A private luncheon with Clarissa

Mrs. Dalloway, a book by the famed author Virginia Woolf, is the latest book what are reading. Whats striking similar to Quicksand, by Nella Larson, is the use of first person and stream of thought to give an intimate view on the plot and its characters. Its hard to believe that the whole book took up an entire day. Personally speaking, I didn’t like the lengthy look into each character’s lives, it seemed like Quicksand all over again, especially how Clarissa is self conscience of everything in her life and relationships she has with the other characters. I feel that the book could be shortened.

But let us continue. There is a striking scene on page 40 that gives a subtle hint as to the aging of Peter Walsh and Clarissa Dalloway:

“Exactly the same, though Clarissa; the same queer look; the same check suit; a little out of the straight his case is, a little thinner, dryer, perhaps, but he looks awfully well, and just the same”

Whats going on here, Peter Walsh shows up unannounced to Clarissa. The back story is, Peter was one of Clarissa’s suitors, about thirty years ago. However, Richard Dalloway beat him to the marriage, Peter hasn’t let go of Clarissa, even after 30 years. Peter figured that marrying a different woman and starting a family in India would change his love for Clarissa, but he was wrong. He still finds it in himself that he can never stop loving her at this point in the novel, he even compares her to other women. As for the repetition of “same”, Woolf is stating that thirty years hasn’t changed Clarissa or Peter mentally.