Clarissa Vaughan (Dalloway)
In the novel “The Hours” by Michael Cunningham, Clarissa Vaughan (Dalloway) ventures out to buy flowers for a celebration party she is giving for, Richard, her closes friend. During the course of her day, she has many thoughts and feeling, which are triggered by locations and people. She wonders if she made the right decision in her life and thinks about the paths she could have taken. I will decide if her feelings are simply personal or a product of the time in which she lives.
A beautiful June day, flowers to buy, and a party to prepare for her dearest close friend, Richard, has given her purpose for the day. She is feeling lively not at all for a woman of 52. She reflects back when she was 18 when she and Richard spent a romantic time at Wellfleet. Her feelings were personal because it was a romantic moment that they shared together; her feelings were also a product of time; her age is 52 and she also reflecting back on her youth.
Running into Walter on the streets causes her to think about Richard. I believe the feeling she had at that moment were a product of time. She feels if she had been with Richard and they ran into Walter, they would be in disagreement about Walter and what he depicts.
She was standing on a corner on her way to see Richard, the exact corner, and she starts to reminisce about when he was 19 and tried to kiss her; she remembers that it was the argument about a kiss that caused them to part ways and seeking their freedom. I believe that her feelings were both personal and a product of time; the argument they had touched her and it was personal, and that same corner, which brought about her memory is a product of time.
Richard’s ill health causes her to think about Evan who also has Aids, and she questions herself; why didn’t Richard get his medication in time? Her feelings were personal as well as a product of time. She cares deeply for Richard and wants him to get well, but on the other hand, the timing for him to have started taking the drugs for Aids were proven to be very imperative to his health.
Richard reminds her about the romance they had at Wellfleet, the kiss by the pond, the night they spent in bed, and tells her he only his one regrets, she tell him he should have no regrets. The word regrets triggers her to start thinking about her own life, the choices she made, and the life she shares with her significant other, Sally. Her feelings are personal.
A visit from Louis, who was once Richard’s lover, also ignites feeling when all three of them enjoyed a lustful time at Wellfleet, and she remembers how they both loved Richard. Again her feelings were personal because they all shared a time of love and because it was in the past, her feelings were also a product of time; it was something that happened 30 years ago.
Clarissa’s daughter, Julia, has been acting differently toward her mother; her behavior has prompt Clarissa into thinking about her daughter never knowing who her father is, because she used a sperm donor to get pregnant. I believe Clarissa’s feelings about the changes in her daughter were personal as well as a product of time, because over time it is natural for a child to wonder who their father is if he has never been around.
After reading “The Hours” I feel the celebration party Clarissa was given for Richard was not only to celebrate his life’s work as a poet, but a party to celebrate the life they shared together as friends, and lovers. I believe she knew he was dying from Aids.
I agree that Clarissa’s feelings were both dependent upon the time in which she lives and her personal feelings/experiences that can be relatable to almost anyone in any time in modern age. Clarissa’s feelings are subjective; in order to understand where she is coming from one must take into account her physical, literal space within the world and the figurative space within herself, her feelings and emotions. I think it is a natural human proclivity to question one’s own decisions, to wonder about the road untraveled, for the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side” exists for a reason. Even if a person is content or dare I say happy with their lot in life, where they have ended up, life is made up of choices upon choices, it is rare that one choice changes or sets your life on a specific path, therefore when it does as is the case of Carissa’s decision to walk a way from Richard, from the kiss, it is always interesting to wonder “what if”. What if she had chosen differently? Questioning one’s place helps us to understand ourselves and if we are in a place where we wish to be or whether perhaps a change is needed to be made. Life is a journey and in Clarissa’s case, I think ultimately a celebration.
ReplyDeleteI necessarily could not identify with Mrs. Dalloway’s character only because I necessarily do not do what I don’t want to do. Women in this day and age are not forced in to task they cannot handle or projects they do not want to partake in just to please people. I can feel her pain though in being forced to be this picture perfect person and the pressure she must have felt. I’m in that stage right now that things just feel trivial in my life because I’m doing so much and it seems like my goal keep getting farther and farther away from me. If only flowers made everything better. I would breath, eat and wear flowers. However life is not a fairy tell and I think that after a while Mrs. Dalloway came back to reality and eventually understood that she was not living for herself but for other people like Richard who wrote her in a book in which I think described her complexity and other people found it hard to read. I do not agree that the author wanted to celebrate life because everybody was just miserable who wants to celebrate when they feel like crap I don’t know about you but I don’t, but then again MRS. TINA maybe she was celebrating Richards life as a writer.
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