Always, the Hours.

Ever since its initial release from Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux in 1998, people have claimed that Michael Cunningham’s The Hours, which is about three interconnected women and the life they feel almost trapped in, is ahead of its era because of the taboo topics that it tackled from how it depicted women to their internal battles with themselves. I for one wasn’t convinced that a book about three women from different times and places could ever be so relatable to women from decades later, taking how the times have changed since then into account. But as I have come to find out we don’t need to be totally under the same circumstances to experience the same ambivalence that the said characters go through. 

Before delving into the realm of the fictive, we first need to discuss why this book is literary acclaimed by many. Writing from multiple points of view while not losing the reader is hard as is but Cunningham does it with such grace that it still holds meaning many years later which is the main reason why we still pick up this book when we need an escape from reality. The language that he chose to use combined with the symbolism within the ordinary objects themselves is why this book is still praised to this day. 

Laura Brown is the reason this book came to be in the first place, it’s only fair to discuss her situation first. It’s sort of silly that a young adult who is just starting her life can relate to an adult married woman with kids, but it isn’t the situation that this woman is currently in that makes me say “Oh, I have been there. Done that.” but rather the state of mind that she is in. Not knowing where she lost herself, her own identity, and became this person that she doesn’t recognize the reflection of. When seen from the outside perspective the life that Laura has just as easily could be perceived as a dream but with the expectations Laura had from her life, it’s far from what she dreamed to have which shows through her actions when wanting to get away solely to do something as simple as reading. Feeling trapped in the life that she didn’t want, yet is ever grateful for, Laura finds herself unhappy and surrounded by a crowd that she didn’t ask for. And even the simplest task, in this case baking a birthday cake, becomes a burden because she isn’t truly satisfied not just with the cake but the potential that Laura knows she possesses but just can’t seem to execute.  

Mrs. Dalloway or as most know her Clarissa Vaughn, though just a fraction of the brilliant Virginia Woolf’s mind feels too real not to be a character we all know too well from our own personal life. With the everlasting feeling that she has missed the chance of reaching true happiness with a lover she could’ve had, Clarissa feels as though the life she has, yet again like our beloved Laura, is less than what she bargained for. What pushes her to come to this conclusion is much more than a realization that Laura has as she stares at her pregnant belly; Clarissa has always been a domestic woman who knew how to make do with what she had, who was made happy with little gestures until an event occurred which pushed her to believe that maybe she did something wrong along the way hence our character’s need to find what could be the solution to this problem by daring to ask the questions she was too afraid to utter before. This is also an excellent way of mirroring the emotional changes that all these women experience throughout the book; realizing the problem, finding its source, and at last, stumbling upon a solution to end this misery permanently. Gradually but surely making their way towards the end, one way or another. These states they are in also relate to the situations we all face daily today, though we may not choose to end things as Clarissa or Virginia did, we too very well must face our demons to truly make peace.  

And lastly Virginia Woolf, a woman whose story we all know and cherish. Virginia is used to tie all these women together in the book. She writes therefore the others have a reason to exist. Just like Laura, the audience that she touches with the book Mrs. Dalloway is hooked on a feeling that is hard to describe with words, so they turn to the book that started it all for solace.  

When you put all these women together, you get why this book is a phenomenon that is still being read religiously by those who seek safety and acceptance, those who are looking for a place to belong, and to be understood. That is why when I picked it up my response to all those who claimed this was the peak of their life wasn’t “You need to pick up a book.”. That is why I’m confident to say whatever Michael Cunningham’s intentions were when writing this book, he conquered it and touched many people’s hearts, including mine. This leaves the question that started this in the first place “Is this book really as revolutionary as people make it out to be?” to be answered with simply just a “Yes, yes it is.”.