close reading of a book called

The attic room scene in Mrs . Dalloway symbolizes the dynamics and death of Clarissa as an artist , of her mind and memory as suppressed embodiments of Beauty and Fertility . It also shows her fragmented self and psyche (which she attempts to unify ) and the collapse of categories such as space and time . For one , the elements in the room (example green linoleum and tap dripping ) are metaphors of the moment that is , the physical and the present . These elements Clarissa is able to perceive through her senses . That such minute details do not

escape her prove the pleasure she takes in physical , sensual existence (Littleton , 2

On the one hand , her recollections of Constantinople , the woods at Clieveden ' and her love (liness ) in girlhood ' embody the past . They are snatches of her memory , the intangible , which she is able to access through her mind

Together , these devices , the past and the present , the tangible and the intangible , the moment ' and memory , juxtapose to reveal the workings of Clarissa 's consciousness (which undeniably and inevitably pins her down as a middle-class and middle-aged woman . Like a nun withdrawing or a child exploring a tower (Woolf , 45 , Clarissa moves psychologically inward to examine and somewhat establish or re-establish her sense of self . Indeed , the entire passage is of , by and for Clarissa

In this light , the broken and irregular sentence patterns functions as verbal and accessible manifestations of Clarissa 's psyche . The free movement of images reveals liberty of thought and association . This however , is also treacherous . In exposing Clarissa 's inner self , Woolf divulges her flaws . It appears that her sane fazade belies a confused persona underneath

Consequently , words and images in the passage bear multiple layers of meaning . For example , the use of the attic room as symbolic device is reminiscent of Woolf 's essay , In Search of a Room of One 's Own ' in which she delineates a private female room , a room of her own , let alone a quiet room or sound proof room (657 ) conducive to women 's artistic production . This room , under ideal circumstances , is the site of the female creative fertility . In the attic room passage , however the attic room functions as a foil to the room of one 's own ' The former reeks of Clarissa 's thwarted passion . The bed , for instance narrower and narrower (Woolf , 31 ) has ceased to be the marriage bed symbolizing fertility (but ) her fertile mind as shrinking into her coffin and burial shroud (Littleton , 2 . That the sheets are clean , tights stretched in a broad white band from side to side supplements this illustration

Clarissa 's virginity preserved through childbirth (Woolf , 45 ) is another seemingly discordant image . It works , however , as an emblem of Clarissa artistic chastity (that is uncultivated potential ) and insulated , sane , and almost cold disposition left intact by a male-imposed role

Images of the nun withdrawing ' and child exploring a tower (Woolf , 45 ) also appear contradictory . The former carries a sense of deliberate isolation . The latter...