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编 号：河南大学2012届本科毕业论文A Character Analysis of Mrs. Dalloway 达洛维夫人人物分析论文作者名称： 冯文月 作 者 学 号： 080170149 所 在 学 院： 外语学院 所 学 专 业： 英语语言文学 导师姓名、职称： 李巧慧 副教授 论文完成时间： 2012-04-15 A Character Analysis of Mrs. Dalloway 达洛维夫人人物分析Feng WenyueCollege of Foreign LanguagesHenan UniversityApril 2012AcknowledgementsI would like to express my gratitude to all those who has helped me during the course of my undergraduate thesis. My deepest gratitude goes first to my supervisor Professor Li Qiaohui, who has offered me valuable suggestions in the academic studies. In the preparation process, she has spent much time reading through each draft and provided me with inspiring advice. Without her patient instruction, insightful criticism, and expert guidance, the completion of this thesis would not have been possible. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to all my teachers in College of Foreign Languages at Henan University, from whose devoted teaching and enlightening lectures I have benefited a lot and academically prepared for the thesis. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my beloved parents and friends, who have always been helping me out of difficulties and supporting me without a word of complaint.17AbstractAbstract Virginia Woolf is considered as one of the most essential figures of modern fiction in the 1920s. Her feminist perspective and mastery of the stream-of-consciousness skill are long-lasting shining points in the history of literature. Among her significant achievements, Mrs. Dalloway is highly praised by both readers and critics. Clarissa Dalloway, the heroine of the novel, is famous for her complex and contradictory character. From Clarissa to Mrs. Dalloway, she made a compromise to life due to the social background at that time and her own materialism in the pursuit of living comfortably.Key Words Clarissa; Mrs. Dalloway; Compromise摘要【摘要】弗吉尼亚伍尔夫被认为是20世纪20年代现代小说最重要的人物之一。她的女性主义视角和高超的意识流写作技巧也是文学史上持久的闪光点。在她的众多作品中，小说达洛维夫人深受读者和评论家的赞誉。小说的女主人公克拉丽莎达洛维因其复杂矛盾的性格而闻名。由于当时的社会背景和自身在对舒适生活追求中的物质主义，她完成了从克拉丽莎到达洛维夫人的转变，向生活做了一个妥协。【关键词】克拉丽莎；达洛维夫人；妥协ContentsAcknowledgementsAbstract (English).iAbstract (Chinese).iiIntroduction.1Chapter One The Passionate yet Sensible Clarissa.31.1 The Romantic and Passionate Clarissa.31.2 The Lost yet Sensible Clarissa.4Chapter Two The Worldly yet Contradictory Mrs. Dalloway.62.1 The Worldly Mrs. Dalloway.6 2.2 The Contradictory Mrs. Dalloway.8Chapter Three Causes of the Compromise.113.1 External Causes: Social Background.113.2 Internal Causes: Materialism.13Conclusion.15Bibliography.16IntroductionThe first half of the 20th century witnessed the success of a large number of talented writers. Among these literary stars, Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), the English female writer, has influenced the whole world with her works, feminist consciousness, and writing theories about modern fiction.Virginia Woolf was born into a descent family. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, was a respectful biographer, critic and editor, who himself owned a huge quantity of books. Besides, great novelists like Thomas Hardy, George Meredith, Henry James, and other literary and political celebrities, were all his frequent guests. Therefore, Virginia Woolf was exposed to the atomasphere of knowledge and culture since a very young age. However, due to her poor health, Virginia never received formal education. Instead, she was educated at home under the instructions of her father. This experience, to a great extent, contributed to the unconventional style in her writing. As a writer, Woolf had remarkable achievements. Her works include nine novels, several short stories, a play, a biography, more than three hundred and fifty literary criticism and essays during her lifetime, and collections of her diaries, letters and autobiographies published posthumously. In her works, Woolf expressed special sympathy for women, and spoke for them in various occasions, thus became the forerunner of modern western feminism (Sun, 2011). In addition, Woolfs opinions on the way to write novels were also innovative. Her nine novels, except the first two, which were written in the conventional technique, were all experimental ones with a new novel form. In “Modern Fiction”, Woolf expressed the idea that “life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end” (Liu, 2007: 410), so the novelists task is to “record the atoms as they fall” and to “convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit.” And Professor Liu observed that “in her novels, the element of plot and story is reduced as far as she could. They become series of impressions, musings and reflections” (Liu, 2007: 410). Now Virginia Woolf is generally considered as one of the poineers in leading the modernism trend, and one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. Her achievements and creativeness in the literary field have a strong effect even today.As one of Woolfs most widely read and most intensively researched novels, Mrs. Dalloway was first published in 1925. Based on two short stories, “Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street” and “The Prime Minister”, the novel is set on one single June day in London in 1923. Clarissa Dalloway, a M.P.s wife, was preparing for giving a party in the evening. Through the technique of stream-of-consciousness, readers are free to enter the hearts and minds of the characters, thus a womans whole life and the whole English society after the First World War were vividly presented. E. M. Forster appreciated Woolfs this novel particularly, saying that “it is easy for a novelist to describe what a character thinks ofBut to convey the actual process of thinking is a creative feat, and I know of no one except Virginia Woolf who has accomplished it” /englweb/362/WebQuestWoolf.htm.The present research on this novel mainly focuses on the theme of sanity and insanity, life and death, and its writing skills. Nevertheless, I perceive the change of the heroines character over time quite intriguing, and also essential to understand the social meaning of the novel. Thus I will focus on the image of the protagonist, the passionate yet sensible Clarissa (Chapter One), the worldly yet contradictory Mrs. Dalloway (Chapter Two), and explore the causes of the change, i.e. the compromise (Chapter Three).Chapter One The Passionate yet Sensible ClarissaClarissa Dalloway was a 52-year-old lady in the upper class of society in London, who always appeared to be elegant and perfect in front of people. However, through the stream of consciousness of hers and that of her once beloved Peter Walshs, we see a quite different Clarissa in the past at Bourton. “What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air” (Woolf, 1996: 3). Subsequent quotations from the same book will only note the page number. Exactly like the image in this recollection, Clarissa then was a romantic young girl. She enjoyed every moment of life, did uncountable romantic things when with Peter, and had a mysterious and rebellious relationship with her female friend, Sally Seton. Yet passions were not all. On one hand, at the painful exploring stage of life, just like other young people, Clarissa was overwhelmed by the feeling of lostness now and then at that time. But deep down inside, She was guided by her innate sense on the other hand, thus knowing what she wanted.1.1 The Romantic and Passionate ClarissaBack at Bourton, the romantic and passionate Clarissa could be seen when she was with two people, with whom both she had close relationship, that is, Peter Walsh and Sally Seton.Peter was a poetic man who regarded love above all things in life, and would never betray his heart to obey the society (Liu, 2009). Compared to those “gentlemen” at that time, Peter was a total failure in the worldly sense. Clarissa was deeply in love with him then. Loving an unsuccessful man, this fact alone proved her courage and passion. When she was with Peter, the air in the early morning was fresh and calm, like “the flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave” (3), and the flowers, the trees and the rooks were all so beautiful. They danced all night, and Clarissa once even “threw a shilling into the Serpentine” (7), a thing that she would never do in her later life. When Peter sometimes said that she would marry a Prime Minister and stand at the top of a staircase, and called her the perfect hostess, Clarissa cried over it in the bedroom and felt extremely hurt. All these behaviour could belong to no one but a romantic girl in love. Clarissas unwillingness and even contempt for being and being called the perfect hostess shows that there was something unconventional in her nature.Clarissas passion was much stronger when she was with Sally. Sally Seton was an extraordinarily open woman. She once sat on the floor with her arms round her knees, smoking a cigarette at a party. Unlike anyone else at that time, she cut heads of flowers off and made them swim on the top of water in bowls, and she even ran along the passage naked when she forgot her sponge. As a woman in the Victorian Age, she was totally unacceptable in the traditional eyes in every sense, but Clarissa admired her so much that she could not take her eyes off her. They sat up till all hours of the night talking. “There they sat, hour after hour, talking in her bedroom at the top of house, talking about life, how they were to reform the world. They meant to found a society to abolish private property” (25). Clarissa even had the “if it were now to die twere now to be most happy” feeling all because she was coming down to dinner in a white frock to meet Sally Seton. When Sally kissed her on the lips, she felt “the whole world might have turned upside down! The others disappeared; there she was alone with Sally” (26). Besides, their idea of reforming the world and founding a new society was a reflection of , not only their passion, but also their wish to be equal with men, which was quite rare at their time.From all these details, we know that how romantic and passionate Clarissa was.1.2 The Lost yet Sensible ClarissaRomantic and passionate girl as she was, Clarissa had her lostness. She and Peter loved each other, but there still were obstacles between them. While Clarissa enjoyed the trees, the grass, and the little girl in pink, it was the the state of the world that interested Peter, like Wagner, Popes poetry, and peoples characters eternally, which were too deep for Clarissa to understand, for she only had very little education at home. Besides, Clarissa believed that there must be a little independence between people living together day in day out in the same house, whereas when she was with Peter, everything had to be shared and that was intolerable to her. Therefore Clarissa was at a loss. Love and independence, she did not know what to choose. Till 52-year-old, she still wondered how she made up her mind not to marry Peter that summer. Moreover, Clarissas lostness also existed in her relationship with Sally. It was extremely close, but she could not be sure what that was, and could not perceive the meaning of it. She often asked herself, “that falling in love with women, had not that, after all, been love” (24)? Clarissa was lost.However, her lostness was only temporary. Behind the romantic and passionate side, she had some sense in her mind. Peter Walsh saw that even before Clarissa herself. So when Richard Dalloway appeared at a dinner for the first time, Peter, not knowing his name, had a sudden revelation that Clarissa would marry that man. Unconsciously he knew what kind of life she desired to live. In later days when Clarissa was familiar with Richard Dalloway, Sally once implored to Peter to carry off Clarissa, to save her from the Hughs and the Dalloways and all the other “perfect gentlemen” who would “stifle her soul”, make a mere hostess of her, and encourage her worldliness, but Clarissa herself had a perfectly clear notion of what she wanted. She wasnt going to marry Hugh anyhow. “Her emotions were all on the surface. Beneath, she was very shrewd” (57). It is true that she was lost, but more importantly, she was sensible. So, eventually, she walked out her lostness, broke up with Peter, and married the practical and reliable Richard Dalloway.Chapter Two The Worldly yet Contradictory Mrs. DallowayProfessor Qu observed that the image of Mrs. Dalloway was presented to us from different perspectives and levels (Qu, 1986). The general impression we get is a thoroughly well-depicted picture of the heroine, not only from her own actions and words and thoughts, but also from the description of her relations with her husband Richard, her daughter Elizabeth, her former lover Peter Walsh, and other people she knew and had contact with, thus making this character a multi-dimensional one. As a London socialite, Mrs. Dalloway always acted perfectly in other peoples eys. She was elegant and successful. Over the past more than thirty years, worldliness has woven a veil, covering her when she was in front of people. However, under the veil, she was not so happy as she appeared to be or people thought she should be. As a matter of fact, her heart was full of contradictions, which tortured her from time to time.2.1 The Worldly Mrs. DallowayGenerally speaking, Mrs. Dalloways worldliness can be perceived from three viewpoints, that is, other peoples impressions of her, her love for parties, and her attitude toward life.Firstly, people around Mrs. Dalloway have different ideas about her. For example, Scrope Purvis, the driver of Durtnalls van, considered her a charming woman, though she was over fifty and grew very white since her illness, there was still a touch of the bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, light, and vivacious. And Miss Pym, owner of the flower shop, owing her help, thought Mrs. Dalloway was kind, but looked older this year. Besides, Lucy, the servant, believed her mistress was the loveliest of all-mistress of silver, of linen, of china. Her husband Richard regarded her as a delicate wife who needed care and help, and her daughter Elizabeth observed that her mother liked old women because they were Duchesses. Elizabeths teacher, Miss Kilman, felt that a rich lady like Mrs. Dalloway was simply a “fool”, and a “simpleton”, “who had known neither sorrow nor pleasure, who had trifled life away” (91). And her poor cousin Ellie Henderson thought that she was extremely snobish. From different points of view, we see a portrait of a worldly lady of the upper class. Since all these impressions come from nowhere but their observations of her, Mrs. Dalloways worldliness is as plain as daylight. Besides those impressions, many details of her daily behaviour can prove her worldliness as well. For example, when walking on the street, she always kept herself upright. And when she learned that Richard had been invited to lunch by Lady Bruton without her, though not that close to Richard, she meant Lucy to share her disappointment by saying “dear!” quite intentionally. Worldliness had infiltrated into every corner of Mrs. Dalloways life.Secondly, Mrs. Dalloway was very fond of giving and attending parties. As an efficient means of socializing, parties play an important role in her life, at which she could help her husband with his political career, and search a sense of existence and success for herself. When at her party, she said “how delightful to see you!” to everyone, wandered among her guests gracefully, and talked to them skillfully. Since a party is a miniature society, Mrs. Dalloways wordliness in daily life was also clearly remarkable.Thirdly, some of Mrs. Dalloways understanding of life is consistent with her worldly character. When was young, she had passionate thoughts to reform the social system and found a new society. However, life to her later was simply a lot of time to spend. When crossing Victoria Street, she thought that “for Heaven only knows why one loves it (life) so” (4), and “life, London, this moment of June”(4), was what she loved. She would not explore the meaning or value of it any more, but just continue to live and love it. At the same time, she had confusion and fear towards death. “She asks herself, does 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? (7)” Nevertheless, the worldly Mrs. Dalloway would not indulge herself in questions like these. She read “fear on more the heat o the sun, nor the furious winters rages” in the book to comfort herself, and thought of peoples courage and endurance in the late age of the worlds experience to encourage herself and thus became calm again.To conclude, the present Mrs. Dalloway was a typical upper class rich lady, pretentious in public, loving parties, and living on the surface of life. Different from the girl when she was young, worldliness h