Death in Mrs. Dalloway - 561 Words

In Mrs. Dalloway, references to life and death are seen frequently throughout the entire novel. It would not be correct to claim that Mrs. Dalloway focuses more on one or the other, for the novel brings attention to both life and death. Virginia Woolf exhibits these profound ideas through the thoughts of her characters in Mrs. Dalloway. The thought of death is constantly lurking in the thoughts of each character, and it makes even the most ordinary events become meaningful, and sometimes threatening. From the very beginning of the novel, the reader is confronted with thoughts of death from the main character, Clarissa Dalloway. When running her errand, she plummets into deep thought about her death and what would follow it, Did it matter then, she asked herself... that she must inevitably cease completely; all this must go on without her; did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely? But somehow in the streets of London, on the ebb and flow of things, here, there, she survived,...she being part... of the trees at home; of the house there, ugly, rambling, all to bits and pieces as it was; part of people she had never met; being laid out like a mist between the people she knew best... (9). The reader doesn’t even get a full chapter into the book before they are introduced to the theme of death within Clarissa’s thoughts. The novel is back and forth between the reality of the characters and their thoughts, and a majority of theirShow MoreRelatedIntegration of Life and Death in Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours Essay1356 Words   |  6 PagesIntegration of Life and Death in Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours show that life and death are dependent on each other. It is a persons life experiences that define their thoughts and feelings on death and death can define their life experiences. 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