solved Mrs. Dalloway: Novel There’s something important to note from the

Mrs. Dalloway: Novel
There’s something important to note from the beginning of this  novel and it is the title. By naming the title “Mrs. Dalloway” you  wonder the question of who Mr. Dalloway is. Well, he’s a politician in  Britain and because of who he is, it determines a lot about who she is.  Mrs. Dalloway’s narration is third-person omniscient. The beginning and  ending focus on Clarissa and a specific day in her life. She wants to  throw a party, but certain things seem to be dampening her mood and  potentially the party too. 
The first form of symbolism is when she says “For it was the  middle of June. The war was over, except for some one like Mrs. Foxcroft  at the Embassy last night eating her heart out because that nice boy  was killed.” It explains that this all was happening in a time period  shortly after the war. Things were somewhat getting better, but the war  had left a lot of scars for people like Mrs. Foxcroft who lost a loved  one. The loss of life during the war was massive and everyone at least  knew someone who had experienced loss. Mrs. Dalloway was doing her best  to make it seem like life was going okay, but you could tell there were  signs of depression in her life by some of the struggles she faced in  her mind.
Notice by page 18 when the plane is flying through the sky and  Septimus looks up to see it. The plane was advertising a brand of  Toffee. Septimus seemed to be amazed by it, but he also seemed to show  some trouble in his mind. It turned out that Septimus had a form of PTSD  though it wasn’t officially called that. He served in the war and I  imagine those planes flying over were beautiful, but also somewhat  traumatic. Knowing the history of the first World War, planes were  introduced during that time. For the first time ever, planes were flying  over cities and bombing them. So many left the war with those kinds of  mental issues. Rezia seemed to have a hard time dealing with Septimus as  it says in the text “for she could stand it no longer. Dr. Holmes might  say there was nothing the matter. Far rather would she that he were  dead”. Clearly, it was difficult to be around Septimus at times. But for  someone with PTSD, the sounds of airplanes and even the cars backfiring  that sounded like a pistol, it would send anyone struggling with those  issues into a frenzy. Looking at the history of Woolf’s novels, there’s a  pattern of mentioning mental illness. I’d imagine this was something  very important to Woolf. So her way of bringing awareness to this  illness was by including it in her novels. Virginia Woolfe seemed to  want to portray how people were coping in a post-war society. 
During this novel, you jump in and out of the minds of all the  main characters such as Clarissa, Lucrezia, Peter, Septimus, and so on.  You don’t have one narrator telling the whole story. Instead, you get to  hear many different perspectives. With the whole novel taking place in  the time span of one day and by telling the thoughts of so many on that  day, it allows you to get a full picture of all that was happening  during the day leading up to the end. The transitions from one character  to another can be kind of tricky to notice at first. You have to pay  attention while reading. You’ll notice there’s a lot of people watching  in this novel. Take Mrs. Dempster for example. On page 21 the text says  “That girl, thought Mrs. Dempster, don’t know a thing yet: and it seemed  to her better to be a little stout, a little slack, a little moderate  in one’s expectation.” With all the people watching, it seems to set the  tone for the day. There seems to be an uneasy feeling as you imagine  them just sitting on a bench, enjoying the weather while making comments  about others passing by.
The imagery that is used in this novel grabs your attention if  you can keep up with what’s going on. This one line on page 130 saying  “his wintry charm without cordiality: his innocence blent with snobbery”  gives you a glimpse of how Woolfe liked to use imagery. It allowed for  you to envision who this person was and what they were like. This novel  does also bring light to depression issues as you can tell when Clarissa  finds out that Septimus had passed. Maybe Clarissa was relieved that  Septimus had escaped such a harsh reality. But it is never a good thing  when someone sees death as the way to escape the realities of this life.  Septimus seemed to be the one who dealt with all that was wrong in  society. He seemed to be drug down in it and didn’t try to hide it.  Clarissa on the other hand tried to hide all the pain she was feeling by  living up to superficial expectations and making things seem like they  were perfect when they weren’t. The best example of that is Clarissa  throwing this huge party and not wanting Septimus’ death to put a damper  on things. Clarissa wanted to live in another reality to escape what  she was dealing with on the inside. I believe Woolfe wanted to bring  awareness to depression with this novel as well. By showing two types of  depression, you get a glimpse of how two lives that look different on  the outside, don’t mean one is happier than the other. The issues people  deal with on the inside are deep and can drag anyone down.
1. Why do you think Woolfe used different characters to narrate the novel
2. Was there any other imagery you found helpful to picture what was happening in the novel?