The problem before the novelist at present…is to contrive means of being free to set down what he chooses. He has to have the courage to say that what interests him is no longer 'this' but 'that': out of 'that' alone must he construct his work. For the moderns 'that', the point of interest, lies very likely in the dark places of psychology. At once, therefore, the accent falls a little differently; the emphasis is upon something hitherto ignored; at once a different outline of form becomes necessary...
—Virginia Woolf, from “Modern Fiction”
Announcing her ambitions for Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary: “I want to criticize the social system, & show it at its most intense—.” Focusing your analysis on three (3) different characters from the novel, show how Woolf “criticize[s] the social system” in Mrs. Dalloway. Cite the text actively in your analysis, and zero in on telling psychological details for each character that reveal Woolf’s criticism of particular social-political institutions and/or cultural conventions.
Clarissa Dalloway (Mrs. D)
Richard Dalloway
Elizabeth Dalloway
Miss Kilman
Peter Walsh
Sally Seton
Hugh Whitbread
Lady Bruton
Septimus Warren Smith (SWS)
Rezia Warren Smith
Sir William Bradshaw
Lady Bradshaw
Mrs. Dalloway In-Class Essay ~ DRAFT ~
The problem before the novelist at present…is to contrive means of being free to set down what he chooses. He has to have the courage to say that what interests him is no longer 'this' but 'that': out of 'that' alone must he construct his work. For the moderns 'that', the point of interest, lies very likely in the dark places of psychology. At once, therefore, the accent falls a little differently; the emphasis is upon something hitherto ignored; at once a different outline of form becomes necessary...
—Virginia Woolf, from “Modern Fiction”
Announcing her ambitions for Mrs.