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.
I definitely agree that the change in tone was one of the bigger differences between The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway. Although there are dark underlying themes in Mrs. Dalloway. since we are mostly in Clarissa's perspective, and the whole plot revolves around a party, the tone of the book seemed semi-cheerful. In contrast, the tone of the movie was, as you explained, very dark and serious. Although in the movie, some of the plot involves a party, it's not as preminant as in the novel. This party provides a more light hearted tone to the dark themes hidden beneath.
ReplyDeleteThis really struck me too when I watched the movie - it takes a less prevalent theme from the novel and makes it the main theme. It makes sense when you take Virginia Woolf and her experiences into account, because she might have had thoughts like that a lot at times. In the end, I think the movie still stayed close to the book in how it portrayed suicide - not as an inevitability, but as something the characters thought about because they didn't see any other way out of their situation.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this is a really true insight. I feel like the book focused more on Clarissa's psychology and her personal feelings, and intentionally took her as an individual example, a sort of testimony. In the movie, though, there seemed to be this recurring theme of like, "hey, it doesn't matter your condition or background or anything, you can be sad at any point." And idk, i wouldn't really call it bleak, but more like... validating the emotions of people who feel that way. But yeah, definitely got the same vibe you did off the film!
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