Time and Sexuality in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway is a novel by Virginia Woolf written in 1925, that narrates a day in Clarissa Dalloway’s life, an upper class society woman who is hosting a party in her house. The novel’s original title The Hours, shows the significance of time as one of the main themes in the novel.  Mrs. Dalloway is one of Woolf's famous works. This paper examines two topics portrayed in Mrs. Dalloway. The first topic is about the notion of time which is depicted through two different frameworks: objective and subjective time. However, the second topic is about sexuality especially homosexuality relationships portrayed between Clarissa and Sally, Septimus and Evans, Miss Kilman and Elizabeth.

In Mrs. Dalloway, time is seen as one of the most important themes. It is depicted through two different frameworks such as the framework of objective time, subjective time. The clock estimates time, but it is also determined by the timepiece of the mind and called psychological time; a term formulated by Henri Bergson. In the novel, Woolf focuses on “the difference between psychological time and clock time”. In other words, she establishes a distinction between internal and external time. First, the internal time is a psychological and subjective time which is considered by the relative spiritual intensity of a moment. This time is flowing, flexible and changeable. As a matter of fact, the novel in the frame of twenty-four hours portrays the entire life of Clarissa Dalloway and that of Septimus Smith. For example, there are the memories of Clarissa Dalloway. First readers are introduced into Clarissa’s memories of her youth experience with Sally, which has been very essential in her life. Clarissa’s eighteen years old days become omnipresent in this day. For instance, from the beginning as Clarissa moves into the street in front of her house, her past is instantly with her (Tariq, n.d.). Woolf’s style stirs the reader with the time which exists in our intellect. Mental time does not continue or move on regularly like the clock time we follow. This is seen when Clarissa arrives at the flower shop in the morning; her perceptions are smoothly taken to evening time as she thinks, and it was the moment between “six and seven when every flower, roses, carnations, irises, lilac glows; white, violet, red, deep orange; every flower seems to burn by itself, softly, purely in the misty beds; and how she loved the grey-white moths spinning in and out, over the cherry pie, over the evening primroses!” These kind of memories are almost omnipresent throughout the novel and get assorted with the present moment. However, in these memories of Bourton the memory she keeps thinking of, is Clarissa’s refusal to marry Peter Walsh. Moreover, psychological time includes memory and current awareness, which are particularly engaged with the revelation moment. Most characters reach the moment of revelation emotionally and mentally, and continue through experiencing it. Clarissa experiences it and portrays her development towards self-fulfillment. For example, “Only for a moment, she had seen an illumination; a match burning in a crocus; an inner meaning almost expressed”/ Peter Walsh “he had found life like an unknown garden, full of turns and corners, these moments in which things came together; this ambulance; and life and death.” These short experiences of revelation assert that we live our lives in different time frames; a practical time in which we are busily engaged with things in the world, and other kind of time in which a meaning of a deeper, more lasting kind shines fleetingly through.

On the other hand, Woolf inserts an external view of time to remind the characters that time is flowing. External time which is objective and chronological is the opposite of internal time, which is subjective and elastic. External time is embodied by the flow of history, dates, calendars and time tables. In Mrs. Dalloway, it is specifically noticeable by the sounds of different clocks such as the Big Ben and the big Westminster’s clock, which are of great significance. The clock time helps many characters to conjugate their social life and their group activities, or it permits them to continue and organize appointments for lunch or with doctors (Mahajan, 2017). Virginia Woolf presents the chronological feature of time through images such as Big Ben and its harsh chimes as well as many signals to clocks or bells within the novel (Olivotti, 2018). Further, the novel is not divided into chapters; the purpose of chronological time is determined by the booming of the Big Ben that reminds the characters of the inevitability of time and death. Not only the juxtaposition of clock time with the psychological time of Clarissa Dalloway’s memories, musings and thoughts completes the narrative, but also reminds the characters and the readers about the flow of time. “The subjective lives of the characters are interrupted at times by reminders of the regular, objective, clock time, or by the external events”. Their clocks mark the “irrevocable” present. The major role of the clocks is to bring the characters and the readers back to present reality and to raise the flow of consciousness. The first strike is seen when the clocks break the silence that Clarissa feels before, it is like a threat, there is “a warning, musical, then the hour, irrevocable”. This irrevocable function of the clocks is clearly shown after Septimus’s suicide. “The clock was striking – one, two, three! But the clocks went on striking, four, and five six”. The clocks point out to the readers that time is pitiless. Life goes on even when Septimus is dead; it cannot come back. Also, it means that death is irrevocable; we will all die one day and clocks remind us of it. St. Margaret’s catches the attention of those who hear it. Hence, it opposes the message of Big Ben and implies that we are not excessively wasted with losing time and that we are aware of it in our special way. The tower’s bell states an approach to life that accepts the moment. It makes the hearer aware of time to appreciate it, not to fear it.  Woolf points to a clear parallel between Clarissa and St. Margaret’s. For instance, the ringing of the bells makes Peter think of Clarissa: “Ah, said St. Margaret’s, like a hostess who comes into her drawing room on the very stroke of the hour and finds her guests there already. I am not late. No, it is precisely half-past eleven, she says. Yet, though she is perfectly right, her voice, being the voice of the hostess, is reluctant to inflict its individuality. Some grief for the past holds it back; some concern for the present.” Furthermore, a third framework that is included under the objective time is historical time. It is a framework where meaning is given to the history of nations or societies by signaling out vital historical events. In Mrs. Dalloway, there is a background claim that a great and decisive cutout in historical time had recently occurred. This was the Great War.

Several critics, such as Joseph Boone and Ann Ronchetti, have explored the topic of homosexuality in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Some critics view not only Clarissa Dalloway as a “repressed homosexual victimized by patriarchal cultural,” but also Septimus Warren Smith, and Miss Kilman too. For both Clarissa and Septimus have emotionally, if not physically, intimate relationships with friends of the same sex (Ronchetti, 2004). Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway reveals a 19th century woman experience in dealing with homosexuality. Sally's function in eighteen-year-old Clarissa was very important in directing Clarissa to her present life. For young Clarissa, Sally Seton was the exemplification of a woman she was not: “It was an extraordinary beauty of the kind she most admired, dark, large eyed, with that quality which, since she hadn't got it herself, she always envied - a sort of abandonment. as if she could say anything, do anything; a quality much commoner in foreigners than in Englishwomen” (Riyandaril, 2001).Clarissa’s memories of her friend, Sally Seton, arouse feelings of “purity” and “integrity,” unlike any feeling she has shared with a man. She recollects the first time she sees Sally and the feeling of not being able to take her eyes off her, of being poisoned by the emotions of love and admiration that Sally had aroused in her: “…if it were now to die “it were now to be most happy.” That was her feeling: “Othello’s feeling, and she felt it, she was convinced as strongly as Shakespeare meant Othello to feel it, all because she was coming down to dinner in a white frock to meet Sally Seton” (Ronchetti, 2004). This important moment in Clarissa’s life took place in the presence of flowers. The flower that Sally picked, signifies Clarissa’s own affection, nature, and lust. “Clarissa gazes into Sally’s eyes and praises them”. When Clarissa is with Sally, her passions and feelings are so powerful that she can’t do anything other than staring at Sally’s eyes and kissing her. Clarissa performs as the opposite sex, and she feels what men feel for women. Clarissa's feeling for Sally rose an awareness of her love to Sally for it was a secret between Sally and herself. This feeling should be hidden because 19th century women were supposed to have high ethical norm of behavior which absolutely prevented homosexuality. Clarissa's love for Sally banned her from marrying her first love Peter. Both Peter and Clarissa loved each other, yet she did not want to marry him because she felt that she would be restricted by him, unable to be herself: “with Peter everything had to be shared”. If she married Peter, the passion and liberty she had with Sally would vanish. Although Clarissa chose not to marry Peter, she married Richard. As a 19th century woman she was formed to be an honorable woman thus following her instinct to love Sally was impossible. She married because she cared about her safety and appearance. However, the party in the end of the novel is the climax of Clarissa's choice. Clarissa’s strive to refuse her desire for woman led her to despair. This desperation was highlighted when she discovered that Sally is now a mother of five boys. The meeting showed her how different their lives are now. Although she still loves Sally, it was not the same anymore. Both of them were not free and obey their society's norms and traditions to be wives and mothers. The moment they met together gave Clarissa insight that they had belonged to different worlds: “They kissed each other, then Clarissa turned with Sally's hand in hers and saw her rooms full /heard the roar of voices, saw the candlesticks, and the roses which Richard had given her.” Clarissa's holding Sally's hands designate her past, but her looking at the party symbolizes her present.

Similarly, Septimus shares a friendship with Evans, his commanding officer (Ronchetti, 2004). Woolf portrays this fellowship in an extremely lustful passage: “He developed manliness; he was promoted; he drew the attention, indeed the affection of his officer, Evans”/ “It was a case of two dogs playing on a hearthrug; one worrying a paper screw, snarling, snapping, giving a pinch, now and then, at the old dog’s ear; the other lying somnolent, blinking at the fire, raising a paw, turning and growling good-temperedly. They had to be together, share with each other, fight with each other, quarrel with each other.” Furthermore, Woolf complicates Septimus’ sexual experiences through the stultifying moment of marriage to Lucrezia, maybe for Septimus an action that fixes his sexual experiences into the heteronormative marriage institution. This controversy is clearly shown: “to Lucrezia, the younger daughter, he became engaged one evening when the panic was on him . . . he could feel nothing. Septimus failure to feel grows when he engages himself to a woman; an action that troubles him as he is aware of the series of sexual emotions he has felt toward another man.

Another character with an ambiguous sexuality is Miss Kilman. Miss Kilman has an interesting relationship with Elizabeth Dalloway, ratifying her to be “all that she lived for.” It appears that Miss Kilman is trying to hold on to Elizabeth and although it is not evident that this is due to sexual purposes, the text presents hints. Miss Kilman describes Elizabeth as “so beautiful’ more than once and sees her as someone she “genuinely loved”. The way Miss Kilman perceives Elizabeth is obsessive, and possessive: she wishes to “clasp her/ make her hers absolutely/ and forever that was all she wanted”. This attitude can be depicted as Miss Kilman’s strong sexual lust for Elizabeth or just a plan to take what is for Clarissa because the women strongly hate each other.

In short, time is a major theme highlighted in the novel. It is portrayed through different frameworks of objectivity and subjectivity. In addition, sexuality is another important theme and notion revealed in Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa's refusal of her love for Sally represents 19th century women's position toward homosexuality which was seen as unusual. However, her decision to marry Richard represents her awareness of the social conventions and standards followed in her time where home was the center of women's life.

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