Feminism in Virginia Woolf's Mrs

Dalloway
Virginia Woolf is one of the greatest writers whose works reflect her philosophy of life
and identification of women. She grew up with an intense interest in the feminist
question, and her novels hold the key to the meaning of life and the position of women
in the existing patriarchal society. She portrays the impact of the patriarchal English
society on women’s lives, the loneliness and frustration of women’s lives that had been
shaped by the moral, ideological and conventional factors.
Vriginia Woolf’s work Mrs. Dalloway is a very diverse work. It has a lot of ideas and
topics to analyse and discuss. One of the most important issue in the novel is feminism. A
lot of scholars and literarists have debated on that topic and is still obscure and does not
show clear perspective on itself. First of all I would like to write about feminism in
general and later its impact on Virginia Woolf and appearance in the work.
Feminism can be roughly defined as a movement that seeks to enhance the quality of
women’s lives by defying the norms of society based on male dominance and subsequent
female which implies the emancipation of women from the shackles, restrictions, norms
and customs of society. It demands that women should be treated as autonomous
subjects, and not as passive objects. It seeks to achieve equality between men and women
in moral, social, economic and political fields. The objective of that movement is the
creation of a new identity for women and making them aware of their rights.
Mrs Dalloway, regarded as a masterpiece of Virginia Woolf, is a novel riddled with
themes. Woolf has much to say about society and the post-war changes but a steady
underlying theme in the book is feminism, the roles of women of that period and their
seeming insignificance. Basically it is the character of Clarissa Dalloway, her relation
with Sally Seton, and other women characters, Miss Kilman, Lucrezia Warren, who are
also clustered around Clarissa in different contexts of the novel, through which Woolf
reveals the physical as well as the psychological world of womanhood – their
dilemmas, subjectivity, sexuality and conditioning in the traditional patriarchal society.

Woolf fought for women’s individual identity, privacy and freedom in the male-
dominated society. These views bloom in the novel Mrs Dalloway. The relationship
between Clarissa and Peter underwent a constant tension between love and freedom.
Clarissa though craved for love and to be loved, she also wanted privacy and
independence of her own. She wanted to preserve her virginity and equated it with
freedom as result of an aggressive society where women were snubbed and despised.
So, instead of Peter, she chose to marry Richard because she thought Peter would not
give the kind of freedom which was essential for her happiness. Again, Peter couldn’t
understand the importance of her emotional need. So, Clarissa thought if she would
marry Peter, he would have engulfed her and forced her soul.

“For in marriage a little license, a little independence there must between people living
together day in day out in the same house; which Richard gave her, and she him (where
was he this morning, for instance? Some committee, she never asked what.) But with
Peter everything had to be shared, everything gone into.”

Thus, in her decision to marry Richard, she chose privacy over passion.

In the novel, Clarissa’s relationship with her husband, Richard Dalloway, proved to be
a failure. Richard was so preoccupied with politics more than his wife. In response to
his loyalty to the social duties of upper-class, he left his wife for a meeting that he did
not care about. Again, we find Richard was invited to Lady Bruton’s party without his
wife. At this Clarissa felt a sense of emptiness and insignificance. Clarissa mocked her
husband’s attempt at taking a hot water bottle as a substitute for her warmth:

“And if she raised her head she could just hear the click of the handle released as
gently as possible by Richard, who slipped upstairs in his socks and then, as often as
not, dropped his hot-water bottle and swore! How she laughed!”

Through the Clarissa – Richard relationship, Woolf emphasizes that marriage is not a
guarantee of a happy relationship, or of a mutual understanding between a husband and
a wife in a patriarchal society - even while living under the same roof.

Again, these two relationships – Clarissa-Peter and Clarissa-Richard – reveal women’s

existence in the society. Both the males, Peter and Richard, viewed Clarissa as a
woman, inferior and insignificant. Peter never wanted to understand Clarissa. Rather he
was deeply interested in the affairs of the world:

“It was the state of the world that interested him; Wagner, Pope’s poetry, people’s
characters eternally, and the defects of her own soul.”

He always scolded her and said sarcastically that she would marry a Prime Minister and
stand at the top of a staircase. Clarissa felt such comments were pretty hurtful and often
wept. Her husband Richard with all his politics viewed Clarissa as a typical wife, a
perfect hostess as had been thought by Peter.

Virginia Woolf called for excluding all masculine values of hierarchy, competition and
dominance. She called for a society of women as an alternative to the authoritarian
structures and insisted on the importance of women’s friendship against these
structures. Clarissa’s love for Salley Saton is that alternative to the patriarchal society.
Sally is portrayed as an anti-patriarchal woman. She asserted herself as a woman and
demanded equal rights for women. Sally became Clarissa’s inspiration to think beyond
the walls of Bourton and even beyond the conventional society. Her relationship with
Sally contrasted to those of Peter and Richard. Thus, Clarissa broke the authorial
patriarchal voice as uniting with women result in an equal relationship. This kind of
relationship was a reaction against patriarchy and for the creation of a society for
women. Yet both Clarissa and Sally were defeated. They were compelled to ignore
their needs because the only accepted female identity was the one that was accepted by
patriarchy.

In Mrs Dalloway, the terrible influence of patriarchy is effectively portrayed through

the presentation of Miss Kilman and Rezia’s lives. Both were victims of the cruelty of
the social and political doctrine of the English society and their only guilt was that they
were merely women. What is really tragic about Rezia is not her husband’s insanity or
death but the unfriendly manner in which the world treated her. She suffered silently
and alone. Even her husband Septimus for whom she left her relatives and country was
indifferent to her.

“She was very lonely, she was very unhappy! She cried for the first time since they were
married. Far away he heard her sobbing; he heard it accurately, he noticed it
distinctively; he compared it to a piston thumping. But he felt nothing. His wife was
crying, and he felt nothing.”

Miss Kilman is a psychological victim of the male-dominated society. Her inability to

avenge the injustice she suffered drove her to deny her femininity and adopt aggressive
masculine values. She turned to be a ruthless woman and her life turned to be darkness
and bitterness. She hated Clarissa because she viewed her as a product of the patriarchal
society by which she was victimized.Apart from these frustrated, lonely women
characters, Woolf portrayed the character of Elizabeth Dalloway as an example of the
unconventional woman. She lacked the enthusiasm in the trivial feminine society of her
mother. She had ambitions to have a career and a professional life. She has planned to
be doctor, farmer, or to go into parliament.

Lady Bruton is another character whose strong independence as a leader shows the
movement towards tolerance of women being in power. Her taking part in politics,
hosting business luncheons, ideas of social reformation and her reaction against parties
Clarissa threw set forth the idea that not only could a woman take on acts and
responsibilities that were traditionally masculine, but she could also reject those that
were traditionally feminine.Therefore, Mrs Dalloway portrays a picture of a patriarchal
and imperialistic society, and details the factors that have limited women’s
opportunities for a meaningful life. In the novel, women suffer alone, have no
individual identity, lack warmth and are compelled to suppress their needs. By writing
Mrs Dalloway, Woolf meant to send out a cry against patriarchy and its representatives.
She called to destroy the patriarchal structures to give women female identity, to re-
write the history of women through female eyes and talk about themselves and their
experiences truthfully.Woolf ends the novel with a hope for the new woman. Her point
is that women shouldn’t lose their femininity, and also shouldn’t be limited to it. The
woman of the future embraces her femininity and masculinity and makes a choice of
how to use that within herself to achieve fulfilment.