My classmate Joey Smith recently made the controversial statement that Clarissa Dalloway is a whiny person. He then made the argument that she could be a very intune person, and not whiny at all. I think that with these two possibilities, Joey presents a very interesting debate. I presonally feel that while Clarissa is not a whiny person by nature, she comes across as slightly petty in some cases. I felt a stab of annoyance towards her when she complained about Bradshaw mentioning suicide at her party. Seriously, Clarissa, no one's gonna think less of you because a doctor mentioned one of his patients at your party! In fact, I doubt more than a couple of people would have even heard him! For someone who goes to all that trouble, she seems pretty unhappy during the party itself. While this side of Clarissa is presented as a frantic hostess wanting everything to be perfect, I read it in a tone that suggested she was subconsciously whining about the fact that the only way she participatess in the social scene is through these parties.
The part of Clarissa that keeps thinking about the past, however, does not strike me as whiny. She doesn't blame anyone for how her life developed, she doesn't fervently regret anything. She just wonders. As we discussed a while ago in class, I feel that "just wondering" is a perfectly innocent act, and she cannot be condemned for it.
However, I don't think Clarissa is ever a very positive character. She focuses too much on the past, and is preoccupied with what could go wrong. While she "loves life", she does not, in my opinion, experience the present enough to be called positive.
1 comment:
I'm not sure Clarissa is upset at Bradshaw mentioning his patient at her party because she's worried what others will think of her; I think it's that, for her, parties symbolize life--all these disparate characters in her life are all brought together to mingle and interact, and again, Clarissa sees this as an almost spiritual occasion. And in the midst of all this life, death rudely intrudes. (This pattern has been taking place in her thoughts all day.) It's not clear what exactly she dislikes so strongly about Bradshaw--it has to do with his air of certainty, of being the kind of guy to *treat* someone like Septimus, but never to really "get" him ("They make life unbearable, men like Bradshaw"). The subsequent scene, where she (unintentionally) ends up alone in the midst of the party contemplating death, is in response to this reminder of mortality amidst the flow of life. But observe the progression of her reactions to hearing about Septimus: the train of thought ends on a very life-affirming note. As for her "experiencing the present," consider how much of all of our days are spent wondering/worrying about the future, rehashing the past, figuring out where we are going and how it relates to where we have been. It's actually pretty rare, I'd guess, to find someone going through their day, living moment to moment with no thought to past or future. (Maybe Septimus is an example of this, although in his case it seems like torture!)
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