A Study On Mrs.Dalloway From The Perspective Of Eco-feminism

Mrs. Dalloway (1925) is one of the masterpieces of the famous modernist writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). The novel is focused on the characters’life details and the ambivalent inner feelings over a single day in Post-First-World-War London. With the development of industrialization and urbanization, people’s spiritual life and material life have been changed a lot. Under the oppression of patriarchal society, the conflicts between males and females, nature and human are aggravated. Woolf sharply realizes the severe social problems and expresses in her works some pioneering thoughts in accordance with eco-feminism. Eco-feminism redefines the intimate relationship between females and nature and attempts to seek the inherent relationship of males’oppression upon nature and females. It also argues for the building of a brand-new and harmonious relationship among males, females and nature.The first chapter explores the co-destiny between nature and females, nature and feminized males in Mrs. Dalloway. In the novel, females and nature are closely connected and this demonstrates females and nature’s affinity and similar destiny. Under the ruling of patriarchal oppression and anthropocentrism, nature and females are put in a marginalized and lower position, and they are excluded from the main-stream culture and being enslaved or controlled severely in the hands of males. Besides, Woolf creates male characters with feminine traits and shows their miserable same fate with nature. Females and nature, as a co-destined community connected closely with each other, mutually endure and fight against patriarchal oppression of various sorts.The second chapter explores the root cause of females and nature’s oppression in Mrs. Dalloway. In the novel, the male chauvinism existing in patriarchal society stimulates men to fight to gain fame and wealth. This fosters males’aggression and dominance and strengthens their anthropocentricism. The ecstatic and blind worship for British Empire leads to the break out of the First World War, and consequently aggravates the miserable living condition for females and nature. The rigid Victorian social conventions limit females in private sphere and repress their individual intelligence, and females have to depend upon their husbands for existence. Furthermore, authoritative science and religion which are dominated by the thoughts of patriarchy and anthropocentricism exert oppression upon females and nature and this reveals the dominating nature of patriarchy.The third chapter studies the implied methods in Mrs. Dalloway to deconstruct patriarchal and anthropocentric oppression and to rebuild harmony. To break the binary oppositions, to build connection and to practice universal love are practical measures implied by Woolf in Mrs. Dalloway. Through the achievement of harmony between males and females, harmony between nature and civilization, harmony between reason and emotion, the subjectivity of nature and females is elevated. People of different social walks and genders are connected and their connection and communication challenge the authority of the ruling class. Only through the practice of mutual love and help between human and nature, males and females, can the harmony of the whole society be achieved.As a social critic, Woolf in Mrs. Dalloway profoundly shows her concerns for females and nature, and criticizes the oppressive domination of patriarchal society in the name of politics, culture, religion and science. She further shows good wishes for the achievement of harmony between human and nature, males and females. The groundbreaking thoughts of eco-feminism expressed by Woolf are of practical value and could still guide modern people to solve ecological crisis and females’oppression issue.