doesn’t seem to know Clarissa very deeply either. As
he returns from lunch with Lady Bruton he thinks: “It was a great age in which
to have lived. Indeed, his own life was a miracle, let him make no mistake
about it; here he was, in the prime of life, walking to his house in
Westminster to tell Clarissa that he loved her” (114). But just earlier that
day, Clarissa was thinking about how she didn’t love Richard. Since Richard is
so excited to tell Clarissa that he loves her, I don’t think it’s possible that
he recognizes how ambivalent her feelings about him might be. In the end Richard
doesn’t tell Clarissa that he loves her but he thinks “She understood; she understood
without his speaking” (115). At the moment when Richard gives her the flowers,
Clarissa thinks: “She had failed him” which suggests that Richard is wrong in
thinking that the connection between them is deep enough for her to understand
his feelings.
So why don’t Peter and Richard know the real Clarissa? Part
of it might be that Peter and Richard are oblivious but a large part is that
Clarissa purposefully hides aspects of her personality from other people. As
she gets ready for the afternoon in her room she thinks: “That was her self –
pointed; dartlike; definite. That was her self when some effort, some call on
her to be her self, drew the parts together, she alone, knew how different, how
incompatible and composed so for the world only in one centre, one diamond, one
woman who sat in her drawing-room and made a meetingpoint (…) [she] had tried
to be the same always, never showing a sign of all the other sides of her –
faults, jealousies, vanities, suspicions” (36). Clarissa purposefully conceals
aspects of her personality in order to present herself as the person she wants
to be. She does this not only in very public places but also in more private
places since she builds this front even as she is preparing to go downstairs in
her own home. This is a pretty extreme reserve that must prevent others from
learning about and understanding the deeper aspects of her character.
I love this post! I find it very interesting to think about even though this book revolves around Clarissa, and other characters are introduced in relation, in some way or another, to Clarissa, the characters don't really know who she truly is. This also seems interesting because it asks us as readers, since we know a little more about Clarissa through reading her thoughts, do we really know Clarissa?
ReplyDeleteNice post! You bring up some very interesting points about how no one really knows Clarissa. It seems that the only person who truly knows Clarissa is the reader because the reader is the only one to get access to what Clarissa is thinking and what is going on inside her head. Clarissa's thoughts are very different from her actions so it is hard to truly get to know her unless you know what is going on inside her head.
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ReplyDeleteYou're perspective is interesting. My initial impression of the novel was that Richard, Peter, and Sally were the only people that knew Clarissa beyond her Mrs. Dalloway facade compared to people like the prime minister. However, your point that perhaps even Clarissa's "close friends" don't know her that well is plausible. Which is probably why she internally criticizes her friends and secretly admit things that she would've never told her friends face-to-face, but the reader is able to listen in on.
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me wonder, how well do people actually know each other? Are the ways that Peter and Richard see Clarissa necessarily wrong, if that is how Clarissa wants to be perceived? Who would Clarissa be if she was not surrounded by people? Are we not defined by our relationships? Granted, this ambiguity in Clarissa's identity is partially due to Woolf's writing style, who places great emphasis on who Clarissa is through the perceptions of others. But I think Woolf's style reflects reality, at least to some degree.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, but I can’t help but wonder where Sally Seton ties in. The two shared a very close and open friendship when they were young, and even now they seem to be quite friendly, if aware of the changes the other has undergone. Since she seemed to have been more spontaneous with Sally, at least during their teenage years, do you think that perhaps Sally is the closest thing to someone who knows the real Clarissa?
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