Presentation of Loss in Mrs Dalloway and Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Hardy and Woolf have different approaches towards the presentation of loss in their novels. Aside
from the significant presence of loss and their effects on the human psyche, both authors don’t
tackle the same types of loss and they express this in a varying manner.
Woolf, for instance, describes the impact of toxic masculinity and thereby, in inability to fell fully.
Septimus is an example of this. Often, due to his incapacity to express emotion, he panics – ‘he
became engaged one evening when the panic was on him – that he could not feel’. Woolf presents
Septimus’ loss by repeating the phrase ‘that he could not feel’ to convey the severity of this loss.
Woolf also uses this deep loss to criticise social convention that celebrates a man not showing
emotion. She conveys these damages through the character of Septimus. Hardy also challenges
social convention through his presentation of Tess’s loss of Angel (which is accompanied by the loss
of status and respect.) For example, for Tess ‘as soon as she is compelled to don the wrapper of a
fieldwoman, rude words were addressed to her’. This shows how poorly Tess is treated when judged
as a simple fieldwoman. Hardy is critical of society for treating field workers with less respect due to
their lower status. So, in this case, both writers use the consequences of a loss to criticise societal
conventions.
A major theme in Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’, is Clarissa’s loss of passion in her marriage to Richard.
Because of Woolf’s choice of free indirect discourse, we as the reader are privy to Clarissa’s deep
feelings of loss in her marriage. Through Clarissa’s thoughts, Woolf says that Clarissa feels ‘like a nun
withdrawing’. This simile implies that Clarissa seems to have withdrawn from her marriage and
consequently, her sex life. Woolf goes on to describe that Clarissa feels ‘shrivelled, aged, breastless’.
This triple of adjectives suggests Clarissa’s loss of passion, Woolf’s use of ‘breastless’ especially
implies Clarissa’s apparent loss of femininity and image for the male gaze. ‘Shrivelled’ is also there to
suggest that Clarissa feels passionless and aged. There’s a certain sadness that accompanies
Clarissa’s words about herself, perhaps, Woolf is drawing attention to the deteriorating self-image/
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