What Are The Two Characters In The Hours

In the novel The Hours by Michael Cunningham, the main characters of the novel are comparable in some ways. Some of them may not even bump into one another in their lives, though they can be closely related. In this novel, the characters of Laura Brown and Virginia Woolf choose different direction of life (one of them is a full-time housewife whereas another is a writer plus housewife), however, they both have struggles in it. The likenesses and differences of them relates to the theme of mortality.
Laura Brown and Virginia Woolf are two different people in different eras. Laura is a full-time housewife. She chooses to marry a guy whom she does not love. She marries him out of obligation. She gives up her own life, which may have so much fun
and at least can express her real self. She always needs to put a smile on her face even if she is not happy at all. She chooses to hide her feelings. “She can’t seem to feel her body, though she knows its there.”(215). Since she fails to escape her life through death, she finally chooses to leave her whole family. Unlike Laura, Virginia chooses to be a writer rather than a full-time housewife. Writing is something that she really enjoys. Even she marries to Leonard, she keeps her habits. She doesn’t marry him because any duties. Their marriage is based on true love. It is obvious that Leonard cares about Virginia a lot. In order to do recovery of her mental illness, Leonard brings Virginia to Richmond to exile from the city they lived.
Since Laura is having a marriage filled with responsibilities, she has never expressed herself in front of her husband and her son but kept feelings inside.
On the day she tries to suicide and the day she finally leaves her family, she hides her feelings so good that her family cannot even expect. On the contrary, Virginia expresses herself a lot more through talking and writing. She always says something like “It’s time for us to move back to London. Don’t you think?”(172). She misses life in London. She is having a hard time living in Richmond, but at least Leonard knows about it. Nevertheless, Virginia feels disgusted with the anguish. She is not able to go through the suicidal thoughts compared to Laura. Finally, she drowns in the
river.
Although Laura and Virginia have different direction of life, they are so alike with their struggles in life. Laura Brown and Virginia Woolf both have struggles in their own life. They feel that they are imprisoned. Laura is a housewife, yet she fails to be a good one. Laura forgets her husband’s birthday even though she bakes a cake for him after he comes back home from work. Laura leaves her whole family after she gives birth to her daughter. On one hand, it shows that she is being so selfish. On the other hand, it shows how much she is unsatisfied of being a housewife. She cannot wait to escape the life of being just an ordinary housewife. Like Laura, Virginia cannot be a good housewife either. She doesn’t know how to manage the servants and thus cannot gain respect from them. She thinks that “Why is it so difficult to be firm and kind with Nelly; to command her respect and her love?”(87). She cannot even manage her own life. Every day, she spends time on her writing too much and doesn’t eat. She makes her husband, Leonard, worry about her a lot. Both Virginia and Laura do not worry about their husbands that much. It is obvious that both of their husbands love them more than they do.
These failures and dissatisfactions with life worsen their mental health and cause suicidal tendencies to arise.
Laura and Virginia suffer from depression. Virginia even has some eating disorder. Just having a family will not be enough for Laura. She feels trapped in this American life. The feeling of imprisonment causes Laura to have some odd behaviors. She touches her lips with Kitty’s. “They touch their lips together, but do not quite kiss.”(110). Likewise, Virginia kisses her sister Vanessa. Besides, she refuses to eat. “She reminds herself: food is not sinister. Do not think of putrefaction or feces; do not think of the face in the mirror.”(85). She does not like her life in Richmond. It is just similar to Laura. They both do not like their own life. This raises the desire to escape life, which is death.
One of the significant themes in this book is mortality. In this book, the main characters are fascinated with the idea of ending their lives to escape oppressions in life. Beside Laura and Virginia, Richard tries to end his life too by falling from the window. Firstly, from the side of their likenesses, it shows that their struggles in life worsen their mental illness. Because of their failure of being a successful housewife, this gives them pressures. Under the burden of dissatisfactions with life, they come up with the thought of suicide as a possible
escape.
Secondly, although they are having different life paths, it still draws them back to the same place. Laura’s decision of marrying Dan has brought her to a dead end in life. She loses her freedoms. Since she is an introverted person, she cannot express her dissatisfaction of her life but evade it by trying to suicide. Despite being able to be a writer and have a successful marriage, Virginia cannot overcome the ongoing suffering. Living in Richmond does not help her much with her illness. Additionally, writing is not only her habit, but also a way to suggest suicide to her. Therefore, in spite of the fact that they choose different directions of life, they both have the frustration of ending their lives.
In conclusion, the characters of Laura Brown and Virginia Woolf choose different life paths that they have totally different marriages, yet they both have struggles in it. These likenesses and differences are closely related to the theme of mortality. Since they are not satisfied with their life, they have mild depression and some other disorders, which cause them to have frustrations of escaping their lives. With the failure of being a successful housewife, it aggravates their mental health. Ultimately, it brings them the idea of suicide.