As I approached the end of the novel, I started to realize that few people called Mrs. Dalloway as such, including the narrator. She's Clarissa for the majority of the book, called Clarissa Dalloway or Mrs. Dalloway only occasionally and often in dialogue. Given this, why did Virginia Woolf title the book Mrs. Dalloway? Why not Clarissa or Clarissa or Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway? Any one of these titles that has her first name seems to be more fitting for the character. There is little mention of Clarissa's maiden name, Parry, in the novella.
The title is, therefore, more of a statement about Mrs. Dalloway's marriage than her character. Throughout the novella, it is revealed that Clarissa was "wrong" in marrying Mr. Dalloway, or rather it is thought so by herself and others including Peter Walsh and Sally Seton. This is explicitly said in the final pages of the novella, when Sally says, "to be quite frank, then, how could Clarissa have done it?–married Richard Dalloway? a sportsman, a man who cared only for dogs. Literally when he came into the room he smelt of the stables" (167). The distaste of Mr. Dalloway by Peter Walsh and Sally Seton occurs throughout, presumably because of the affairs in varying degrees the two have had with Clarissa in the past. It is also significant to note that both Peter and Sally were close to Clarissa before her marriage, and this encourages them to call her by her first name and not Mrs. Dalloway, as some of her and her husband's older friends do.
The name Dalloway comes up chronologically when Clarissa incorrectly introduces Mr. Dalloway, after they've just met, to a group of people. He awkwardly corrects her, "blurting out 'My name is Dalloway!' Sally got hold of it; always after that she called him 'My name is Dalloway!'" (53). This introduction of Richard Dalloway's infatuation with his name and the pride that comes subsequently continues as a subtle theme throughout the novel. He is generally proud of being in his family, because he is very wealthy and high society.
Clarissa Dalloway is pondering her regret when it comes to her marriage to Mr. Dalloway. By titling the book Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf is taking away the Clarissa Parry from before her marriage. This emphasizes the regret in the book and the lack of identity that Clarissa has in her marriage as well.
This is an excellent analysis. I haven’t read the book, but you write about it in a way that tells me everything I need to know to understand your argument without getting overly detailed or confusing. Even with minimal knowledge about the novel, I feel like I have a solid understanding of at least one of its central themes. It sounds to me like you’re right on the money, and I’m very intrigued by Woolf’s decision to use title the book after the name the characters least familiar with her use--almost like a challenge to the reader, to take the journey through the novel, and get to know her well enough in order to call her Clarissa.
ReplyDeleteI’m fascinated by how authors title their books. It seems like such an impossibly difficult task--after putting so much work into something so complex and deeply important to you, to chose just a few words to label it with? That’s a tall order. So here’s my question to you: do you think she did a good job? Does that title manage to capture the heart of the book, or is there something missing? Would you have called it the same thing, if it was your work? Would you have “taken away the Clarissa Parry from before her marriage?” I know maybe those kind of hypotheticals seem dumb, but I’m genuinely curious. That’s a lot of weight for one character’s name to shoulder.
Before reading your blog post I had never really put much thought into the meaning behind the titles of novels other than to tell the name of the main character or to tell of an important moment that occurs in the book. It seems that just from the title of the book you were able to pull out hidden meaning and emphasize the feelings that were apparent in the charter throughout the book. It seemed that you were able to answer your initial question at the beginning of the blog about why the author chose to put her full name as the title when it was barely ever used in the book. It was pretty intriguing how you were able to explain depths of the book, corresponding it to the title. This post, shows me more than ever that a title isn’t just a self-explanatory phrase, it builds up the book, but is also a confusing stepping stone to small, but unique points in the book. just from the title you were able to show the interactions between the characters; whether they were old or new friend or their family relation etc. Just from your explanation of the title of the book you made we want to try to pick up the book at some point this year. Though I would like to know a little bit more about the actual plot of the book such as the rising action that leads to the realization that she was wrong in marrying Mr.Dalloway.
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