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How Does Clarissa Dalloway Change Throughout The Novel

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The setting of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolfe began in Westminster, England. The main character, Clarissa Dalloway, suddenly bought herself some flowers one morning. Although she is a rich, high-class woman and has a servant named Lucy, she bought herself her own flowers that day and then began to reminisce of her younger days in Bourton (Woolfe 1). This scene demonstrates that she is not content with her life, and feels as if she made regretful decisions that led her to backtrack her life. Clarissa was able to achieve higher status by essentially forfeiting her personal happiness. Virginia Woolfe exposes Clarissa Dalloway’s character by portraying Dalloway’s anxiety from past relationships and repression as a female in a patriarchal society. …show more content…

Because of this, she makes decisions based on statuss and not love. Her fear of intimacy was apparent when she chose Richard Dalloway over her former lover Peter Walsh, “But with Peter everything had to be shared; everything gone into” (Woolf 8). The thought of having a real relationship petrified her, consequently choosing privacy over affection. The relationship between Richard and herself are solitary, they do not communicate physically, however they have a mutual understanding of their relationship, “she understood without his speaking; his Clarissa” (Woolf 118). Clarissa has shown her insecurities when she unconsciously debates on whether she has made the right decision in marrying Richard, “Still making out that she had been right- and she had too- not marry him” (Woolfe 10). Obviously marrying Richard, she can evade her personal feelings with the privacy that he provides. Choosing a conservative marriage with Richard illustrates Clarissa insecurities, acknowledging that Peter will be able to hurt her because she truly cares for him, “Clarissa had cared for him more than she had ever cared for Richard. Sally was positive of that” (Woolf

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