An analysis in to how Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is considered Feminist Text.

"Feminist" text, to myself, is defined as a work of literature that upholds feminist ideals. A work of literature that reveals the political and social aspects of being a woman and the establishment of women's rights, I believe Mrs Dalloway (1925) can be considered a feminist text through the literary techniques Virginia Woolf uses throughout the novel, how female characters, specifically Clarissa, are written in the novel and how Rezia Warren Smith's character is displayed in the novel and how the novel is constructed around her.

Before even delving into Clarissa as a character and her complex thoughts surrounding society's norms and the patriarchal ideal, we must first look towards the very title of this novel, 'Mrs Dalloway'. Having her married name as the title is already a massive pointer towards the societal expectations of the time period where the novel is set, 1923. Post-World War 1 and in upper-class London. Using her married name as the title can show an identity being stripped, being reduced to the husband's name and not her own, despite this being her novel. Even that can be debated; although the main focus is on Clarissa throughout the novel, we also get other characters and their stories. For example, we get Septimus and Rezia and their journey through their marriage or Peter Walsh and his turbulent feelings towards Clarissa. Just by the title, we are already seeing aspects of a feminist text breaking through as the title can represent a social aspect of being a woman in 1923, an addition to your husband. This is again backed up by the very first words of the novel, 'Mrs Dalloway said she would buy flowers herself' [P.3], not Clarissa, therefore setting the feminist tone of the novel.

Looking at Woolf's modernist and literary techniques, we can gain an understanding of how we can establish her writing as feminist. Writing female characters through indirect discourse adds a complexity to the characters, especially in women. Through her giving this inner monologue to her characters is seen as feminist as it delves into the suppression of women's voices in literature and shows the societal obstacles they face every day through their own point of view; this is something Woolf tackles in her 'A Room of One's Own' (1993). Littleton states that 'the fundamental action of Mrs. Dalloway is to elucidate the mechanisms of Clarissa's thoughts and actions' [Littleton, P. 36], and you can see this through Woolf's feminist use of indirect discourse when writing Mrs Dalloway.

Furthermore, we also see Woolf using parenthesises to show true inner thoughts. For example, when Peter Walsh calls Mrs Dalloway' the perfect hostess' [P.7], surely this is a compliment to a housewife of the time and yet in parenthesises her inner world is exposed and is told that 'she had cried over it in her bedroom' [P.7], we see this again with Rezia when she thinks of her new life in London, in parenthesises we see 'she had left her people, they had warned her this would happen' [P.26]. We see another poignant use of parenthesises when Dr Holmes thinks ‘Rezia would learn to cook porridge’ [P.90], this can be read in different ways. Either he thinks this because Rezia isn’t the stereotypical doting housewife, or she doesn’t know how to cook porridge because she’s not English. Both are poking fun at a struggling woman in a dire situation. This specific technique adds to Woolf's feminist writing techniques as parenthesises are typically used to give additional information, not explicitly needed in the writing. Yet, when they are used on female characters, they're full of heart- wrenching truths. Using this technique makes the novel feminist as it mimics how women's emotions were an afterthought to the rest of society.

This is when a debate can occur with Ahmed's Killing Joy: Feminism and the History of Happiness (2010). Here, Ahmed investigates the unhappiness within feminist literature and uses Clarissa's "housewife" status to show this in their 'consciousness and unhappiness' [Ahmed, P. 584] section. They state that 'happy housewife is a fantasy figure that erases the signs of labour under the sign of happiness' [Ahmed, P. 573] and although we do see Clarissa as unhappy, she still adheres to her "feminine duties" in a willing way. This tries to limit Clarissa to a more two-dimensional character, whereas Littleton, who compares Clarissa to an artist, says that the 'artist's role is to create and express the truths that she or he apprehends in the world' [Littleton, P. 44] and states that this artist, Clarissa, is 'Woolf's high priest of consciousness' [Littleton, P. 44]. I agree with this, as Clarissa is using her feminine duties as a housewife to express her truth. For example, we see this when the guests start arriving at the party. Clarissa was, through indirect discourse, 'at her worse – effusive, insincere' [P.165]. Although I agree with Ahmed's point, Clarissa does show signs of unhappiness in her role in society; it doesn't reduce her character; much like Littleton states, it only adds to her complex inner self.

When looking at Clarissa as a person, we can see a clear divide between how she acts in public and how she acts in private. These two segments of society push feminist ideals as there shouldn't be a divide. Not that the divide is pushed upon Clarissa, but she conforms to this unspoken role within society, thus revealing social aspects of a woman, a feminist text aspect. When she initially heads outside at the beginning of the novel to buy flowers, the reader is dropped into the tumultuousness of London with her; we experience this version of London through Clarissa. Outside, we hear 'a beating, a stirring ... a tapping' [P.5] when describing the outside, and then, in a modernist way, a single sentence takes up a whole page when Clarissa is describing what she can see in this chaotic London. We get overloaded by information, which is only broken by the sight of a man, Hugh Whitbread. But then we see her enter her home, and a new side of Clarissa is seen; when she enters her home, she feels 'blessed and purified' [P.29], and even something as mundane as receiving a phone message 'are buds on the tree of life' [P.29]. Everything is described with an ethereal tone, which is heavily contrasted by the madness of London we had been dropped in moments before.

After this, a particularly poignant part of the novel occurs when Clarissa 'retreats' [P. 30] to her attic room. Not a marital bedroom, but a room of her own. This can be directly connected to an infamous Virginia Woolf essay, 'A Room of One's Own' (1993), where she explores what it means to be a woman, their lives, and how they're represented in fiction. This scene within the novel is an almost exact recreation of a section of the essay where when only two women are sat 'in [a] sitting room' [Woolf, P.11] alone they are able to 'slip freely' [Woolf, P.11] in and out of discussing 'objects of curiosity and interest' [Woolf, P.11], away from a male-dominated area. Much like Woolf, once Clarissa is "safe" in her own room she is able to think freely of Sally Seton, her love for her and the childhood they enjoyed together as she has left 'the great problem of the true nature of woman and the true nature of fiction unsolved' [Woolf, P.1]. This can also be compared to Littleton's Mrs. Dalloway: Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-Aged Woman (1995) where she talks of reading Clarissa's character as if she is an artist. She writes how Woolf was concerned with the 'absolutely private mental world of a woman' [Littleton, P.36] especially when she is navigating a world where a woman 'was not imagined to have any artistic feeling at all' [Littleton, P.36], we this being fought against by Clarissa once she is safe in her attic room. Once again, this highlights the social aspects of being a woman, making the novel indirectly feminist.

Moving on from Clarissa, a female character that genuinely pushes the boundaries of femininity in the beginning of the novel and therefore can be considered feminist is one Sally Seton.

In Sally, we see a free-spirited, more independent woman who doesn't conform to gendered boundaries, initially. When Clarissa thinks back to her youth with Sally, we see this happy young girl who 'was completely reckless' [P.34] and 'bicycled around' [P.34] and even walked through the halls 'without a stitch on her' [p.178] yet her 'charm was empowering' [P.34]. Does this show that Clarissa was envious of her free spirit? Initially, Sally fought against the social expectations of her and yet when we finally meet her at the end of the novel, at Clarissa's party, it is revealed that she is not only married but 'had five boys!' [P.179]. This is revealed through free indirect discourse by Clarissa meaning herself, a picture "perfect" housewife, is surprised at the change in Sally. This story line highlights a social aspect of being a woman. You can't help but a feel a little let down that Sally ended up marrying a rich man when we got to know who she was when she was younger before meeting her at the party.

Another character to dive in to would be one Lucrezia Warren Smith, the wife of Septimus As an Italian immigrant she is already placed lower in the hierarchal scale of upper-class London and this is directly portrayed through the way she is perceived and how she is treated by the upper class, or more specifically, men of upper-class society. The construction of this novel shapes the readers a response to Rezia with a feeling of sympathy. This woman is constantly surrounded by men, even introduced by a man. First described as a girl who 'had left Italy for his sake, a piece of bone' [P.16]. When we first meet Rezia, she is introduced by a man, Peter Walsh, who judges her situation and her looks despite her being in visible destress he thinks she looks 'absolutely desperate' [P.64] and states how 'what an awful fix they've got themselves into' [P.64]. Not what state Septimus is in despite he is the one having the visions, but he combines both, giving Rezia a loss of identity. Seeing the introduction of Rezia through the male gaze sets a theme for the rest of the book.

Rezia's character throughout the novel take on a more masculine role the more the husbands mental health declines. Not only taking care of the household but her declining husband. She takes him to doctors where the doctors talk to her instead of him despite initial judgement, the married couple nearly does a complete switch, while Rezia takes on a more masculine role within the marriage, Septimus starts finding comfort in making hats and looking at the 'gold glow... of some live creature ... of the wallpaper' [P.138]. I see this as a link to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper (1892). A short story that follows an unnamed narrator as she is put on rest cure in a room with yellow wallpaper after suffering a 'temporary nervous depression' [Gillman, P. 3], sounds familiar to Septimus, who is also given the cure of rest with his undiagnosed PTSD. This mirrors the trope of the "mad woman" but shown through a man's mental decline and not a woman. Even Rezia can see this "mad woman" trope in her husband as she thinks it was not being one's husband to look strange like' [P.138]. She's aware they're only bound by a marriage that isn't even marriage anymore. This would shape the readers response differently to the mental decline surrounding a man's mental health and his livelihood to a woman's. It poses the question of how much sympathy we feel for Sepitmus and how much we feel towards Rezia. This is another signpost of Mrs Dalloway being a feminist text as we're viewing a in some ways, Rezia blurs the masculine and feminine ideals of this times period. She is used to show how women and how they are perceived. In K.S.K's study into British feminism post World War they state that 'understandings of masculinity and femininity became transformed during the war and in the immediate post-war period' [K.S.K, P.232] because of how the women helped with the effort during the First World War there was a 'demand for the elimination of separate spheres' [K.S.K, P.233] between men and women from Feminists of this time period, and I believe these separate social spheres are eliminated in Mrs Dalloway through Rezia's character in the way she takes on the more masculine role in the marriage while her husband's mental health deteriorates.

When discussing whether this novel can be considered a "feminist" text, we must pose the question as to who it is feminist for. Is this novel feminist to readers of the time? Or would the readers of today find this book more empowering in today's social climate, seeing how far societal norms have progressed? To myself, Clarissa is a feminist character as she highlights the social aspects of being a woman in 1923 and even though she is trapped within a patriarchal society, she is still able to cling onto her own person. This means we can look back to see how far we as a society have grown but would the readers of 1925 think the same of Clarissa?

To conclude, we can consider Mrs Dalloway to be a feminist text through the way social and political aspects of being a woman is shown in the 1920s. Although we see unhappiness in Clarissa and her day, we can also see how she responds to the world around her and the expectations places on women. We see Clarissa grapple with her identity within society, almost trying to step out of those boundaries. We see Rezia navigating her new role as the masculine figure within her own marriage in a society that's built to be against her. Feminist texts hold feminist ideals, and although we get a more hidden or implied way of seeing them in this novel, it doesn't mean they are not there.

Sources Cited: 

Ahmed. S, Killing Joy: Feminism and the History of Happiness, Signs, Vol.23, Spring 2010

Littleton. J, Mrs. Dalloway: Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-Aged Woman, Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 41, Spring 1995

Woolf. V, A Room of One's Own, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1993

K. S. K, The Politics of Sexual Difference: World War I and the Demise of British Feminism, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3, The Dilemmas of Democratic Politics, July 1988.

Woolf. V, Mrs Dalloway, Vintage Classics, Penguin, London, 2000

Gilman. C. P, The Yellow Wallpaper & Herland, Collins Classics, William Collins, London,