Marxism in Mrs. Dalloway

br AN ANALYSIS OF VIRGINIA WOOLF 'S MRS . DALLOWAY

FROM A MARXIST PERSPECTIVE During the time in which she wrote Mrs Dalloway on June 19 , 1923 , Virginia Woolf made a diary entry which expressed a key thought she intended to incorporate in the novel '94In this book , I have almost too many ideas . I want to give life and death sanity and insanity . I want to criticise the social system , and show it at work , at its most intense '94 While some critics have insisted that Virginia Woolf did not care about

social values , her husband later said that she was profoundly interested in the social issues of the world around her . This is borne out in Mrs . Dalloway which does not turn away from the social and political issues of her time . Her characters turn to politics , questioning the status quo and the social in which they lived . Woolf largely addressed these issues indirectly , showing her views in her works without the authorial interpretation that might be found in a traditional novel she leaves final judgement to her readers

Mrs Dalloway came at a time when many social critics in England questioned the prevailing ideology . Prior to the war , England had stood at the head of a great empire , upon which the sun never set . When the war ended , England counted herself among the victorious powers , but the horrific losses of the war had destroyed the imperial confidence . In the wake of the war , many people sought to break out of the old thinking to find some new way of understanding the world

In the opening sentence of the novel , Clarissa Dalloway proclaims her independence : '93Mrs . Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself '94 (Woolf 3 ) She will do this because Lucy has so much work to do . First of all , '93 Mrs . Dalloway '94 and '93Lucy '94 Her maid has no last name , and her own name appends her to her husband Further , while she feels she is taking on a part of the work that more properly is Lucy '92s , her '93work '94 is only a matter of buying flowers . Woolf injects similar irony throughout the novel , following on the idea suggested in this very An Analysis of Virginia Woolf 's Mrs Dalloway from a Marxist Perspective Page first sentence , theme of social commentary . In Mrs . Dalloway , Woolf shows the abiding superficiality of the social of which Clarissa Dalloway is a member

Early in this section , Clarissa Dalloway thinks of Miss Kilman , a Communist whom she regards as callous , because she brought out guilt feelings in Clarissa

An Analysis of Virginia Woolf 's Mrs . Dalloway from a Marxist Perspective Page Miss Kilman would do anything for the Russians , starved herself for the Austrians , but in private inflicted positive torture , so insensitive was she , dressed in a green mackintosh coat . Year in and year out she wore that cost she perspired she was never in the room five minutes without making you...