Mrs Dalloway: Section 3 Summary & Analysis

Clarissa is comforted by her “nunlike” lifestyle, but it is a similar comfort to the invisibility she now has as Richard’s wife – she has become subsumed into society’s expectations for a middle-aged housewife.

Our brief glimpse at Lucy’s mind shows that she idolizes Clarissa and finds even her morning stroll with a parasol important, a contrast to Clarissa’s view of herself. Lady Bruton is representative of a more patriotic, traditional era, and so it is significant that she is one of the older characters and that Clarissa thinks of “time itself” written on her face.

This might be Woolf writing vaguely that Clarissa has never had an orgasm, or it might just be a way of saying that she has never experienced real passion for a man. Clarissa is comforted by the privacy of the soul, by having a “room of one’s own,” but she also misses romantic passion.

There was no real option of “coming out” in Woolf’s time, so what the world perceives as Clarissa’s “coldness” might actually just be that she is more naturally attracted to women and must try to repress these feelings.

Bourton keeps reappearing to enrich and complicate Clarissa’s present, haunting her just like Evans haunts Septimus. We now see how radical and passionate Clarissa was when she was young, highlighting just how conventional she has become with Richard. Aunt Helena is another representative of an older, more conservative time, and she finds Sally shocking – especially Sally’s treatment of flowers, a traditional feminine symbol. Sally deals with the flowers (femininity) in a different way than the norm. Sally snipping off the heads of flowers can also be seen as symbolizing her allure to other women, Clarissa in particular.

Shakespeare appears often as a representation of English greatness (the kind of great art used to inspire patriotism) but also as a source of piercing, passionate quotes about death. This quote points to Septimus’s future suicide, but also shows the intensity of Clarissa’s passion for Sally. Once again Clarissa associates great joy as being very close to death, a kind of fragile, dramatic thing.

Even as Big Ben keeps tolling the forward movement of time, past moments like this continue circling back within characters’ minds. Clarissa shares a brief moment of true communication and intimacy with Sally, but this experience is interrupted by Peter. Even so, she has never again felt such true communion with anyone else, so Clarissa considers this kiss the highlight of her life.

Clarissa has had a different kind of intimacy with Peter, and she is closer intellectually to him than she was to Sally. Clarissa’s memories are almost all of Peter and Sally, and rarely, if ever, of Richard.

Clarissa uses Peter’s criticisms as a vehicle for trying to reconcile her internal self with her external self. She has a rich, intelligent inner life, but on the surface seems like a shallow society housewife. By justifying herself to Peter she is able to give greater meaning to her actions.

Clarissa takes comfort in mending the dress just as she did among the flowers. The rip in her dress is another “opening” in a series of windows and doors in the novel, objects of both communication and division.

Peter is critical and wary of any kind of sentimentality, and so he is immediately ashamed when he gives into passionate feelings during his reunion with Clarissa. This fear of sincere emotion makes Peter another character unable to truly communicate.

Peter immediately reacts as Clarissa had expected him to, noting that she has fulfilled his insult of “perfect hostess” and has conformed to conventionality with Richard (even though her reasons for mending the dress are not the conservative ones Peter believes them to be). Peter felt the same passion for Clarissa that Clarissa felt for Sally, but as a man he had the social freedom to express this passion.

Though Peter and Clarissa exchange few words, and it is mostly small talk, we also see how their past relations and inner dialogues give weight to the meeting. Clarissa is mending a dress (holding scissors), while Peter plays with his knife, and so the two are armed as if for a battle, critical of each other’s failures and conscious of their own.

Clarissa has lived a mostly passionless life (except for her feelings for Sally), while Peter has thrown his passion at many women. India was a colony of England at this time, and so Daisy and her Major husband are English emigrants.

Peter is critical of other people’s sentimentality, but he himself is victim to strong waves of emotion. Peter and Clarissa almost have a moment of intimate communication but they are interrupted by Elizabeth, just as Clarissa and Sally were interrupted by Peter. Clarissa then reminds Peter of her party, using the party as an attempt to replace or amend this ruptured moment.