Mrs. Dalloway Book Report

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Mrs. Dalloway The narrator in Mrs. Dalloway portrays Clarissa Dalloway as an insecure, anxious, and indecisive lady who has had no true success in the game of love, but plenty of near misses. When she was together with Peter Walsh, they had spoken of marriage but it didn’t work out; and to add injury to insult he ended up marrying an Indian girl he met on a boat ride to India. It is many instances such as this that might have caused Clarissa to become closed up and not as expressive about her emotions like others such as Peter. This trait plays a role in her misfortune when it comes to love; as Peter wants to let loose a wave of emotions and confess to her his true feelings, but thinks as he is talking to her, “Shall I tell her, he thought, or not? He would like to make a clean breast of it all. But she is too cold, he thought.”(Woolf 42), and it is precisely her emotionally void attitude that diverts Peter from, in a sense, ‘coming clean’. Referring to her past, while maintaining a presence in the present; it’s obvious that Clarissa never found the love she was looking for, and albeit she is married to a good man and convinces others to believe that she is happy; she is far from it, and yearns to have something more: something different. Throughout the story it is evident that Clarissa never truly let go of the uncertainty she feels about the decisions that shaped her life. If a hint is a subtle thing, then the words and thoughts of Peter Walsh should come as a slap in the face and reveal that he is still in love with Clarissa and longs to be with her. After leaving to India and marrying another woman, he still continued to write letters to Clarissa. He still loved and cared for her enough to keep in touch; something no man would have done if they were completely over a woman. Although there is no vivid description as to the contents of these letters, the
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