Time in "Mrs. Dalloway"

[Harpo Marx]

Is time a limit or a comfort for Clarissa in Mrs. Dalloway?

Sometimes, Clarissa seems to fear the forward progression of time, specifically in her musings on aging and death. Often, she associates these concerns with windows or mirrors, frames in which, it has been argued, the view of a visually constructed moment can be suspended in time.

On the other hand, Clarissa also seems to fear this suspension. As Woolf’s narration style and diction reveals, the “plunge” of life is its substance: the constant flow of perception, consciousness, and memory is essential to living. Moments of hesitation are linked with as much foreboding as are moments of the realization of aging.

So how does Clarissa relate to time?

Reading recommendations on this question are welcome!

Related texts:
"Something Central Which Permeated: Virginia Woolf and 'Mrs. Dalloway'" by Reuben Brower
Herself Beheld: The Literature of the Looking Glass by Jenijoy La Belle
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

[Sir Bartholomew]

yep, she kind of go bonkers whenever she hears the Big Ben strikes the hour. So i think it's a limit.

[GnomictheGnome]

i found that the time theme moved the book along and held it together also it meshed with the motif of the waves (think of sound waves and the leaden circles dissolving in the air). For example at the very beginning when she is first reminiscing about Bourton, she hears the clock booming and it makes her stop and note it and then continue on her way and so it isnt dreaded by her although she does feel she is old as that is mostly the reason for her nostalgia it progresses the story. On the other hand i think she is portraying real life and time exactly as it is, something that may be dreaded at times and yet something that can be appreciated at others, and still more something to reflect upon the passage of it; but in the end it will keep going no matter what.

[QUOTE=GnomictheGnome;558013]i found that the time theme moved the book along and held it together also it meshed with the motif of the waves (think of sound waves and the leaden circles dissolving in the air). For example at the very beginning when she is first reminiscing about Bourton, she hears the clock booming and it makes her stop and note it and then continue on her way and so it isnt dreaded by her although she does feel she is old as that is mostly the reason for her nostalgia it progresses the story. On the other hand i think she is portraying real life and time exactly as it is, something that may be dreaded at times and yet something that can be appreciated at others, and still more something to reflect upon the passage of it; but in the end it will keep going no matter what.

[Equality72521]

A major theme in the novel is definately to do with how time never stop and keeps on moving. Big Ben symbolizes time and how it always keeps going and time can pass you by. All of the characters tie into this with her, mainly with Peter. She's always thinking back, about Peter and the past. We especially see Clarissa related to time when she looks out the window and see the old lady, it's a reminder to her that life continues on and keeps passing by.

I don't have my book open right at this moment so forgive me if it doesn't sound exactly right, but I'm sure the general idea gets through...plus I didn't like the book much, myself, but I still had to read it so I know what it's about.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Is time a limit or a comfort for Clarissa in Mrs. Dalloway?

So how does Clarissa relate to time?

Well I am just reading/studying this at the moment and one point I think is that Clarissa maybe regrets her past as echoed in the constant flashbacks to that particular day in her youth. This would appear to be a constant theme with Woolf, though I have not studied Woolf at any length at all, I am just beginning to as it were.

I think she reacts with fear to the constant references and interruptions of Big Ben that occur throughout the novel. She also describes the pips to the BBC somewhere in the novel, which are also similar references to the intrusions and reminders of time's passing and with it the aging process. The pips of the BBC were also quite new at the time so maybe this is a hint at how new technology reminds us of times passing? It may also be some sort of rejection of this in relation to the modernist ideologies of the time? I don't know.