The Lost Generation

Alright, so as I sat down to write my first post on The Sun Also Rises, my mind was swimming with many ideas that were built during our class discussions. There were many deep, interesting themes and motifs that I had noticed, but as I thought about what I wanted to focus on, I couldn’t figure out which I wanted to write about, which was the most important or interesting. Then, this totally random thought popped into my head: don’t the characters have jobs? I mean, we see Jake go to work and talk about what he does from time to time, but it just doesn’t seem all that important to him. This is the same with the other characters. Cohn must have a job, Bill doesn’t seem to go to the office during the day. They all decide to take long, random vacations. Granted, some of the characters don’t need to work because they are obviously very rich through presumably inheritance (or marriage), such as Brett and the Count. It is shown that Jake adheres to a sleep schedule of sorts, not staying out all night like Brett, but I digress.

These people seem to not care about their careers at all. Their mind seems to be constantly on nightlife. They go bar hopping every night, and when they aren’t, they’re at boxing matches or bullfights. As we said in class, this is the Lost Generation. Hemingway makes this very clear. In class we pondered what this meant, and I frankly had little idea. Now, I believe that these people are lost, not moving forwards, working to further their knowledge or anything else. There seems to be no progression in their lives. They wander around drinking and partying instead of working towards something. They have placed a premium on being lost; they seem to have no interest in giving their life direction. Even though some of them seem to be quite unhappy with this lifestyle at times, such as Jake, who regularly gets upset and at times is seemingly going through the motions, and Brett, who confesses to Jake that she is unhappy, they do not try to change it. They don’t know how to. And thus, they are truly lost.

The Hours

So far, I must say, The Hours is bizarre. The first thing I thought as I began contemplating this movie is that parts of other characters are present in ones with other names. I apologize for the awkwardness of that sentence, but I really don’t know how else to phrase it. First of all, Richard seems to be more a picture of Septimus than Richard Dalloway, and Clarissa Vaughn can be seen as Rezia, delighting in Richard when he is acting sane, getting upset when he speaks of suicide. I don’t understand why these characters would possess the names of Clarissa and Richard because it really threw me off; I really couldn’t see the parallels between Richard and Septimus when I first started watching the movie. Although, the characters of Richard and Clarissa are likely amalgamations of their namesakes and Lucrezia and Septimus. I mean, the Clarissa of the movie is throwing a party and bought flowers, if we’re looking at the obvious. Also, Richard’s former lover is quite the Peter, showing up to an unhappy woman with the news that he has a great new life with a great new lover in a far away place. I suspect later on we will see just how unsure of his happiness he is. I do enjoy the fact that Clarissa ended up with Sally instead of Richard, which could be the set up for interesting things later on in the film. Also the fact that Richard ends up with a character I think is a version of Peter is also entertaining, as in the book they are polar opposites, although they still presumably get along.

The one major qualm with the movie that I possess right now is the woman from the 50s. She is reading Mrs. Dalloway (and I guess she must not be very far in), yet she seems pretty willing to kill herself. She is very much like Clarissa in that she seems to have an ideal life but she cannot enjoy it. However (and here I am presuming that after dropping off her son, she is planning to kill herself), she seems so willing to take her own life. She seems to have no love for life, which is so very different from Clarissa. Clarissa balks at the thought of taking her own life. She’s unhappy, she thinks she might have chosen the wrong life, but she still has the strength to go on and to enjoy parts of it. If the woman of the movie is supposed to be a more modern version of Clarissa, so far, I am not impressed.

Peter Walsh

As I’ve been reflecting back on Mrs. Dalloway, one character who has pretty much escaped my reflection is Peter Walsh. After reading one of my classmate’s blogs, I was startled at how I had forgotten about Peter, one of my favorite characters, as all thought seemed to be focused on Clarissa and Septimus. The differences between Peter and Clarissa are just as interesting as the comparison between Clarissa and Septimus. Like Clarissa, Peter seems unsure about his life and not entirely happy (as breaking down into tears on a couch usually suggests). However, he is not trapped in a life he has chosen like Clarissa, he has yet to actually set onto an actual course of life in my opinion. He’s been to India, he was at Bourton, but he does not seem to have a role in life etched out for him yet. We don’t really know who he is? I could easily describe Clarissa as an unfulfilled woman stuck in the social prison of upper-class London. But what could you describe Peter as? What is his roole in life? He’s a wanderer who has yet to find a place. Now, he seems to be getting close, preparing to marry this woman from India. Although, I would say that he doesn’t necessarily want to. As much as he wants to say he’s over Clarissa and in love with the woman he is set to marry, he is not. This is another showcase of what I think could easily be the main flaw of his character: his inability to commit. He can’t commit to a life, and he can’t commit to a woman. This fatal flaw builds upon his image of instability; he is constantly flipping around his knife subconsciously and is very judgmental, shown in his criticism of Clarissa at her party. This further shows how different Peter is from Richard. Peter is passionate, but entirely unpredictable and unable to commit, the polar opposite of Richard.

Seeing Sally

After reflecting back upon the novel, I realized just how much Clarissa reflects longingly back upon the past. She seems to constantly wish she was back at Bourton, before she made the decisions that shaped her life into what it is now. She looks back and sees the other paths she could’ve taken, the other people she could’ve lived her life with. She could’ve gone with Peter or Sally instead of Richard. Clarissa has been attempting to live in the past for some time, attempting to not face the reality of her life which depresses her so. As a result of this, she has glorified her time at Bourton, seeing it as the perfect, fairytale life.

After seeing Sally at her party after all the time they had spent apart, Clarissa finally stopped living in the past. The shock of Sally’s change into Lady Rosseter caused Clarissa to realize that things change, that Bourton was no more and that she should stop living in the past. Seeing Sally, who she loved so much, not being who she used to be, snapped Clarissa into reality. Sally was now a traditional, upper class English wife. She was different, not as perfect as Clarissa remembered, and there was not the romanticized spark they shared in Clarissa’s memory. They had no life together and there was no possibility for one. Clarissa can’t even face this real Sally at her party because of her fear of the real world, of her real life. Eventually, after thinking deeply at her party, Clarissa finally accepts how her life is turned out and looks for Sally, finally wishing to talk to her. Seeing Sally as a real person, not as the romanticized, fantasy Sally that could’ve solved all of Clarissa’s problems, finally allowed Clarissa to move away from the past and become ready to live in the present.

Upper Class Oppression

As the novel ends, the similarities and comparisons between Clarissa and Septimus grow incredibly clear. As both of them are forced to deal with unhappiness, Septimus chooses to kill himself while Clarissa decides to fight through it. As we have followed these two characters, we have seen differences between their lives, as they are parts of different classes of British society. Septimus is driven to suicide by the annoying upper class “doctors” that won’t leave him alone. One thing that I realized that I found incredibly fascinating is that Clarissa’s party is attended by one of these men, Sir William. Clarissa and Septimus are being oppressed by the same people! Both of them are unhappy due to being oppressed by the upper class. Septimus’s oppression is much more apparent; he actually talks about how these men are ruining his life. Clarissa feels trapped in a different way by the upper class. She isn’t sure if she is happy at the top of the social ladder. Sure, she enjoys parties, but she is not so sure if she enjoys the rest of it. She constantly longs to lead a less “upper class life.” She wonders what life could have been like with Peter, who definitely does not fit into the archetype of the important British gentleman; he is unpredictable and edgy, not following social protocol. He plans to marry an already married woman. He habitually plays with a knife, making others uncomfortable. He loathes what the upper class life does to people, as evidenced in his annoyance towards Clarissa at her party, as she plays the role of the happy hostess. Also, she lusts after Sally Seton, a woman who is also decidedly not of the upper class archetype. Sally acts unwomanly, smoking cigars and running around naked. She is not polite. She is also happy, as is Peter, in Clarissa’s eyes; they enjoy their free lives. Clarissa wishes she could live free, not being bound by societal standards. Both Clarissa and Septimus wish they would not be oppressed by the upper class.

Fickle Emotions

One thing that really interests me about Woolf’s writing is the constantly changing emotions of her characters. Sometimes she uses this technique well, but at other times her characters seem bipolar, switching instantly from great moods to seeming depressed. On one hand, I really like how Woolf attempts to show how people really work. Everyone has complex emotions that change; no one is ever just happy. She tries to show how people can seem happy or genuinely think they are happy for a while, but ultimately they realize that they definitely are not. Obviously the biggest example of this is Clarissa; she seems dissatisfied with her life and constantly wonders what it could be like if she had made different choices, such as marrying Peter instead of Richard. Despite this, she has moments of happiness and optimism, such as a point where she is excited for her party and arguably when Richard gives her flowers. Despite these happy times, it does not change the fact that at her core she is dissatisfied. This is definitely a situation in which I really enjoy and respect Woolf’s writing. However, she also seems to take it a little far. At one point Clarissa is happy and seems to be at the time content with her marriage, and then mere pages later she goes back to being upset and depressed. While I understand what Woolf is trying to do, I think it does compromise the believability of Clarissa to a degree.

Another great example of Woolf’s technique is Septimus. While Woolf deals more with changing levels of sanity instead of emotions, her writing shines through in the differences. Septimus can seem completely normal at times and then later appear helplessly insane. I believe the realness of Woolf’s writing really brings credence to shell shock.

Bruton and Seton

I really enjoyed the character of Lady Bruton when Richard and Hugh Whitbread went to her house. I found her refreshing, as I did Sally Seton, as they are both strong willed characters. Many of Woolf’s female characters seem confined in their lives, with Rezia feeling stuck in a failing marriage to Septimus and Clarissa being forced to wonder what her life could’ve been if she had married Peter. Bruton and Sally are both stimulating characters in a book full of self-doubting, depressed, and crazy people. They both seem to enjoy life and don’t take part in the bipolarity that seems to affect most of the characters. Sally is passionate about flowers and having fun. She is lively. So is Lady Bruton; she is a talkative activist. The inclusion of such lively characters in the book paints a very interesting dichotomy.

Besides Septimus, Sally and Bruton are the only characters in Mrs. Dalloway that I really enjoy, which is why Woolf’s characterization of them at times upsets me. In a book where all of the female characters seemed to be defined by the men they are with, Bruton and Sally are different. Supposedly. But Woolf ruins this characterization. We hear at one point in the novel that the free-spirited Sally has settled down and become a good, respectable housewife. What?!?! We also witness, after hearing Lady Bruton being compared to a general and speaking without reserve, Bruton’s inability to write a simple letter. She has to call upon Richard and Hugh to write a letter on her behalf. Are you serious?!?! After writing two great characters, Woolf ruins them. After spending all that time to show that these characters are indifferent, that they are self-sufficient, Woolf destroys this characterization.