The novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is a story set over a short period of time in London. Throughout the story, we hear the chiming of the Big Ben, and for the most part dismiss it as a description of London city life. However, this chiming is a primary connecting factor of alll the different characters whose point of views we infiltrate. Every character exists under the same ticking clock. Big Ben creates a connection between people who otherwise have almost nothing to do with one another. Big Ben serves as the "heartbeat" of Mrs. Dalloway, with the chimes repeatly appearing throughout the book. They divide the novel into sections of time, reminding the reader that no matter whose POV you're in, time ticks by the same. In this way, Big Ben serves as an anchor for the reader to understand the progression of time as they go through the novel.
When the reader experiences Clarissa's POV, we see how conscious she is of her aging. She's constantly looking back on her memories of Bourton, which contrast with her present life. She thinks about her youth, lost opprotunities, Peter, Sally, marriage, and death, showing the reader that due to the passage of time, her old once lively self conflicted by her love for so many different people (Richard, Peter, Sally) now cannot be recovered after she made her choice (Richard). However, she isn't held back by her past. Instead, through her parties, she tries to create meaningful moments in her present with the people of her present and past, merging her timelines. Meanwhile Septimus provides an interesting contrast with Clarissa. He experiences time differently due to his war trauma, his past directly conflicting and merging with the present due to his trauma from the war. memoreis and Evans and the wat constantly invade his present, even when the clock continues moving normally (we can still hear it chime in the background while reading his POV). This contrasts with Clarissa who remembers the past but is able to return to the present, while Septimus struggles to distiguish the past from the present.
The Big Ben connects Clarissa and Septimus, even thought he two never actually meet. Their lives seem completly seperate, yet Woolf connects them through London, time, death, and consciousness. Big Ben's chimes can move the narrative between different, the clock becoming a bridge between seperate consciousnesses.
- Sarah Bijoy
Hi Sarah! I have considered Clarissa and Septimus to be eerily similar but I never noticed Big Ben as being a connector. However, I like that you mention that even though they are similar... there are many differences. I really like how you consider Clarissa to move on from the past, while Septimus can't. Nice blog post!
ReplyDeleteHey Sarah. I think your ending paragraph really tied everything together. I loved your connection between the perception of time between the two characters with Big Ben. Taking this clock analogy further, maybe Big Ben represents the limited Clarissa Dalloway’s finite lifetime. One of the reasons I think Clarissa was so jarred by Septimus’ suicide is because it made her consider if she was truly happy in the life she had. I could see Big Ben as a sort of fate clock. I don’t know it might be a stretch but it’s something cool to think about.
ReplyDeleteI like this discussion of Big Ben and its important role in the novel: it gives a sense of simultaneity, of these various moments happening throughout the day in a common setting (a bit like the skywriting plane's function, giving everyone something to look at so we see the "crowd" as a living entity). There's also some fun stuff with the other chimes and bells, like the one that always comes in just after Big Ben, augmenting the more authoritative declaration of the time. I would want to dig into Clarissa's compelling and strange depictions of Big Ben and its effect on her consciousness--the refrain of "leaden circles dissolved into the air." She thinks a lot about time and the passage of time throughout the day, so in addition to establishing these parallels between characters, the chimes also play a role in Clarissa's stream of consciousness. She seems to always notice Big Ben--a reflection of the fact that she lives right near Westminster Abbey.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah! I like that you noticed how Big Ben appears throughout the novel as a marker of time and connection. It's definitely a part of Woolf's style to have a device like this to remind us that all the characters exist in the same universe.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Big Ben's chimes are a kind of countdown. There's the expression "for whom the bell tolls" meaning death: The bells could be a countdown to Septimus' death, and certainly, throughout the book, create the feeling that something imminent is approaching.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah! I'm so glad someone talked about Big Ben. I thought it was such a cool way to signify time and connection across the ever-jumping narrative. I like your emphasis on how the chimes themselves connect two characters who never even meet.
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