Mrs. Dalloway :: essays research papers

Mrs. Dalloway (1998) presents a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class English woman. Clarissa Dalloway is the wife of Richard Dalloway, a Conservative Member of Parliament. The story takes place in London on a day in June 1923, a day when Clarissa is giving a dinner party party. She walks to the florist shop to buy flowers for the party.Admittedly, its no easy task to make a silly womans foolish choices an engrossing cinematic experience. For that reason alone the mint who tried to make a film of Virginia Woolfs novel, "Mrs. Dalloway" get an "E" for effort. It has a sumptuous look, excellent supporting performances, and I wish I could have want it more. The title subject, Clarissa Dalloway, is played by Vanessa Redgrave while she plans a party at her impressive home. As she does, she begins to recall the choice she made years agone when pursued by two suitors who could not have been more different. Rather than reckless passion, her choice, born of c owardice, was for the security of a quiet life full of privilege. rotating shaft Walsh, an old and close friend of Clarissas, has returned to England after five years in India, and comes to visit her. Peter Walsh once loved Clarissa, but she had refused to marry him. Clarissa introduces Peter to her missy Elizabeth. Elizabeth is 17 years old, and has an older friend and tutor named Doris Kilman. Elizabeth goes to lunch with Miss Kilman. Miss Kilman is poor and physically unattractive, and resents the upper-class Mrs. Dalloway. Miss Kilman is a desperate and fanatically religious woman, who wants to take Elizabeth away from her mother, but conceals her feeling under the guise of religiosity and strident charity. Septimus Warren Smith and his wife Lucrezia happen to be walk of life on the street. Septimus Warren Smith never meets Mrs. Dalloway, but their lives are connected by external events, such as the sight of an airplane overhead, and by the circumstance that they are both sen sitive people who feel empty. Septimus Warren Smith commits suicide the same day that Mrs. Dalloway is giving her dinner party.Clarissa Dalloway as a character in the novel is upper-class and conventional. She knows her life is shallow her former lover Peter Walsh had called her the perfect hostess. She feels that her only gift in life is in versed a person through instinct.