I have had an interesting ride reading Mrs. Dalloway. At first I was lost and trying to get my bearings and was having too hard of a time trying to understand it to really enjoy the reading. Once I started to get things figured out, I really enjoyed the middle section of the book and fully expected to enjoy the concluding scene of the party. However, I found myself a little disappointed by the scene.
It was cool how Woolf tied all the plot threads back together by having almost all of the characters in the book show up at the party (even Septimus, though dead, makes an appearance). But aside from having all the characters gather together and think or talk about each other, nothing really happened There was no conclusive event or thought. Maybe part of it was because last semester we studied coming-of-age novels, which have very strong endings that point back to growth over the course of the book, but it felt like we didn't really get anywhere with the book.
I expected these books to be unconventional in terms of plot, so I wasn't exactly expecting the type of ending in conventional or coming-of-age novels. Even with The Mezzanine, however, him reaching the top of the escalator seemed like a satisfying ending to his lunch adventures. Additionally, I felt by that time that I had gotten to the end I understood the point Baker was trying to make about making art out of ordinary things. With Woolf, the only ending is that the party is winding down. Perhaps more frustratingly, I feel like I didn't get the point Woolf was trying to make. As I took it, the novel was about exploring Clarissa's character from a variety of viewpoints. But on the last page, Woolf implies that the entire venture was impossible. Peter is trying to analyze her character and what fascinates him about her, but gives up. "It is Clarissa, he said. For there she was" (190).
I'm still glad I read the book, but it feels pointless to read a book trying to understand a character only to have the author tell you at the end that you don't really know the character at all. I don't know exactly what would have made a good ending to Mrs. Dalloway, but something more conclusive would have been nice.
I think it's important to look at that last line a bit more carefully. I wouldn't say this gives the book meaning or anything, but when Peter said that, he wasn't trying to analyze her character or figure out what fascinates him about her. Let's look back at the scene in context.
ReplyDeleteLady Rosseter and Peter have been talking at the party waiting for it to wind down so Clarissa could come back and talk with them. However, a lot of time has passed, and Lady Rosseter needs to get back home. In the text, the scene goes like this:
"Richard has improved. You are right," said Sally. "I shall go and talk to him. I shall say good night. What does the brain matter," said Lady Rosseter, getting up, "compared with the heart?"
"I will come," said Peter, but he sat on for a moment. What is this terror? what is this ecstasy? he thought to himself. What is it that fills me with extraordinary excitement?
It is Clarissa, he said.
For there she was.
(190)
Lady Rosseter is getting up to say goodbye to Richard, and Peter is going to come with her and leave as well. But, something is stopping him. Some "terror," some "ecstasy," some "extraordinary excitement" is holding him back. And then it clicks: it is Clarissa. She's finally come back for them ("For there she was."), and that's what he means by those lines.
Instead of being some contemplation of her soul, it's really just exemplary of their relationship; Clarissa and Peter may not spend much time around each other any more, but they still have something that can keep Peter from just walking up to Richard, saying goodbye, and leaving. They have something that brought Lady Rosseter to the party. That's the conclusion the book was trying to give; as Virginia Woolf in The Hours said, "Her whole life, in one day." There wasn't any overarching theme she was trying to give you, it was Clarissa's life. But perhaps that is still unsatisfactory.
The way I interpreted the ending was that it was implying some kind of really meaningful conversation between Peter and Clarissa was going to take place in the story, but after the book ended. They've been walking around all day with these emotions and thoughts all bottled up, and now finally they were going to talk about it. And I think just implying it, and leaving their conversation up to the reader's imagination instead of actually including that part in the book was ultimately more effective. Although I do agree, it was a little disappointing not being able to actually witness the (possible) resolution.
ReplyDeleteMrs Dalloway actually had a very satisfying ending... it's just that it happened on page 147. Septimus and Rezia's hopeful future brought down by the reappearance of Dr. Holmes was one of those moments where you first let out a Luke-learns-that-Vader-is-his-father-style "NOOOOOOOO!", but then think back on it and decide it was the right way to sum the story up. Septimus' story ends in a thorough, final way (no zombies in this version), and there's even a (dark) glimmer of hope that Rezia now understands, to an extent, what her husband went through.
ReplyDeleteSeptimus' character arc is more of what we would expect from contemporary fiction. Clarissa, on the other hand, is presented with more portrait than plot, so the "ending" is an interruption rather than a conclusion:
"Sally and Richard decided they both needed to talk to Clarissa. Conveniently, right at that moment, Clarissa entered the room. The End."
We don't even finish with the party before the book ends. I would have liked to hear Richard or the maids describing post-party Clarissa. Is she happy that the superficiality is over, or is she sad that the busy socializing is gone? Especially after this party in particular, when she took some time to think about death. Does Septimus throwing himself out a window linger in her mind, or does she sweep him under the rug after a while like Syliva?
Keep in mind that I was a big Septimus fan, and my opinions are correspondingly biased.
For a writer as skeptical of traditional plotting as Woolf is, the fact of an "unsatisfying ending" might not be so surprising--in a non-plot-motivated novel, the ending isn't as important? If this is a realistic slice of everyday life, the thing should just cut off at some point, without "tying together" anyhing (just as life itself doesn't necessarily "tie together")?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I too want to know what happens when Clarissa comes back out. Now that the party is winding down, and just the old close friends are left, we can imagine them "getting real"--we wonder if Clarissa's sobering interior monologue alone in the room will make her remove the "hostess" mask just a bit. I would love to see Peter, Sally, Clarissa, and Richard talk late into the night.
But at the same time, the fact that Woolf makes us want to see all this in a sense "proves" one of the central ideas of her novel: if there's something about Clarissa that's hard to pin down, but which brings people together and remains compelling, isn't our desire to understand more a testament to her success in drawing this character?
(And Tristan makes a good case for why the interaction that follows might have been especially charged or interesting. It reminds me of when Woolf has Elizabeth barge in right when Peter asks Clarissa if she's "happy"--she has a tendency to defer these direct conversations in favor of people pondering possible future or past conversations . . .)