Polarity And Parallelism In Mrs Dalloway

It is well acknowledged that Mrs Dalloway is one of Virginia Woolf's most remarkable, and at the same time, most remarked novels. Most of the criticisms are done, according to my incomprehensive survey, from the rhetorical, socio-psychological and feminist perspectives, with rhetorical criticism analyzing images, metaphors, archetypes, and the unique way of narration in the novel, socio-psychological criticism focusing on how historical forces and societal institutions influence the behavior and conception of the characters, and feminist criticism regarding Clarissa as a victim to the male-dominated society, or a restrained lesbian.It is equally acknowledged that Mrs Dalloway is a miscellaneous, ambiguous, and chaotic description composed of memories, moods, and sensations mingled helter-skelter, so that the process of reading Mrs Dalloway has been one of fragmentation and dislocation. But the fragments of which the novel is composed would not seem related or significant without a sort of connection. This thesis tries to make out the connection in the form of polarity and parallelism that underlie the surface of fragments. It is maintained that to a remarkable extent the polarity and parallelism dominate and organize the novel, that the interweaving of polarity and parallelism has formed a web pattern at the deep level of Mrs Dalloway to link the fragments, to make order out of disorder, and that the pattern is most carefully organized to present meaning which Woolf has intended to convey in the novel.This thesis falls into five parts. The Introduction sketches the interpretive history of Mrs Dalloway and puts forward the argument of the thesis. Chapter One delves into the heroine's paradoxical nature, her inward and outward conflicts, as well as the concord she ultimatelyobtains after retrospection on the meaning of life stimulated by Septimus' suicide. Chapter Two exhibits two opposing ways of life, represented respectively by Clarissa and Septimus; and the similarities and empathy between the two wholly different characters. Chapter Three discusses the conflicts between upper and lower classes and the complex societal existence of Clarissa. The Conclusion summarizes aspects of polarity and parallelism in Mrs Dalloway, and points out the significance of this research.