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Mrs Dalloway: is Clarissa happy?

Right from the start, we are introduced to the mind of Clarissa Dalloway. From the surface she seems like your typical middle aged white lady, she's settled down, she has a husband and daughter, and she's living comfortably. However, as we move through the book we begin to dive deeper into her mind. We learn she has caught influenza and is suffering the affects after. She's isolated from her husband and is required to rest. Later we are able to see that this is why she was so happy to be put in charge of the party and why it was so exciting for her to go out and get the flowers. Even though she is excited about the party, we constantly see her reminiscing on the past specifically to when she was 18. She begins to think about the past so much that it consumes her present life. She even begins to analyze her relationship with Richard. She seems lost and hung up on the past, her life was more exciting when she was 18, she was free. 

So is it that Clarissa is unhappy now, or is it that when she was 18 she was freer? I think the answer is a little bit of both. Clarissa is now at the stage in life where she's settled down and now her daughter is 18 and things are changing for her again; it's unsettling in some ways for her. We begin to realize that in some ways she's settled for Richard. Yes, she cares about him but she doesn't have the fireworks like she did when she was 18. Even when running into an old friend she immediately thinks back to the past. When she was 18 she had so many possibilities, she was surrounded by new love, there was drama, she was the center of attention. In some ways we can say she just misses that. 

Comments

  1. Emily DSeptember 27, 2022 at 4:25 PM

    Yes, I agree. She is happy as the rest of us will be happy. She is content. I don't believe reminiscing is a sign of unhappiness, but ruminating may be. I think it's perfectly explainable for her to be thinking of the past as much as she is because all of the elements that are reminding her of that time period. Besides, she was likely stuck inside with nothing but her books and her mind. It's perfectly understandable for her to have a tendency to think.

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  2. Kelby SvendsenSeptember 27, 2022 at 9:19 PM

    My thought about the book is that Clarissa's unhappiness is a result of the past and the present. She is clearly unhappy with the current boring and confining state of her life, which explains her present unhappiness. In terms her past, although she is conflicted and ponders the decisions she made back when she was 18, she also recognizes that any other choice (such as choosing to marry Peter) would have had its own consequences as well. Yes she is unhappy, but I don't think she entirely regrets the way her life has turned out. But like you said, I think that her unhappiness stems from trying to speculate and cling to the past to escape the present.

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  3. Noreen AdoniSeptember 28, 2022 at 10:29 AM

    I agree that she feels less free in the present, but I wonder if that really makes her unhappy? I used to think that her constant reminiscing on the past meant she was not happy with her life, but I think she enjoys the peace and calmness as an adult married to Richard. She might simply have appreciation for what she had as an eighteen year old and notice its differences from her present life.

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  4. Yan LOctober 3, 2022 at 9:05 PM

    I agree with Noreen, just because someone reminisces about the past does not mean they are unhappy with the present. When you go through life, you make a lot of decision you would not have known would change your life completely, and sometime you just want to go back and wonder what would've happened if I did a certain thing differently. Thus I feel like while Clarissa is not the most joyous person in the world, she's perfectly content with her life.

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  5. Olivia ThompsonOctober 9, 2022 at 2:19 PM

    I think you bring up a really interesting conversation. Personally, I feel like she isn't necessarily unhappy, but she is a little bored. I think being sick for so long and not being able to do much has made her life a lot less exciting (why she gets so excited about the party), so she may just be thinking back to a time where things were more eventful. I also think she is definitely missing her old friends a little bit, and that could be contributing to a little bit of sadness. Overall, however, I feel like she isn't completely unhappy.

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