As with almost all literary pieces of work, Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel, Mrs. Dalloway, incorporates and covers many themes throughout the book. Some of these themes included are, the importance of society and class, all around suffering, repression and oppression, and others alike. The one that stands out significantly for me personally is the reoccurring theme of death and aging.
While reading through the novel, I had come across a particular passage or sentence that caught my interest. It appears on page 9 towards the bottom of the page. At this moment in the story Clarissa Dalloway casually walks by Hatchard’s shop with many fleeting thoughts about life and death on her mind. She suddenly pauses from her brisk walk and takes notice of an open book in the shop window. She glances at this book and reads to herself two lines from it. The lines read “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun. Nor the furious winter’s rages.” These lines are taken from Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline that come from the funeral song of Act IV, Scene 2. This verse can be interrupted to mean that with death comes no more suffering and pain; death is the ultimate escape. While reading Mrs. Dalloway, I’ve noticed this idea of death and it’s inevitable lurking around the corner crosses Clarissa’s mind constantly. These thoughts are actually occurring in her mind before and as she passes the shop window. Just a couple of lines before the Shakespeare quote on page 9, it reads,
“Did it matter then, she asked herself, walking towards Bond Street, did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely; all this must go on without her; did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely?”
She has come to the realization that sh...
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...again renewed. This passage illustrates how she has come to terms with the fact that one-day her mortal life with end and the earth will indeed keep revolving without her on it.
In reading Mrs. Dalloway, I myself find death and the effect of time to be the prominent theme. Clarissa Dalloway, in particular, seems obsessed with analyzing her life, and wondering if she has lived a meaningful one. She reflects on death much more than one should and with many different outlooks. For example, at times she is delighted with life and sees all of its’ beauty. Yet, other times she wonders basically “what is the point of it all”? She understands that everything will go on almost exactly as it did before even after she dies, and she is unsure if that thought is comforting or disturbing.
Works Cited
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. New York: Harcourt, Brace and, 1925. Print.
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a passage from the letter she is writing to add a personal feel to the
comparing the realm to a large loss in her life. Finally, the statement in the
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