With Mrs. Dalloway being the protagonist, how is her psyche and the psyche of women depicted in the novel?How does this show the pressure of women’s lives in the post World War 1 era? Does this cause us to feel unsympathetic towards Mrs. Dalloway?
Looking at an extreme, Lucrezia represents one who is mentally healthy, though unable to fathom the depth of Septimus's condition. She seems to blame and resent him rather than seek to understand PTSD. In this way, she stands for the naïve. Lady Bruton, on a different end of the spectrum, maintains a politically minded perspective. She thinks in terms of power and is not portrayed naively.
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Bitter Miss Kilman
12/9/2014 08:12:26 am
Miss Kilman, though less snobbish than Mrs. Dalloway, is portrayed self-righteously. She dwells upon Clarissa's shallowness and envies her as Elizabeth's mother, attempting to sway Elizabeth into speaking against Clarissa. A for an uplifting and positive influence, Miss Kilman fails to perform well as Elizabeth's mentor. Mrs. Dalloway is not much better as she demeans Miss Kilman mentally.
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The Female
12/10/2014 02:59:09 am
Women at the time in Britain were far different the women today, at the time especially in the novel we see Virginia Woolf putting her self and the role as a women into the character of Mrs Dalloway. There is a lot of sexual repression and repression in general. At first glance we see Clarrisa as a vain individual only caring about herself and the parties but when reading closer we can see she is a depressed individual dealing with a lot, taking in a lot as a woman at the time when a lot was changing after the war.