Sally Seton’s Impact
The readers meeting of Sally Seton towards the end of the novel fulfilled an odd feeling of knowing Sally Seton’s life- not through her view of course- and experiencing a full circle moment of meeting a character that occupies coexisting characters thoughts. Although we, as readers, must keep in mind the duration of the book only compasses a day, limiting the extent we are able to acquaint ourselves with the characters. Virgina Woolf ensures that spanning the novel readers are thrown into the views of characters' minds, although we never get to experience first person, which maximizes the amount we are able to get to know the characters throughout the short time we are with them. Reminiscing throughout the memories of Peter and Mrs. Dalloway, while in the same 24 hours getting ‘real time’ encounters with the people and thoughts that take up so much space in their mind, gathers Virginia Woolf's ideas about how characters exist properly. The information she gave about Sally throughout the book supports a strong foundation of understanding who the other characters are, and why they are. All the while the book spans such a great range of the individuals lives and yet a fraction of the individuals time alive; memories are such an integral portion of Mrs. Dalloway, and without, little would be known about the characters' personas.
Clarissa constantly thinks about the past, in fact the past consumes a higher portion of her daily life than one would even imagine. With a quick reference to The Mezzanine where Howie tracked his thoughts and how often each subject popped into his mind, Clarissa’s ‘thought count’ would be off the charts compared to Howie’s. In the beginning of the day the count of her thoughts about Sally commenced with her recalling Bourton, “Take Sally Seton; her relation in the old days with Sally Seton. Had not that, after all, been love?” (Woolf 32). Clarissa goes on to recall the activities of Sally: her encounters with flowers, smoking cigars, kissing Clarissa, and streaking through the house (Woolf 33). We are gifted with this knowledge about Sally Seton simply through Clarissa’s recounting of the past, and without her consistent remembrance we very well could not have known who Sally was at all. Clarissa’s interactions with Sally reveal a good deal of information about who Mrs. Dalloway was when she was Ms. Parry, with her acknowledging that her kiss with Sally was one of the greatest times in her life (Woolf 35). Mrs. Dalloway's life had little development or much excitement if her experience with Sally tops her marriage to Richard or the birth of her daughter, Elizabeth. Perhaps if Sally never happened, Mrs. Dalloway would little reminisce on her time as Clarissa Parry.
Ms. Dalloway was not the only character who was influenced by Sally, Peter Walsch to experience the ripple of Sally into his own personal understanding by readers. Perhaps Sally wouldn’t naturally detain any space in his head, but the pipeline of his thoughts about Clarissa often seamlessly flowed to Sally, and maybe this was because of the great connection the Clarissa and Sally shared. Peter “could see Sally Seton, like a child who has been in mischief, leaning forward, rather flushed, wanting to talk, but afraid, and Clarissa did frighten people,” (Woolf 58). Peter analyzes Sally in the book, and multiple times at that, but that too is just a habit of Peter’s, in which he often scrutinized Clarissa as who she was then and Mrs. Dalloway as who she became later. We, as readers, are gaining an understanding of Sally throughout the view of other characters, which advances as we flash back and forth from character to character and memory to memory as the day goes on.
The book’s contents of Sally Seton go full circle with Clarissa being elated thinking about Sally in youth, to her being equally as thrilled when Sally attends Mrs. Dalloway’s party. Mrs. Dalloway’s excitement is shown when she sees Sally, “It was Sally Seton! Sally Seton! after all these years!” (Woolf 167). When Sally makes an appearance at Mrs. Dalloway’s party the night of the morning we met her in the memory of Clarissa, the veil of Mrs. Dalloway’s retracted ever so slightly more, giving the reader more pieces to the puzzle of her character. The short novel of Mrs. Dalloway successfully allows the audience to capture the true persona of the characters through the book with little to no self description by the characters themselves. How one character interacts with and remembers the other characters is how we are able to understand how they behave and their nature. This is exceedingly impressive considering the entire book takes place over one day, and an entire lifetime of memories. Sally Seton, the individual she is, the contributions she gave to the perception of the others, and how she changed my appreciation for the book Mrs. Dalloway, is an optimum character given by Virginia Woolf.
Work Cited
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Harcourt, 2005.
Hi Annika,
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is amazing how much we are able to learn about all the different characters in the book, simply because much of it is spent in the past or in characters internal monologues. I found your comparison of Mrs. Dalloway and the Mezzanine especially interesting. I think that memories serve different purposes in the two books, although in both books it leads to a story covering many more events and ideas than what would normally happen in a given time interval. In the Mezzanine it feels like Howie is hand selecting the thoughts we read, in order for it to be entertaining. Where as, in Mrs. Dalloway I think the characters' inner thoughts feel less filtered and curated for the reader. It truly feels like we are just in the inner monologues of the characters the narration covers.
I've forgotten that the time narrated in the book's story amounts to only a day. Woolf does a great job in describing characters we learn very little about, often being developed through the perspectives of others. As you describe Sally as a "full circle" moment when she arrives at the party, shows that she's not just a figment of Clarissa's and Peter's past but a person that has shaped how they understand themselves.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sasha in that the inner thoughts of the characters in Mrs. Dalloway feel less filtered. I felt telepathic almost when traveling between the thoughts of different characters, and it allowed for such an interesting method of understanding the plotline, albeit a bit confusing at times. I also wanted to highlight your point in your second paragraph about how past-focused the book could be at times. I often forgot the book had only a day's worth of real-time content due to the way it presented background knowledge. And, most of it felt extremely atypical by how they were written as passing comments. There weren't moments where Virginia Woolf wrote "____ has blonde hair and blue eyes," but rather, she allowed us to build our perceptions of characters through the actual experiences and opinions of the characters in the book.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that we never get a first-person narration from any of these characters, but I would argue that Woolf's use of third-person free-indirect discourse creates an analogous effect--large portions of this novel *read like* first-person narration, even if the characters are somehow "unaware" they are narrating. (In some ways, this might make them seem MORE "reliable" as narrators, as they have no incentive to shade their story one way or the other, aside from the usual subconscious ways we delude ourselves all the time.) So we DO get something of Sally's perspective at the party--like when we get HER version of "old Miss Parry" (whom Clarissa remembers as "Aunt Helena"), the stodgy old Victorian woman whom Peter believes is dead but who ALSO is present at the party, who chews her out for "running along the passage naked," an event that Clarissa also remembers (176). When she and Peter sit down to talk near the end (182-84), we are as deep into her consciousness as any other character's. I would love to hear HER version of Clarissa's memory of the "most exquisite moment of her life" when they kissed in the garden, though--she corroborates other events that Clarissa and Peter both remember, but this is *the secret they share*. Peter knows nothing of the kiss. It's hard not to wonder how Sally remembers it, but it never crosses her mind at the party. Clarissa, however, notes that she feels none of the same excitement knowing that this middle-aged "Lady Rosseter" is in her house.
ReplyDeleteI really like your point about how much we know of the characters compared to how little we know them for. This really captures Woolf's approach to writing, how we get into their minds and memories more than their actions, like you've said. It was interesting how you connect Clarissa's memory of Sally so closely with her memories of 'Clarissa Parry', the other, younger version of Clarissa. You highlight well how strongly one influenced the other. The relationship between the two of them demonstrates Woolf's approach to writing very well.
ReplyDeleteI think its very interesting how you mention that perhaps Clarissa would think less of her time at Bourton if she had not known Sally. It really goes to show how important people are when we're thinking about times in our lives, and how people are the defining characteristics of our experiences over anything else.
ReplyDeleteYour point about Clarissa’s life possibly lacking excitement is especially compelling. It makes me wonder if her constant reflection on Sally and that kiss is a way of holding on to a sense of passion and adventure she feels she’s lost in her current life. In a way, Sally’s reappearance at the party is not just a reunion but a chance for Clarissa to reconnect with that part of herself, even if briefly.
ReplyDeleteI like how you repeatedly emphasized the one-day scope of the novel. Taking a step back and realizing that all the complex events and interactions take place within such a short timeframe creates a more comprehensive understanding of the novel's framework. It allows readers to fully appreciate how essential character's memories are for contextualizing characters, especially characters like Sally Seton who are central to the plot but not physically present until the very end of the story.
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