‘Clarissa Dalloway Is Disagreeable and Limited’ – Discuss
‘Clarissa Dalloway is disagreeable and limited’ – Discuss
It is absolutely just to say that this is so. Clarissa is very shallow; she fits the typical, one-dimensional image of women created at that time perfectly. She says on page eleven, “she would have been, in the first place, dark like Lady Bexborough, with skin of crumpled leather and beautiful eyes”. She thinks this, as she considers how she would have liked her life to be, and she reels off things she would have preferred to what she has currently. This in itself is a menial thing to think about, and, when thinking about it realistically, wouldn’t better her life in any way; therefore, it is also a useless thing to wish for as well. We see her do this again when Woolf writes, “it was an extraordinary beauty of the kind she most admired, dark, large-eyed, with that quality which, since she hadn’t got it herself, she always envied” this is similar to the previous quotation, and yet different in that, this time it refers to both her looks and her personality as well. She talks of the beauty “she most admired”, but also talks of the ‘quality’ that Sally had. The extroverted quality Sally had, that she later loses when we encounter her again at Clarissa’s party.
Furthermore, Clarissa appears insensitive and detached from her general surroundings and the huge impact created by the War. Woolf writes, “anything, any explosion, any horror was better than people wandering aimlessly”. It can be seen with clarity how superficial Clarissa is just from this small section, and that she could insult so many people without even knowing she had done so. Also, it is slightly insensitive, considering the trouble he has suffered with, considering the fact that he has shell-shock, and would have been greatly phased by such occurrences at a party. It shows that Clarissa is oblivious to how the war has affected other people from other classes and social backgrounds, and how her sheltered lifestyle hinders her as a refugee from
It is absolutely just to say that this is so. Clarissa is very shallow; she fits the typical, one-dimensional image of women created at that time perfectly. She says on page eleven, “she would have been, in the first place, dark like Lady Bexborough, with skin of crumpled leather and beautiful eyes”. She thinks this, as she considers how she would have liked her life to be, and she reels off things she would have preferred to what she has currently. This in itself is a menial thing to think about, and, when thinking about it realistically, wouldn’t better her life in any way; therefore, it is also a useless thing to wish for as well. We see her do this again when Woolf writes, “it was an extraordinary beauty of the kind she most admired, dark, large-eyed, with that quality which, since she hadn’t got it herself, she always envied” this is similar to the previous quotation, and yet different in that, this time it refers to both her looks and her personality as well. She talks of the beauty “she most admired”, but also talks of the ‘quality’ that Sally had. The extroverted quality Sally had, that she later loses when we encounter her again at Clarissa’s party.
Furthermore, Clarissa appears insensitive and detached from her general surroundings and the huge impact created by the War. Woolf writes, “anything, any explosion, any horror was better than people wandering aimlessly”. It can be seen with clarity how superficial Clarissa is just from this small section, and that she could insult so many people without even knowing she had done so. Also, it is slightly insensitive, considering the trouble he has suffered with, considering the fact that he has shell-shock, and would have been greatly phased by such occurrences at a party. It shows that Clarissa is oblivious to how the war has affected other people from other classes and social backgrounds, and how her sheltered lifestyle hinders her as a refugee from