The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway

While watching The Hours, my brain immediately began linking the characters in the movie to characters in the book. In many characters in The Hours I noticed many aspects from each character in Mrs. Dalloway. For example, within Richard, I could identify the obvious connections with Septimus (the suicide and his "insane" attitude), but also with Peter (his history with Clarissa) and Virginia Woolf herself. While there were minor differences in details such as Clarissa being married to Sally rather than Richard, I found the most shocking difference to me was the tone of The Hours versus Mrs. Dalloway. In the novel, Clarissa seemed reminiscing on that particular day, but she didn't seem sad. She was merely thinking about the past how different her life might've ended up, and throughout her day she went through ups and downs. However, in The Hours, by incorporating Virginia Woolf's own experiences, I think the movie took a more obvious look at the meaninglessness of life (also a theme of Mrs. Dalloway and portrayed their lives in a more lonely way.

One big aspect that the movie used to develop this more bleak look at life was through the suicidal thoughts of more than just one character. In the novel, the only character that has a huge yearning for death was Septimus, and at the end Clarissa. However, in the movie, Richard, his mother Laura, and Virginia Woolf all either committed suicide or came very close. I think that fact that the three plots inside of The Hours were mainly connected by this fact really tied in the notion of the meaninglessness of life, and showed how certain people started to feel alienated by everyone around them because they just couldn't bear to be alone in the world. Not alone in the physical sense (because Virginia, Laura, and Richard all had someone who really loved them), but that no one understood them. The Hours really made me think about this and I think that fact that I knew a background of both Woolf and the novel, made me really enjoy the movie. 

Holmes vs Bradshaw

While reading Mrs. Dalloway, I found the two doctors very interesting. The two doctors in Mrs. Dalloway both represent two aspects of society. On one hand Holmes clearly represented the evil in humanity while Bradshaw clearly represented the rich upper class oppression, as perceived by Septimus. However, both Dr. Holmes and Sir Bradshaw had basically the same effect on Septimus.

Dr. Holmes began with saying that there was nothing wrong with Septimus, while there clearly was. Even though the idea of shell-shock was relatively new during the 1920s, Holmes simply told Septimus' wife, Lucrezia, that he needed to become a bit more manly. I think that Holmes' views represented the rest of societies views on this matter (the war veterans returning and the veterans unseen damage). In fact, in the end, Holmes was the person who ultimately pushed Septimus to the edge and Septimus jumped out of the window because he felt overcome with pressure from what "they" wanted. In this case, I think that "they" mainly refers to Holmes who as a whole represents the evil of human nature, however Bradshaw was also a big factor in this.

Sir William Bradshaw acknowledged that there was in fact something wrong with Septimus, but he used the common "medicine" at that time, by sending Septimus to an oppressive home in the country to fix him. Woolf herself also suffered from these facilities, and in Mrs. Dalloway she really critiques this in Septimus' reaction and view on Bradshaw. For example, Septimus states that "Sir Bradshaw was not a nice man" (156), and Septimus' was distraught when he learned that he would be separated from his wife. However, Sir Bradshaw is different from Dr. Holmes in that he has a much higher status, and his views were more scientific in comparison.

Then, I noticed while looking over the book that while Septimus was first meeting with Bradshaw, Woolf stated "Once you fall, Septimus repeated to himself, human nature is on you. Holmes and Bradshaw are on you" (155). This really shows that both Holmes and Bradshaw represent a big part of British society at that time, and both of these parts are the groups bent on repressing anything that deviated from what they thought was normal. 

Personal Fiction

While writing my pastiche, Virginia Woolf's critique of modern fiction suddenly popped into my mind. According to Virginia Woolf, an important aspect in fiction should be that it gives the audience a personal encounter with another person. Fiction generally isn't what I thought of as a personal encounter with someone else, to me, I always thought of fiction as the leisurely activity that I did in my down time (much like watching a movie), but in The Mezzanine we basically get to spend a couple of minutes (which spans into a full length novel) inside of someone else's body/head. This huge influx of information gives you a very good insight into one person's thoughts, actions, and fears. Even now, I've managed to slip into the "Baker" mindset because I feel like I know Howie so well.

Then as I was writing my pastiche, I realized I put a lot of personal details that weren't necessarily inappropriate, but it wasn't something that you would know about a random person on the streets or even an acquaintance. That is when I realized how truly personal fiction can be, and that's when I really understood what Virginia Woolf was talking about. In both Mrs. Dalloway and The Mezzanine, the authors managed to convey a peak into another persons brain without giving a detailed description on who this character is. Instead, the reader must experience things with the characters and I think this really helps us better understand and empathize with the character (Septimus for example). In addition, we get a more comprehensive understanding of the character by hearing what they think about themselves (and what others think of them in Mrs. Dalloway) rather than what a 3rd person narrator wants us to know about the character.

When I went back and considered the novels that I've read that were primarily plot driven, I didn't really get to know the characters because I was so caught up with the story and finding out what happened. The authors of these novels also relied on the plot to give their book a purpose, but in The Mezzanine Baker uses Howie and his thoughts to drive the book (but in a much subtler way than plot driven books). But as I've become more and more used to this way of writing (character focused), I've realized just how interesting and thought provoking these types of novel are.