A Study On The Gaze And The Counter-gaze In Mrs Dalloway

Mrs Dalloway (1925) is the masterpiece of Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), one of the most prominent modernist writers in the20th century. It reflects the living condition of common British subjects under the totalitarian domination of the state after WWI, as well as their resistance to all kinds of dominant forces. Although the domination-resistance power relation in the novel has become an important topic recently, there is no systematic study on how Woolf presents the operation of this power relation through visuality in the novel. This thesis is aimed at analyzing the power relation behind various gazes and counter-gazes among the characters.In Mrs Dalloway, Woolf presents various gazes cast down from the governing class on common British people. In the first place, characters like Lady Bruton, Hugh Whitbread and Sir William Bradshaw, the representatives of the governing class, are complicit in watching British people. They attempt to convert all British people into obedient subjects of the British Empire through the gaze of imperialism, Victorian social conventions and medical authority so as to maintain their political power. In the second place, economically and politically privileged "perfect gentlemen" such as Richard Dalloway and Hugh Whitbread try to impose male desire and oppression on women via patriarchal gaze. Besides, the self-righteous Christian Miss Kilman threatens the spiritual freedom of Clarissa and Elizabeth by trying to dominate them through her formidable religious gaze.However, characters like Peter, Septimus, Sally and Clarissa are not willing to yield to the dominant power of the gaze from the governing class; instead, they gaze back at the governing class, resisting to be fully controlled by their gaze. Through counter-gaze, Peter and Septimus discover the sham glory of imperialism and see through the brutality of the imperial war. Peter and Sally’s daring counter-gaze at the hypocritic and pretentious bearers of the Victorian social conventions discloses the meaninglessness and vanity of those conventions. Septimus’counter-gaze at the medical authority defeats the conspiracy of Dr Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw who attempt to place him under the medical gaze and force him to conform. The counter-gaze of Clarissa and other female characters at patriarchy in the novel is not only a resistance to the patriarchal social orders but also an expression of longing for independent female status in the future. Last, Clarissa counter-gazes at Miss Kilman, disclosing the tyrannical and controlling nature of Miss Kilman’s religious gaze, defeats her conspiracy to possess and control Elizabeth spiritually.The gaze and the counter-gaze influence the identity formation of people, forcing them to choose between "others direction" and their own "inner direction"; to choose between submission and resistance to various dominant gazes. In Mrs Dalloway, Clarissa, Peter and Septimus can not fully extricate themselves from being influenced by various gazes of the totalitarianism of the Empire, which results in their alienation of different levels. Nevertheless, their counter-gaze driven by their inner desire for free being saves them from being totally dominated and possessed by the gaze of the governing class.As a social critic, Virginia Woolf expresses in Mrs Dalloway her criticism of the totalitarianism of the Empire after WWI, and her bitter antipathy towards domination in any form. Her depiction of the counter-gaze of the protagonists suggests that the state constitution can never succeed in fully dominating people’s mentality; moreover, the counter-gaze of common people continuously challenges the supreme power of the state constitution.