Communication in Mrs. Dalloway
Mrs. Dalloway is a complex novel that has many interesting themes. There are themes of romance, self-discovery, gender roles, etc. However, there is one theme that stuck out while reading this book. The theme of communication or lack thereof is arguably an aspect that gets overlooked. A prime example of a lack of communication is between Clarissa and her husband Richard. Clarissa often struggles to communicate with Richard and connect with him and vice versa. At the beginning of the book, Clarissa and Richard seem to coexist with one another rather than being a married couple. They sleep in separate rooms and never go out together unless it is for a business matter. Whenever Richard attempts to buy gifts like jewelry for Clarissa, she never wears them or seems to like them. However, the couple never discusses why Clarissa does not wear the jewelry, and Richard does not want to talk to Clarissa about the issue. Instead, Richard takes the easy route and resorts to buying flowers for Clarissa instead. This seems to work better but the gifts are much less personal. Another instance of Richard being unable to communicate is when he buys flowers for Clarissa, planning to tell her he loves her. This task ends up being hard for Richard considering it should be natural if they have been married for a while. He is unable to work up the courage to tell Clarissa he loves her which further proves that the couple has work to do with communication.
Peter Walsh is another main character who tends to struggle with communication, particularly with Clarissa. Throughout Mrs. Dalloway, it is clear that Clarissa and Peter used to be romantically involved and the topic seems to come up a lot from both Peter and Clarissa's perspective. Clarissa rejected Peter's proposal and later married her current husband Richard. However, only one of them has seemed to move on. Peter was living in India for years and would frequently write letters to Clarissa. Even after Richard and Clarissa have been married for years, Peter still tries to make himself a bigger part of Clarissa's life than he should be. He also likes to act like he is different than all the people Clarissa associates herself with even though he is pretty similar to them. Peter's main communication with Clarissa usually seems like a ploy to get a reaction out of her. He even goes as far as going to Clarissa's house and telling him that he is in love. This makes Clarissa mentally question if Peter is confessing his love to her before he clarifies that he is in love with a girl he met in India. He claims to be in love with someone else but he thinks about Clarissa quite often. Peter thinks about how Clarissa's life would have been more exciting if she had married himself instead of Richard. Finally, Peter tends to ask questions that he has no right to be asking. For example, he asks Clarissa if she is happy. He does not specify that he is asking if she is happy with Richard but Clarissa picks up his underlying question and puts thoughts in her head further proving that Peter does not have good communication.
I never really thought about the significance of communication has on Mrs. Dalloway. Good work bringing it to light.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that direct communication but I think a bigger question is: is communication really needed in the style of narration style that Virginia Woolf uses? Since the narrator jumps between characters and narrates their thought, is direct communication really necessary between characters? Overall however you brought up a good point; great post!
ReplyDeleteAs with so much in this novel, I would say that the depiction of successful or "accurate" communication between characters who are intimate is pretty complicated. To take the Richard and Clarissa example, we do see a range of ways in which they seem not to communicate, or--as with Richard's considerate note informing her he won't be home for lunch--where the simple/innocent communication hits Clarissa emotionally in ways Richard is likely unaware of. But we also see (via Woolf's "interior track" narration) that they DO "get" each other quite well, and even Richard's awkward attempt to give Clarissa flowers and say "I love you" (when we know she really doesn't NEED flowers, as she just spent the morning buying a bunch of them) is "confirmed" by Clarissa silently "getting it," or knowing what he MEANT to say. The separate bedroom arrangement also looks initially like a bad sign in their marriage, but we know from Clarissa's perspective that she understands fully that Richard is very concerned about her health and is following "doctor's orders" to an almost comically strict degree--so his insistence on her ability to get the proper amount of rest is indeed a successful "communication" of his love for her.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the book we see characters NOT expressing their complete and true feelings in conversation--and remember, we ALL do this ALL the time, and society would fall apart if we were all always speaking exactly what is on our minds. But we also get these remarkable moments of "confirmation," where despite what goes unsaid ("in so many words"), the message is communicated.
Good post! I think communication is something easy to overlook in Mrs. Dalloway since we usually get insight into the minds of each character and most of the time don't even think about how we the reader have so much information than the characters in the story. There is definitely a disconnect between Clarissa and Richard, and Peter that is amplified by their lack of communication.
ReplyDeleteYour viewpoint on the lack of communication in this book is very unique, and is definitely something I overlooked when I read this book. There really isn't that much communication between the characters that you'd think communication would exist more prevalently, specifically between Clarissa and Richard Dalloway. Nice blog post.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I agree that communication is a very central theme in this novel, and I think its very interesting that each character seems to have varying levels of communication with Clarissa. For example Peter (an old friend) sometimes seems to be more in tune with Clarissa's thoughts than her own husband, Richard.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up very interesting points of the lack of communication in Clarissa's life! Often times, miscommunication or misunderstandings are the driving causes of book and film plots, however in Mrs. Dalloway, the conversations seem to just be inefficient. The points of misunderstanding do not cause drastic plot changes or anger, and just contribute to the longterm experiences of the characters. This lack of communication could just be natural disagreements, since people are not often able to switch over to other perspectives and see the assumptions the other people make about their actions. Virginia Woolf could just be portraying the small misunderstandings that constantly occur in conversation. Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteThe lack of communication and character's incapability to go about it struck me as such a large part of the sometimes dysfunctional relationships that appear in Mrs. Dalloway, and I think you address them very well! All of these characters have such complex thoughts and emotions throughout the course of the novel, but they are notably incapable of expressing those feelings adequately to each other, especially Richard and Peter, much to Clarissa's chagrin. I think that this issue is very important in order to address the nature and course of the relationships in the novel, and one that was very important to discussion about the novel. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree! Communication, or the lack of it, is a significant theme in Mrs. Dalloway, and it is often overlooked. Another scene between Richard and Clarissa that I think is another prime example is when Richard attempts to muster up his courage to tell Clarissa he loves her. He buys her flowers, rehearses what he's going to say, feels extremely happy (as. though walking on clouds) to see her. But instead of outrightly telling her, he gives her the flowers and believes that she understands the sentiment behind the gesture, which she does not fully understand. Richard's inability to express his emotions contributes to the distance between him and Clarissa.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast you draw between Richard's silent struggles and Peter's more chaotic attempts at communication is powerful. Peter’s return seems more like an effort to disrupt Clarissa’s life rather than foster any real understanding. His question about Clarissa's happiness feels like an invasion, and yet it also exposes how unresolved his feelings are. Great post.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, It’s fascinating how both Richard and Peter struggle with it in their own ways, which creates a sense of emotional distance between them and Clarissa. Richard’s inability to express love and Peter’s constant attempts to provoke Clarissa highlight just how essential communication is to relationships.
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