Name:- Daisy Deb Kanungo

Roll No:- 2020/ENG/0070

Q. On not receiving an invitation to Lady Bruton’s party, Clarissa felt, “suddenly shriveled,
aged, breastless…”. In the light of the above statement, critically examine the role that parties
play in Clarissa’s life.

“Mrs. Dalloway and Peter Walsh – A Missed Chance of Happiness?” The intriguing
novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is based on a single day in the life of Mrs. Richard
Dalloway, who was then known as Clarissa. Mr. Richard Dalloway, Peter Walsh, and Sally
Seaton are a few of the notable personalities that have at one point or another impacted
Clarissa's love life in the book. Peter Walsh is an old acquaintance of Clarissa's who had a
great deal of admiration for her and whose marriage proposal she had declined in favor of
Richard Dalloway. Clarissa is married to Richard Dalloway, a wealthy Member of
Parliament. Sally Seaton is another one of Clarissa's old friends, and their friendship is
implied in the book to be one of shared gay desire. Interesting to consider is the issue of
Clarissa's happiness. She scarcely seems content with Richard, to be honest. Even after years
of marriage, Clarissa is still deeply tied to her past, as seen by the numerous reflections on it
that always remind her of the times she would always remember and her day-long
daydreaming about them.

Even if Clarissa's life with Richard may not make her particularly happy, she is at
least somewhat at ease knowing that her motivations for making the decision came true
exactly as she had foreseen. Richard enjoyed a solid reputation in society, which gave
Clarissa a prominent place there as well. Peter did not understand why the most famous
people attended her events, which were so important to her. She also adored being the
hostess. Peter does not share Clarissa's enthusiasm for her parties; instead, he thinks it is a
rather superficial interest for a person with Clarissa's temperament (Ingman, 131). We fly in
and out of the celebration like the birds on the curtain that move with the wind. We first enter
one of the guests' heads before rising above them and listening to them talk. We pick up on
any oddities and satirical touches Virginia Woolf used before moving on to the next visitor.
The speed is party-like and the pace is quick. This scenario is put together from leftover
pieces and impressions to give us the party's commotion, aromas, and rhythm as well as
omniscience. We take note of the dramatic ironies and mannered fraudulence. As Virginia
Woolf connects the plot lines of her book, the majority of the ensemble is present and pulled
together for this brief period of time.

The question arises that does Clarissa throw parties because she has a natural desire to
unite people or is it just a way for her to act like an upper-class lady? Or does she throw
gatherings for some other purpose? Clarissa, who has been mockingly referred to as the
"perfect hostess," does add that she thinks her gatherings are a "gift" designed to connect
individuals who lead fairly solitary lives. Charissa could also be hosting her events because it
gives her a sense of purpose while providing joy to others in a depressing post-war society.
The reason Clarissa throws parties has less to do with attempting to win over other people
and more to do with her inherent love of life. Despite this, Clarissa does want everyone who
attends her events to have a good time and share her enthusiasm for life, as she was gay by
nature. In this perspective, it is possible to view Clarissa's gatherings as a method of sharing
her delight with others and a small amount of joy-spreading. But after some thought, Clarissa
is unsure of whom these celebrations are really designed to help. It appears that she is the
focus of them rather than the attendees. The only question is to whom Clarissa is giving this
present; in any case, she is making a gift of some sort by organizing these events. Is it a
commitment to her or the guests at her parties? Even Clarissa isn't fully certain. This is
mostly due to the fact that, in the classic modernist movement, she feels isolated in a society
that is becoming more and more fragmented. This implies that social gatherings like parties
no longer hold the very same weight as they had in the past when society was much more
cohesive and unified. There used to be no genuine question regarding the reasons why such
festivities occurred or what they actually represented. But as Clarissa's lack of conviction
fully indicates, in the contemporary world as it is shown in Mrs. Dalloway, this is no longer a
simple thing.

Clarissa throws parties to keep her sane and to assist others in keeping theirs in the
depressing post-war era in which they dwell. The figure of Septimus, who kills himself just
hours before Clarissa's most recent celebration, is evidence of the widespread sadness
experienced in the years following the war. Throwing parties served as a means for Clarissa
to give her life purpose, served as a reminder of the value of good manners, and served as a
bright spot during difficult times. To put it another way, Clarissa throws these gatherings
because she feels obligated to make sure her guests, who have already gone through a lot, can
have a good time. She is a character dedicated to bringing some joy and pleasure into a
gloomy world, as evidenced by the fact that she tells everyone she meets at her events that it
is wonderful to see them. The Prime Minister showing up to her party is a blatant sign of the
social stature that her parties have attained. Clarissa sees hosting her parties as a genuine act
of compassion she can perform for the neighborhood as a woman of the upper class. They
also offer her a purpose, protect her from having an existential crisis, and serve to divert her
attention from the difficulties of aging.

The semi-ornate marriage of Richard and Clarissa Dalloway is a good example of the
social English traditions of the time. The main indicator of a head of household who has done
"well" for himself, especially after the turmoil of World War I, is the display of a productive
and moral home, of a carefree lifestyle, and of an (even if falsely) loving family. In a sense,
one might conclude that Mrs. Dalloway doesn't have much of a choice in how she lives her
life given her social status. She had lived through the height of Victorianism, when women
were seen but not heard, at the age of fifty-two. Additionally, the historical setting of the
book takes place at a period when entertainment was the primary responsibility of upper-class
women. There is insufficient evidence to imply that Clarissa's entertainment was conducted
in any way that was ill-at-ease, therefore she must have been acutely aware of it when she
picked Richard as her husband. We may fairly infer that a character like Clarissa is
accustomed to performing amusing tasks and that a woman of her class should engage in
activities of this sort. We wonder, though, to what degree Mrs. Dalloway is genuinely content
with the shallow representation of her family given that she is actually such a reflective and
self-analytical figure. She is indeed a woman after all, and she says she wants to discover
herself. “She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to
sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one
day.” Therefore, as you remark, Mrs. Dalloway has realized that the new world around her is
very alone in a London society that has been rocked to its core by the War and is now
populated by that the shell-shocked, the shattered, and the afraid. Alone or with others, she
observes how every one of the people she knows has experienced suffering and is still
attempting to move on. She acknowledges with a hint of resentment that she had been unduly
shielded and possibly even much too fortunate to experience the same emotions as the rattled.
She could even have wished to be among those whose lives were profoundly affected by a
monumental event, but she now recognizes that her existence is essentially what it will
always be a flimsy façade of cohesion.

Critic Merry M. Pawlowski in her introduction to the novel reflects that ‘A woman’s
party, and the preparations which go with it, provide the perfect vehicle for her [Woolf’s]
purpose.’ The party in Mrs. Dalloway is timeless largely because of its emphasis on
developing complex individuals and character spaces. The hostess Clarissa puts a lot of effort
into her gathering in an effort to maximize her social isolation. There is careful preparation so
as ‘to straighten a chair, to pause a moment and feel whoever came in must think how clean,
how bright, how beautifully cared for.’ While not everyone may relate to the excess of
‘chicken in aspic, ice cream freezers, pared crusts of bread, lemons, soup tureens, and
pudding basins’, we can all identify with the buzz, the sensation of expectation, and the
unintentional performance of "sleeking down" or fluffing up our hair. However, there is a
resilient and compassionate humanity hidden behind this act. Yes, the characters go through
their indifferent "rounds," but the narration randomly chooses fresh viewpoints in the form of
snippets and thoughts. The party scenes help to capture the rich potential of things not
spoken, people discussing the weather, and individuals realizing friends they have lost
contact with. We are lured into tumultuous and dissonant sentiments, self-doubt, and self-
consciousness, like when Clarissa can't help but feel that Peter is evaluating her, and even
passing trivial thoughts. The real perspective of what a party is and maybe is communicated
via the blurring of internal thinking and outward description, memory and the moment,
viewpoint, and witness, all with the help of Proustian pauses. It admits the accompanying
anguish that parties may bring and our propensity to exaggerate them in our memories,
something that that nostalgia may blind us to.

The examination of Clarissa herself is what could be found most interesting. She
realizes that although while the party, as the hostess, is fundamentally an extension of her and
a synthesis of all her social circles, at times "she was not enjoying" herself. She feels that
maintaining her identity while dealing with individuals from her past might be a little
unstable. The convergent viewpoints give the gathering richness, and they also provide a
nuanced portrait of their hostess, who is kind yet stilted. She has a "damnable, tough, high-
class refinement," is "fond of society," yet passionately preserves her solitude at the same
time. This lengthy talk is particularly reflective. Do we not all act differently depending on
who we are around? Do social gatherings not inspire us to present our best selves? Although
Clarissa is undoubtedly not a robot, she has at least given her existence some design. She has
made an effort to live a safe and sensible life, although she acknowledges that it does have a
certain wooden aspect. And when Sally Seton emerges, we are much more aware of this
truth. Sally still resembles Peter quite a little. If they chose not to, no one respects the rules.
Sally shows up uninvited to Clarissa's party. Early in the afternoon, Peter suddenly barged in
on Clarissa. Both were and still impetuous individuals. Sally is certain that Clarissa doesn't
like the fact that she wed a successful man and had five boys.

Peter Walsh was a prideful gentleman who believed that because of the depth of his
character, he was elevated in stature beyond the rest of society. Therefore, there's a chance
that if Clarissa had married Peter Walsh, he may have brought up how fickle she was in
comparison to him. To view marriage as the perfect relationship that requires no concessions
and can be maintained solely on the basis of love is to be living in a dream world. Clarissa
understood the significance of the options in front of her. For Clarissa, choosing to wed
Richard over Peter Walsh included making a trade-off between her passion for social stability
and, to some extent, the preservation of her uniqueness. More significant to Clarissa than her
passion for Peter Walsh was the freedom she had with Richard to live her life without having
to answer to anybody at every turn. Peter Walsh was an outcast in society, and Clarissa
struggled to picture life without it (Woolf and Bradshaw, 21). Happiness did not seem to be
an evident result of living together for two individuals who differed so greatly in their
personalities and preferences for the way they wanted to spend their lives. Even though
Clarissa is not present until the very end of the novel's last chapter, her party's influence
endures. In the end, parties are what they are, and some people may need to alter and
recharge their social batteries in order to truly appreciate the amazing, perhaps awkward
discussions that parties can provide. What Dalloway teaches us is the capacity of "the party"
to explore emotion, a microcosm of life in which we can learn countless things from the
smallest facial expression, a stifled laugh, or an exchanged glance, while also feeling the
mystery of people's true feelings, those that remain hidden forever.