The Hours Analysis

Noa Zahavi
Script Analysis
3/21/14

Midterm – The Hours

Structure breakdown:

Act 1:
The 1st act reveals information about each protagonists’ state through a daily morning routine: Virginia Woolf’s mental illness and depression is revealed while conversing about the doctor’s visit with her husband, Leonard. Laura’s unhappiness as a housewife and mother is revealed through phony dialogues and empty glares, and Clarissa, a book editor who seems to be the OCD personality type, is organizing a party for Richard, a poet in the advanced stages of AIDS who has just won a prestigious award.
Theme: The 1st sequence in which Virginia Woolf drowns herself in the river sets the thematic tone of unhappiness and the wish to escape from the unbearable reality.
Goals: All 3 women desire to escape their present reality:
Virginia wishes to escape the suffocating quietness of the suburbs to the “violent jolt” of London, there she won’t have to deal with her own demons and “voices”.
Conflict: Leonard (the antagonist), believing it was London who brought her low, demanding on staying in Richmond for her mental sake.
Laura wishes to escape her unhappy marriage and motherhood.
Conflict: Her son, Richie (the antagonist) is constantly there as a reminder of her roles as his mother and as a lousy housewife (“mom, it’s not that hard” while attempting to bake a cake).
Clarissa doesn’t want to deal with the idea that she might never be able to love another person like she loved Richard and that she’s going to lose him, therefor she’s immersing herself with endless domestic and daily chores.
Conflict: Richard (the antagonist) is constantly reminding her of their past together and that he’s about the die very soon.
Inciting incident: Clarissa pays a visit to Richard, there Richard confronts by placing a mirror in her face: “Mrs. Dalloway, always giving parties to cover the silence”.

Act 2:
Part1:
Initial conflict:
Virginia ponders about death as her niece and nephews give a funeral to a dead bird they found in the garden. Virginia envies the peacefulness of the dead bird.
Sally, Clarissa’s partner comes back home to find Clarissa sitting still and quiet in her room. She knows it’s her visit to Richard that brought her low. She’s trying to cheer her up but fails. Clarissa then asks herself: “why is everything wrong?”
Kitty, Laura’s neighbor drops by to ask for her to take care of her dog while she’s absent. Laura is attracted to Kitty’s vibrant and dynamic personality and envies her (what seems to be on the surface) happy life. Kitty shares with Laura that she might not be able to have children, the thing she wants the most. Laura, who already have a child and pregnant with another at the moment is willing to trade them all with the blink of an eye for a different life, Kitty’s life.
Part 2:
Midpoint:
Virginia’s depression intensifies as her sister is leaving back to London. She’s trying to convince her to stay a bit longer but to no avail. The scene ends with Virginia kissing her sister passionately as if to draw some of her happier life and spirit into herself.
Laura decides she will try and bake another cake for her husband (after failing the first time) and then she’ll kill herself.
Clarissa is having a meltdown in front of Louis, Richard’s ex-lover, confronting her fear of not falling in love again like she did with Richard: “To face the fact that we have lost those feelings forever.” Richard is the only thing that doesn’t seem silly in her life.
Big Gloom:
Virginia can’t stand staying in Richmond anymore. She rushes to the train station in order to catch the train to London (or perhaps pull an “Anna Karenina”?). There she confronts Leonard telling him she rather die than staying in Richmond.
Laura arrives at the hotel where she plans to commit the suicide. She sits on the bed surrounded by various kinds of pills.
Clarissa arrives at Richard’s apartment in order to pick him up and head to the party. Richard, can’t stand living like this anymore, jumps out of the window into his death.

Act 3:
A new idea:
Leonard agrees to move back to London.
Laura chooses not to kill herself and returns home. Later on she decides to run off.

Final confrontation: Clarissa invites Laura to her son, Richard’s funeral. She arrives at Clarissa’s apartment where Clarissa confronts her: “You left Richard when he was a child”. Laura responds: ”You have a daughter, you so wanted a child, you’re a lucky woman.”
A couple of scenes earlier Virginia is having a conversation with Leonard. He asks: “Why does someone has to die? In your book, why does someone has to die?” she responds: “Someone has to die in order for the rest to value life more. It’s contrast”. Richard’s death brought Laura into Clarissa’s life to open her eyes, to value what she has.

Theme: unhappiness.
The movie opens with Virginia Woolf drowning herself in the river, a result of her mental suffering and misery. The sequence is narrated by her own voice, reading the letter she left her husband, Leonard. The word ‘happy’ appears 3 times in her letter: “You have given me the greatest possible happiness”, “I owe all the happiness of my life to you”, “I don’t think two people could have been happier”. This repetition emphasizes how not even the great happiness her husband gave her was enough to save her from her own unhappiness.

Laura feels trapped in her boring life. She has settled into the roles of a housewife and a mother probably at a young age (Like many women those days). She’s unhappily married to a man whom she doesn’t love and raises a kid whom she doesn’t wish to mother.
She’s trying to portray the role of the perfect mother and wife whenever her husband, Dan is around but, as we can see early on in the movie, can’t conceal her unhappiness when she’s left alone with her son Richie.
Clarissa Vaughn, or as Richard likes to call her “Mrs. Dalloway”, arrives at Richard’s apartment, making her daily visit to make sure he ate his breakfast, didn’t skip any pill and remembers about the party she’s having for him that night. Richard quotes Woolf, referring to Clarissa:“Mrs. Dalloway, always giving parties to cover the silence”. Clarissa’s obsession over the day-to-day details of taking care of Richard and party planning covers her fear of dealing with her own life, her unhappiness- “Just wait till I die, then you’ll have to think of yourself.

Virginia asks Leonard permission to go out for a short walk. Leonard responds: “If I could walk at mid-morning I’d be a happy man”

Other themes:
Water: Virginia Woolf drowns herself in the river, after deciding to kill herself Laura dreams about drowning, the water pipe breaks and provokes Clarissa’s meltdown.
Flowers: The first motive to make a clear connection between the 3 plot lines – the flowers in the vase.
“Mrs. Dalloway said: I think I’ll buy the flowers myself.” Virginia writes the very first sentence in Mrs. Dalloway, then the scene shifts to Laura reading the sentence in her own copy of Mrs. Dalloway, then to Clarissa who “re-lives” it by notifying Sally she’ll buy the flowers for Richard’s party herself.
In the shop she cries: “Flowers! What a beautiful morning! …. give me buckets of roses!”
Virginia sets up roses around the dead bird’s grave. The roses that symbolize vibrancy and life for Clarissa, symbolize death and rest for Virginia.
Both Sally and Dan walk in with flowers they bought their partners, wanting to make them happy. Both fail.
Clarissa walks into Richard’s apartment with flowers to brighten up the room.
Death: For both Virginia and Laura death seems to be the only way to escape their unbearable reality (even though Laura ends up choosing life).
The thought of Richard’s death petrifies Clarissa: “The doctors told you, you don’t need to die, you can live like this for years.” Richard: “I think I’m staying alive only to satisfy you.” Clarissa: “well, so that is what we do. That is what people do. They stay alive for each other.” Richard: “Wait till I die, then you’ll have to think of your own life.”
LGBT: Virginia Woolf was known for being bisexual. She shares a passionate kiss with her sister. In her book Clarissa Dalloway is reminiscing about a kiss she once shared with a woman.
Laura finds herself attracted to Kitty with whom she shares a kiss. Towards the end of the movie she breaks down to the thought of losing her.
Both Richard and Clarissa are openly gay, Clarissa lives with her partner Sally and Richard had a long time relationship with Louise.

Dialogue:
Clarissa’s lack of ability to look life in the face is demonstrated through her habit of changing the subject whenever another character hits a certain nerve.
Richard: “Just wait till I die, then you’ll have to think of yourself, how you’re going to like that?”
Clarissa: “Richard, it would be great if you did come to the party, if you feel well enough to come, just to let you know I am making the crab thing.”
Nelly, Virginia’s cook is in the kitchen preparing lunch and ranting over Virginia to the other cook. Virginia walks into the kitchen and reminds Nelly that her sister and her children will be arriving later on that day, she gives her instruction to serve tea and some ginger. Nelly, who knows there is no possible way to get ginger besides taking a trip to London, raises her head and asks: “Ginger, madam?” Silence. The other cook cracks an egg. Virginia responds: “I’d like to give the children a treat”. The cook cracks another egg. Nelly tries to explain to Virginia she has too many chores to finish by lunch so she won’t be able to make the trip. Virginia responds: “The 12:30 train will get you to London right after one. If you return on the 2:30 you can return to Richmond soon after 3. Do I miscalculate?” Nelly: “No”. Virginia then asks: “well then, is something detaining you Nelly?” Nelly stares at her with astonishment and the cook cracks another egg.
The egg cracking demonstrates what Nelly feels but can’t express in front of her madam. It serves as an underscore for the dialogue.
Kitty, Laura’s neighbor arrives at her house, Laura tells her about the book she’s reading – Mrs. Dalloway and through this description we learn about Kitty’s state: “It’s about a hostess and she’s incredibly confident and she’s going to give a party, and maybe because she’s confident everybody thinks she’s fine…but she isn’t”. Kitty’s emotional reaction reveals that Laura hit a sensitive nerve.