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How does Virginia Woolf present criticisms of societal conventions throughout the novel
Societal conventions throughout Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway are prominent within the novel
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Aaliyah LlewellynHow does Virginia Woolf present criticisms of societal conventions throughout the novel?
Throughout Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf uses her central figure of the novel Clarissa
Dalloway’s internal thoughts to criticise societal conventions along with various other
characters that surround her in post-world war I London at the time. Woolf mocks the
superficiality of social conventions in society, as individual characters continually push
themselves to pretend; mask their individuality and abandon their own needs. Within the
novel we notice that there may be different factors for why and how individuals are shaped
by their social environment, how historical periods influence and touch people’s lives and
how class, wealth and gender take a massive role in determining the characters fate’s.
Woolf uses both Septimus and Clarissa to exhibit the way that both characters are trapped
by societal subjugation. The two are victims of disingenuous relationships, emotional
repression, and social pressure to conform. Mrs Dalloway struggles to find her role in
society as she marries into a disingenuous relationship describing herself as ‘Mrs Dalloway,
not even Clarissa anymore’. The adverb ‘anymore’ suggests that Clarissa is no longer
independent; she Is a possession of her husband now. It also suggests a sense of annoyance
towards not only herself but everyone else questioning why she married into a relationship
that would supports Clarissa’s obsession towards her traditional life that is less threatening
instead of a passionate and exciting life that Peter or Sally could have offered her. This
almost false-hearted relationship leads Clarissa’s emotional repression to snowball further
throughout the novel as she is constantly holding in emotion so she can conform to English
social standards and so what she feels on the inside and what she projects on the outside
world are very different. This is presented through the narrative style used, stream of
consciousness for example on page 11 ‘from jar to jar, choosing, nonsense, nonsense, she
said to herself, more and more….”. The repetition and syntactical ambiguity indicate how
chaotic her mind is compared to the way she presents herself in order to conform to society
as she acts as though something as simple as ‘buy(ing) the flowers herself’ is trivial and a fun
activity she rarely gets to take part in.
Whereas Septimus is a male war veteran suffering from undiagnosed PTSD unlike Clarissa a
female matriarch, who dedicates her life to maintaining a flawless composition and a
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