Watch the opening of the film.
Research Virginia Woolf and michael Cunningham links.
Continue reading to pg. 48.
From wikipedia
Mrs Dalloway (published on 14 May 1925) is a novel by Virginia Woolf that details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in post-World War I England. It is one of Woolf's best-known novels.
Created from two short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister", the novel's story is of Clarissa's preparations for a party of which she is to be hostess. With the interior perspective of the novel, the story travels forwards and back in time and in and out of the characters' minds to construct an image of Clarissa's life and of the inter-war social structure.
Plot summary
Clarissa Dalloway goes around London in the morning, getting ready to host a party that evening. The nice day reminds her of her youth at Bourton and makes her wonder about her choice of husband; she married the reliable Richard Dalloway instead of the enigmatic and demanding Peter Walsh and she "had not the option" to be with Sally Seton. Peter reintroduces these conflicts by paying a visit that morning.Septimus Warren Smith, a veteran of World War I suffering from deferred traumatic stress, spends his day in the park with his Italian-born wife Lucrezia, where they are observed by Peter Walsh. Septimus is visited by frequent and indecipherable hallucinations, mostly concerning his dear friend Evans who died in the war. Later that day, after he is prescribed involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital, he commits suicide by jumping out of a window.
Clarissa's party in the evening is a slow success. It is attended by most of the characters she has met in the book, including people from her past. She hears about Septimus' suicide at the party and gradually comes to admire the act of this stranger, which she considers an effort to preserve the purity of his happiness.
Characters
Clarissa Dalloway The fifty-one-year-old ("She had just broken into her fifty-second year" p. 31) [1] protagonist of the novel. She is the wife of Richard and mother of Elizabeth. She spends the day organizing a party that will be held that night while also reminiscing about the past. She is self-conscious about her role in London high society.Richard Dalloway The disconnected and haughty husband of Clarissa. He is immersed in his work in government.
Elizabeth Dalloway Seventeen-year-old daughter of Clarissa and Richard. She is said to look "oriental" and has great composure. Compared to her mother, she takes great pleasure in politics and modern history, hoping to be either a doctor or farmer in the future.
Septimus Warren Smith A World War I veteran who suffers from "shell shock" and hallucinations of his deceased friend, Evans. Educated and decorated in the war, he is detached from society. He is married to Lucrezia from whom he has grown distant.
Lucrezia "Rezia" Smith The Italian wife of Septimus. She is burdened by his mental illness and believes that she is judged because of it. During most of the novel she is homesick for family and country, which she left to marry Septimus after the Armistice.
Sally Seton A love interest of Clarissa. She had a strained relationship with her family and spent much time with Clarissa's family in her youth. Sally is married to Lord Rosseter and has five boys. She can be described as feisty as well as a youthful ragamuffin.
Hugh Whitbread The pompous friend of Clarissa. Like Clarissa, he places much importance on his place in society. He holds an unspecified position in the British Royal household. Although he believes himself to be an essential member of the British aristocracy, Lady Bourton, Clarissa, Richard, and Peter find him to be obnoxious.
Peter Walsh He is an old friend of Clarissa. In the past, she rejected his marriage proposal. Now he has returned to England from India and is one of the guests at Clarissa's party. He is planning to marry Daisy.
Sir William Bradshaw Septimus is referred to the famous psychiatrist, Sir William Bradshaw, by his physician, Dr. Holmes. Bradshaw notes that Septimus has had a complete nervous breakdown and suggests spending time in the country as a cure.
Miss Kilman Miss Kilman is Elizabeth's history teacher, who has a degree in history and was fired from a teaching job during the war. She has a German ancestry. She wears an unattractive mackintosh coat because she does not care enough to dress to please others. She is a born-again Christian. She dislikes Clarissa intensely but she loves to spend time with Elizabeth.
Style
In Mrs Dalloway, all of the action, except flashbacks, takes place on a day in June. It is an example of free indirect discourse storytelling (not stream of consciousness because this story moves between the consciousnesses of every character in a form of discourse): every scene closely tracks the momentary thoughts of a particular character. Woolf blurs the distinction between direct and indirect speech throughout the novel, alternating her narration with omniscient description, indirect interior monologue, direct interior narration follows at least twenty characters in this way but the bulk of the novel is spent with Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith.Because of structural and stylistic similarities, Mrs Dalloway is commonly thought to be a response to James Joyce's Ulysses, a text that is often considered one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century (though Woolf herself, writing in 1928, apparently denied this[2]). In her essay 'Modern Fiction', Woolf praised James Joyce's Ulysses, saying of the scene in the cemetery, "on a first reading at any rate, it is difficult not to acclaim a masterpiece".[3] The Hogarth Press, run by her and her husband Leonard, had to turn down the chance to publish the novel in 1919, because of the obscenity law in England, as well as the practical issues regarding publishing such a substantial text.
Woolf laid out some of her literary goals with the characters of Mrs Dalloway while still working on the novel. A year before its publication, she gave a talk at Cambridge University called "Character in Fiction," revised and retitled later that year as "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown."[4]
Themes
The novel has two main narrative lines involving two separate characters (Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith); within each narrative there is a particular time and place in the past that the main characters keep returning to in their minds. For Clarissa, the "continuous present" (Gertrude Stein's phrase) of her charmed youth at Bourton keeps intruding into her thoughts on this day in London. For Septimus, the "continuous present" of his time as a soldier during the Great War keeps intruding, especially in the form of Evans, his comrade.Mental illness
Septimus, as the shell-shocked war hero, operates as a pointed criticism of the treatment of mental illness and depression.[5] Woolf lashes out at the medical discourse through Septimus' decline and suicide; his doctors make snap judgments about his condition, talk to him mainly through his wife and dismiss his urgent confessions before he can make them. Rezia remarks that Septimus "was not ill. Dr Holmes said there was nothing the matter with him".[6]Woolf goes beyond criticizing the treatment of mental illness. Using the characters of Clarissa and Rezia, she makes the argument that people can only interpret Septimus' shell-shock according to their cultural norms.[7] Throughout the course of the novel Clarissa does not meet Septimus. Clarissa's reality is vastly different from that of Septimus; his presence in London is unknown to Clarissa until his death becomes idle chat at her party. By never having these characters meet, Woolf is suggesting that mental illness can be contained to the individuals who suffer from it without others who remain unaffected ever having to witness it.[8] This allows Woolf to weave her criticism of the treatment of the mentally ill with her larger argument, which is the criticism of society's class structure. Her use of Septimus as the stereotypically traumatized man from the war is her way of showing that there were still reminders of the First World War in 1923 London.[7] These ripples affect Mrs. Dalloway and readers spanning generations. Shell shock or post traumatic stress disorder is an important addition to the early 20th century canon of post-war British Literature.[9]
There are similarities in Septimus' condition to Woolf's struggles with bipolar disorder (they both hallucinate that birds sing in Greek and Woolf once attempted to throw herself out of a window as Septimus does).[5] Woolf eventually committed suicide by drowning.
Woolf's original plan for her novel called for Clarissa to kill herself during her party. In this original version, Septimus (whom Woolf called Mrs. Dalloway's "double") did not appear at all.[2]
Existential issues
When Peter Walsh sees a girl in the street and stalks her for half an hour, he notes that his relationship to the girl was "made up, as one makes up the better part of life." By focusing on characters' thoughts and perceptions, Woolf emphasizes the significance of private thoughts rather than concrete events in a person's life. Most of the plot in Mrs Dalloway is realizations that the characters subjectively make.[5]Fueled by her bout of ill health, Clarissa Dalloway is emphasized as a woman who appreciates life. Her love of party-throwing comes from a desire to bring people together and create happy moments. Her charm, according to Peter Walsh who loves her, is a sense of joie de vivre, always summarized by the sentence "There she was." She interprets Septimus Smith's death as an act of embracing life and her mood remains light even though she hears about it in the midst of the party.
Feminism
As a commentary on inter-war society, Clarissa's character highlights the role of women as the proverbial "Angel in the House" and embodies sexual and economic repression and the narcissism of bourgeois women who have never known the hunger and insecurity of working women. She keeps up with and even embraces the social expectations of the wife of a patrician politician but she is still able to express herself and find distinction in the parties she throws.[5]Her old friend Sally Seton, whom Clarissa admires dearly, is remembered as a great independent woman:[5] She smoked cigars, once ran down a corridor naked to fetch her sponge-bag and made bold, unladylike statements to get a reaction from people. When Clarissa meets her in the present day, she turns out to be a perfect housewife, having married a self-made rich man and given birth to five sons.
Homosexuality
Clarissa Dalloway is strongly attracted to Sally at Bourton — 34 years later, she still considers the kiss they shared to be the happiest moment of her life. She feels about women "as men feel",[10] but she does not recognize these feelings as signs of homosexuality.Similarly, Septimus is haunted by the image of his dear friend Evans. Evans, his commanding officer, is described as being "undemonstrative in the company of women". The narrator describes Septimus and Evans behaving together like "two dogs playing on a hearth-rug" who, inseparable, "had to be together, share with each other, fight with each other, quarrel with each other..." Jean E. Kennard notes that the word "share" could easily be read in a Forsteran manner, perhaps as in Forster's Maurice which shows the word's use in this period to describe homosexual relations. Kennard is one to note Septimus' "increasing revulsion at the idea of heterosexual sex", abstaining from sex with Rezia and feeling that "the business of copulation was filth to him before the end."[11]
Angela Rollins
ReplyDeleteIn the film adaption to the prologue, I would hope to include the scenery the prologue describes. In the writing, the sudden descriptions seemed a little out of place from the action, but it was meant to capture Virginia's observing eye and how even on her walk to death she finds beauty in the world. I'd also like to include the ditch digger she sees, and the fisherman. These two people were basically her only hope for survival, but they remained oblivious, which I think would be good to include. Also, Leonard finding the letter would be important to show, although maybe only briefly. And, of course, Virginia's body under the water as the boy throws in the stick would have to be the end of the prologue adaption.
I would focus on the colors. The red raincoat especially. Everything else would be more opaque and blurred. The colors would be extremely clear. I would also focus on the emotion on Virginia's face.
ReplyDeleteI would also focus on water movement. Everything would be very slow. There would only be classical music in the background. Then, in the scene with Leonard, he would find the letter and it would be read in Virginia's voice. Then he would be running to the water. DA END
ReplyDeleteI would focus on the water and how it ripples when she walks in and on the sky when she looks up because in the book they are so heavily emphasized and they play a large part in my mind when i imagine the scene in film form. I also think that the two are very important to the novel, but thats just my opinion. I also would focus on her when she fills her pockets with the rocks. Also, I would focus on Lenards face when he sees the letter and then switch between the letter, his face, her face going into the water, and him running to find her. I would also make sure to include the little boy, and when I did that, I would switch between shots of him and shots of her underwater.
ReplyDeleteShannon Kalia
ReplyDeleteIn the movie, I would briefly show Virginia setting up her letters and hastily leaving the house to go to the river without looking suspicious, only telling her maid she'd be going out. I would have her narrating parts of her stream of consciousness in the background of her searching for stones. When she finds one, it would flash back to her husband finding the letters and freaking out, and then back at her placing the stone she picks in her pocket. I'd focus on the contrast between the river and the sky, and on the fisherman in the red jacket. I'd show how she hesitates, and then how she slowly starts drowning in the water, first trying to herself, and then forced down by the waves, I'd use a first close up camera shot of her, and then a full one, showing the sky and the fisherman and the boy crossing the bridge with her mother. I would make the camera focus on her both moving underwater and from above the water, and back to the fisherman and the boy and his mother, both who don't notice. At the end of the scene I'd show her body close up, and then far away, and end the scene focusing on the boy waving to the soldiers.
Briyanna Brinkley
ReplyDeleteIf I was making this film I would focus on the colors of the rocks or how she saw everything happening at that very moments. How her life sort of flashes before her eyes and the concern and fear of her husband once he finds out that she is trying to commit suicide. It would show her thinking everything over and a huge part of the movie should be dedicated to the clouds because he takes a lot of time describing how the clouds look. I would focus on her going under water and how the colors look, how the muck and slime gathers around her feet as well as she walks further into the muddy water.
I would probably include the scene with the woman facing the water and contemplating suicide. That's all. Just the suicide. Everything else is irrelevant. I imagine a scenery of her standing before the water, the wind tossing her hair, the faint sound of the air whipping across her body. The sky would be bleak, a pale blue, very grim outside and one would hear the faint roar of the river. Perhaps a single tear a drips down her face and then the camera pans across the river so one can see a whole view. Then after cutting out unnecessary scenes with people, she would pick up heavy stones from the ground, stuff them in her pocket, and slowly walk into the water, perhaps a low angle shot, so you can see half of her body dangling in the water and the other half trading above, slowly slipping away. For shame... and it fades to white!
ReplyDeleteIn the film adaptation, I would open on her walking along the country road. I would focus on creating the mood through sounds and colors. While she walked, her voice would be heard almost as a narrator. I would then focus on her arriving to the water, lifting the stone and going through with her deed. Instead of switching back to her husband, I would have the narrator read the letter out loud as we see Virginia’s body floating down the river.
ReplyDeleteI also think in the movie, in the background of her drowning, it should read her suicide letter.
ReplyDeleteIn the film version of The Hours, by Michael Cunningham, I would start the film off by showing Virginia placing the letter on her husband's desk. While she is saying goodbye to the maid and picking out the certain rocks to fill her pockets with I would have her voice be narrating the stream of consciousness. I would focus on her wading in the water while her voice continues speaking. While she is wading (before deciding to commit the act of suicide) Leonard comes into view. The last scene you see of Virginia is of her looking out at the fisherman, before she falls into the current. Once she falls the camera pans back and fourth between her moving throughout the water and Leonard reading the letter, her voice narrating the entire thing. As this is happening, music speeds up, Leonard running out of the house to the river. the music fades away/stops when he sees no sight of his wife. The prologue ends with the camera focusing on the boy and soldiers, his mother lifting him to sit on her shoulders, the boy waving to the soldiers. This clip would be shot from the river, and the camera shot fades away, the boys waving blurring until fades out completely.
ReplyDeleteIn the film, she might be walking away from the house, pulling the heavy jacket close to her. She’ll walk briskly, she’ll be momentarily distracted by the sheep and the sky, where there will be bombers zooming past. She’ll walk past the farm worker, they’ll exchange nods. There would be a shot of her feet, splashing through the rain puddles, her feet sinking just a little. When she feels the headache coming, she’ll make a face, she’ll wince, rub her temples. When she gets to the river, she’ll climb down into it, and look upriver, where the fisherman will be. She’ll try to look over, to see if he’d see her. Once she decides that he won’t take notice of her, she looks for a rock suitable to her needs. She does this with precision, it looks as if she knows entirely what she’s doing, as if it was some menial task she’d done all of her life. When she finds one, she’ll examine it, the shot would focus on the color of the rock. Then she’ll place it in her pocket, and she’ll walk slowly towards the water. She pauses when she’s about waist-deep. She’ll look back, in the direction of her home; this is where she’ll hesitate about her planned final act. But she continues onward, a shot of the fisherman and the sky reflected in the yellowing river.
ReplyDeleteI expect to see a lot of sorrow and painful love. I think that the film will possibly convey the correct message.
ReplyDeleteI would show her leaving the notes, applying her coat then walking out towards the river. I would show the sights of the sheep, churches and downs. I would also focus on her face to show the emotion or what she was feeling at the time. I would also focus on the water because it has a certain importance in the prologue.
ReplyDeleteI would expect to see the colors exhibited in the eyes of Virginia. The red raincoat would be seen because of the red and how vibrant the color would stand out. I would expect to see the characterization shown good. Showing the role of the housewife and how important the people around her are.
ReplyDeleteIf I were making the prologue of this novel into film version I would definitely focus on the people she was passing. The potato headed farmer, the red vested fisherman, the mother and child. I think this is important because it is kind of the opposite of everything she feels. These people are a part of the life that drives her mad, and she feels an incredible detachment from these people, and she’s walking by them and noticing their presence as she is going to die. Much of the shooting would be from her perspective, the camera being used as if it were her eyes. It wouldn’t be shaky, or fast paced or suspenseful, it would be calm and pensive, almost reverent. I would have her narrate the letter in her mind as she is looking and noticing all the people. Shots would cut back to Lenard and the maid, but they wouldn’t have any dialogue, they would just be mutely reacting as they discovered the letter and realized what she had done. I would cut back and forth between Woolfe putting the rocks into her pockets, focusing on her hands weighing the rocks and sliding them in her pocket, and Lenard running to the river. The narration would happen over all of the action, but under the narration I would include sounds of the world around her, the rushing of the water and the thud of her shoes on the ground. Once she was under the water I would focus on the weeds that her body ran through. I would make the river very deep so you could she her entire body vertically. I would finish the prologue with Lenard running to the river bank, and looking up and down the river, a parallel shot to the panning that Woolfe did before she walked into the river, and then focus on the fisherman in the red vest. Then I would cut Woolfe sinking to the bottom, her body wrapping around the stone base of the bridge.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to film the prologue of breaking hours, I would focus on is the vibe and imagery of the environment and the Focus on certain items that were pointed out throughout the scene. I the raincoat, the sound of war, and most importantly the letter she wrote to Leonard. I would like to film her writing the letter. The emotion and the tears coming from her eyes and the imagery she used to described her vision. “I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read.” Such powerful lines.
ReplyDelete