The potential for conflict in Mrs. Dalloway
At the time of writing, I think Mrs. Dalloway has built up some serious potential energy on many levels through the relationships between characters. Stress and tension keeps building and building with every chapter. Woolf seems to continue to inflate a balloon with air, on track to burst at the Dalloway's party.
The Mezzanine severely lacked any form of conflict or action, which disappointed me. I mentioned in my last blog post that I looked forward to seeing Howie's analytical mind at work as he went through some struggle or strife, but it never came. Seeing now how much tension has been placed on the Dalloway's party, I'm getting excited once again.
See, for example, Clarissa's interaction with the sorrowful Peter. It has plenty of drama, pity, and regret. Peter inquires of Clarissa if she is happy, the question that Clarissa herself had been pondering for a good part of the book. Before we get to hear her finally answer the question, Elizabeth enters the room. Peter leaves abruptly, and in a few words from Clarissa, "remember my party tonight!" all the drama has now been deflected to the party. We now have reason to suspect that Clarissa's answer will come at the party, putting more tension on that moment.
We also know Hugh will be at the party, as mentioned by Clarissa. Earlier in the book, Clarissa mentions the tense relationship that Hugh and Peter have, Peter having heatedly calling Hugh a "positive imbecile" among other names. Again, we see the potential for huge conflict at the party.
Much of the book thus far has been setting up the context for the relationships between different characters, and I have a suspicion that it will come to a climax at the party. I'm excited to keep reading and hope that I get to read something more interesting than an explanation of men's restroom etiquette.
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I definitely agree!- I feel like that's a result of her choosing Richard- in the flashbacks, with Peter, there is great conflict and emotion, but since she took the safe path, she has dwindle to a shell of the emotions she once felt
ReplyDeleteBut now that she is with Peter again, the tensions rise and her emotions come to the surface
DeleteYeah, it definitely feels as though all of this will come to a head at the party at the end of the day. They are laying out all these problems that people have and what they think of one another and it just so happens that they will all be seeing one another at this gathering that has been set up and talked about since the first sentence in the book.
ReplyDeleteI do think that this party will have something interesting happen, and I think that it will be also intriguing to see from which perspective we will see it from at the party and how the perspectives will transition. I also am interested in how Septimus and Lucrezia will be involved, if they are. I do think we are going to see some sort of intersection of the perspectives we have been following in relation to the problems and past history we have been reading about.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was actually surprised how good Woolf is at creating tension. Before reading I kind of assumed this was going to be a book about nothing, but she manages to make you understand and care about the characters, which leads you to care about what happens at this party. If you didn't care about these people and their relationships the whole thing would be pretty boring, and the climax would be flat. She also creates some mystery. I want to know more about Hugh
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, it really feels like we're building up to some sort of a crescendo (which I think will most likely be the party). Wolfe has introduced a multitude of characters but how exactly they connect is not always completely obvious and in order for the book to be complete their loose ends would undoubtedly need to be tied up. For example, we don't really know at this point how Septimius ties into the whole web. Hugh has also barely been mentioned and we know virtually nothing (at least nothing objective) about Richard. I'm also very excited to see how Wolfe connects everything.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that there is a lot of tension building as Clarissa's party approaches. Even though Woolf's main focus seems to be exploring the characters and trying to portray the human conscious accurately, there is an interesting plot with some conflict as well. This sets Mrs. Dalloway apart from the Mezzanine, which was focused almost entirely on the mind of Howie and had very little actual plot.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the party, or just before, will likely be the climax of the story though I'm unsure about if there would be any thing like "conflict" or "action". The thing is it seems like the party might be the end of the story, so it to me it seem unlikely that anything too big would happen at the part without any source of conclusion afterwards.
ReplyDeleteShe mentions at the beginning in a flashback that it felt like something bad was about to happen and its hard not to feel like that looms over the entire work.
ReplyDeleteI agree in that a lot of the book has been setting up the characters, describing their backstory a little and then having them interact in different ways, allowing for conflict. What I'm excited for is when we get to see what Richard thinks and how he is going to be, if we really can believe what little we have heard about him or if he is going to be something new and out of the blue.
ReplyDelete