coconut house

Upon Bill's return from his trips to Budapest and Vienna, he arrives at Jake's flat in a taxi and recounts his story from Vienna. He calls Budapest a wonderful place, but remembers nothing of Vienna on account of drunkenness, except for one black fighter he clearly remembered helping after one of his fights. He describes how the man was about to make a post-match speech when the locals started throwing chairs and attempting to strike him, and Jake's party had driven him away from danger and helped him get money from people who owed him. The way Bill and Jake discuss this story allows us readers to have a glimpse about the insensitivities of Bill and Jake as characters. Bill uses the N-word copiously in his story, which seems to contradict his other praises about the fighter. Bill refers to him as "splendid" and "wonderful" plenty of times. When describing the outbreak of violence, Bill notes that he was not one of the ones throwing chairs or punches, and...

From the beginning of the book, Clarissa seems to be yearning for something more. Though she has been married to her husband Richard Dalloway for 30 years, "she would still find herself arguing in St. James’s Park, still making out that she had been right — and she had too — not to marry [Peter] (20)," one of her long-time friends who had once proposed to her and been rejected. Obviously passing thoughts like this don't always directly reflect one's inner desires, but soon she meets with Peter for the first time in a long time, and confirms her desires by kissing Peter. In the heat of the emotional moment, "she sat back extraordinarily at her ease with him and lighthearted, all in a clap it came over her, If I had married him, this gaiety would have been mine all day! (50)" These two texts show us that Clarissa doesn't receive the satisfaction she desires from her current marriage, thinking Peter could have given her a "gaeity" that Richard did...