Mrs. Dalloway

Do not read, if you haven't read the book. Or, go ahead if you're never going to read it. In that case, I refuse any responsibility for the spoilers.

Virginia Woolf's famous novel Mrs. Dalloway, not going to lie, is a hard one to follow. The light at the end of the tunnel just seems to be ever-growing Growing apart. The tunnel makes you feel claustrophobic, and the air gets thinner and thinner, and we all owe this to the technique Woolf uses, the stream of consciousness. However, bear with me, because it is kind of worths it.

Mrs. Dalloway... Oh, where do I begin? I would have never expected this upper-class, housewife, the perfect example of an angel in the house, to turn out to be a woman of secrets. Woolf puts layers to this character very carefully. On the outside, she is what society wants. On the inside, though, she is everything that society rejects. Her love for Sally Seton shows us that she was oppressed by society and chose to hide in a closet for the rest of her life. She was oppressed, but the second she chose to obey the societal norms, she became part of the problem. She became the oppressor. Can we blame her, though? At this age, where people are rather more open-minded, it is easy to judge, condemn and expect them to stand their ground. However, even today, some people find it hard to express their desires freely. So, thinking of a novel that represents the victorian mindset, a time, where even love between man and woman was viewed as taboo, it couldn't be easy to be who she is. It takes something more than courage, I guess. Therefore, I decided to leave the woman alone and as a tiny part of the society, the problem, I apologize to her for making her feel like her true identity wasn't welcomed. This, however, brings me to Sally Seton. I guess I feel worse for her than I feel for Clarissa Dalloway. Clarissa was obedient, that was in her blood. However, Sally wasn't like that. She was free-spirited, ready to fight. She didn't care about society or being rejected by it. I have no doubt that it must be harder for her to fit in. Either way, it is awful for both of them, for everyone to become alienated from one's self.

The novel creates a movie effect, as it introduces different characters, separate from each other, and then shows how they cross paths one way or another. Septimus, a war veteran suffering from shellshock, being at the Regent's Park at the same time with Peter Walsh. Then, Peter Walsh hearing the ambulance sirens that goes to Septimus' house after he commits suicide. Septimus' psychaitrist going to Clarissa' party and mentioning Septimus' death. Finally, Clarissa, being the part of the problem, feeling guilty for his death. It makes you feel like, as a reader, you follow one character with a camera and zoom in on the backgorund when others show up. It's effortless but powerful. Most importantly, it's real. Sometimes, we meet with someone, who we've briefly crossed paths eight years ago at the bus and become close friends after all these years. What are the chances that we recognise that person. We might have even smiled at her or him, making their bad day better and left our mark in their lives. It reminds us that we are chained to one another and each of our moves creates a domino effect. It teaches us, that the choice is up to us, whether to become a part of the problem or to become the solution. Our small habits in our daily lives are more important than what we think, they are, in fact, the beginning of the change. This is a good novel, some say a hard read. However, if you ask to me, it's not harder than the life itself.