Every Story has an Ending

Every story has an ending. As I have finished reading both Emma, by Jane Austen, and Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf this past week, I cannot help but compare the two different moods at the end of each novel. Since the stories themselves were written at very different times from two very different authors it would only make sense for them to end, well, differently. The differences are not just in the content of the ending but in the mood as well.

Emma ends in a very traditional manner, a whole bunch of weddings. This has been a common end for most comedies, such as Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing and his other comedies, as it is a general 'happy ending'. This ending makes sense as marriage was a large goal of life back in this time period and the novel's main characters are all unwed. The weddings would tie up all of these story lines about finding suitable companions quite nicely. I do not believe there is a single major character left unmarried by the end, signaling an end to the single phase of their lives. Since marriage is such a life changing event it also makes sense that a story should end at that point as the situations that follow marriage are worthy of a story unto themselves.

Mrs. Dalloway ends a much different note. Clarissa learns of Septimus's suicide causing her to retire for a bit and contemplate and recuperate. In many ways Septimus and Clarissa were similar so the suicide serves as a message of what could have happened with Clarissa. On the whole the attitude of the end of the book seems much more dark than that of Emma. The feeling of a suicide is much heavier and darker than that of a wedding. There is also the sense of unrealized fantasies at the end of Mrs. Dalloway. The feeling stems from the appearance of Sally after all the years and the stark difference between the real life and the image Clarissa has been holding in her head since her youth. It is not to say that the end is all negative, only that it mostly is so. During her contemplation Clarissa comes to terms with her own life and the fact that she is aging and death is not so far away.

After reading both novels, I would say I preferred Emma as a story more, though Mrs. Dalloway's message was a lot stronger. Both conveyed a sense of how class and gender were important factors back in their respective time periods. I feel that the contrast in Mrs. Dalloway was more pronounce and had greater impact on the story. It is also a more critical view point than that offered in Emma. I did enjoy the comedic twists and turns in Emma and felt that the story overall was easier to follow. The seemingly random and fast shifts of view point along with no overlying organizational structure like chapters made reading Mrs. Dalloway very difficult to follow especially in the piecemeal fashion done for the class.

Breaking of Tradition

The British Empire was a powerhouse in the 19^th century. From expansive colonizing to a superior military, Britain seemed invincible. The citizens all believed in their Empire too. Clarissa, the protagonist from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, would have been born in the 1880’s and experienced the sense of tradition and social order that the British Empire imposed. Clarissa, being in her 50’s during the time of the novel, represents this sense of English order and tradition. She conforms to the society and seems to accept her class well now that she has married into it. This sense of tradition and imperial authority experiences a change at the turn of the century. In the early twentieth century Britain entered World War I. No longer was Britain the top dog either. Other countries now rivaled Britain’s military with technological innovations of their own. Mrs. Dalloway illustrates this shift from tradition happening by the influences of the war and technology during the early twentieth century.

Septimus served for Britain in World War I and has returned home a changed person. Today his condition might be diagnosed as PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Perhaps Septimus embodies England’s own shock at their massive losses in World War I. The civilians that used to support the British Imperialism and rigid social structure where only a small portion benefit are now having second thoughts as to their countries dominance. Septimus’ panic attack at the sight of an airplane flying overhead shows his fear of these new technologies. Septimus witnessed what this new weaponry is capable of. Everyone else around Septimus is trying to spell out the word the airplane is writing in the sky but Septimus does not respond the same. It is as if the rest of the civilians are oblivious to the negatives of such rapid technological advancements in the early 20^th century.

With Mrs. Dalloway being set in 1923, Virginia Woolf has picked a time where she can go in the minds of the citizens of London and show how they feel about these new realizations about London’s dominance and social order. Miss Kilman is a character representing the tradition and oppression imposed by Britain. She seems to always impose her religious ideas on Clarissa, sometimes rather rudely. Clarissa’s response is to be polite and throw parties instead. She is making the best of her position in life. Clarissa seems to be more on the conservative side too, standing behind London by accepting the patriarchal society. At one point Clarissa is thinking to herself about social order and how she lives her life in a room and there is a lady on the other side of the street in a room living her life. She is fascinated at how people are living. Septimus represents the radicalism against the current British system. He does not give in to Sir William Bradshaw’s oppressive so-called treatment for Septimus’ panic attack. Sir William wants to convert other people’s beliefs for dominance and control over them, much like the Imperialism of Britain in the 19^th century. Septimus’ decision in death over life shows the failure of the British system. People seemed to only wake up to this fact as a result of the destruction brought about by World War I.

Clarissa as a Representative of the Past

In the past two hundred years, the world has undergone a variety of social and technological transformations. The books Emma by Jane Austen and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf present us with contrasting societies with around one hundred years of separation between them. The latter of these two novels is based in the early 20^th century, which was an especially important time in terms of social transformation. The development of youth culture and the emerging open-mindedness of this era are pictured well through certain characters in Mrs. Dalloway. Interestingly enough, Clarissa herself is quite the old-fashioned type for her time period. She adheres to certain conventions that Emma herself would have found normal and acceptable. It is in these circumstances that we are able to witness the conflict between the old, represented by Clarissa, and the new.

An especially important example can be made with Clarissa in contrast to her daughter Elizabeth. During her walk through the city at the start of the book, Clarissa has a purpose. She is out in the city to buy flowers for her party and thereby fulfill her duty as a wife and hostess. On the other hand, Elizabeth’s walk is not quite so purposeful. At first, she is with Mrs. Kilman and set to go shopping. But after this event has passed, Elizabeth rides an omnibus on a whim. “But which [omnibus] should she get on to? She had no preferences…Suddenly Elizabeth stepped forward and most competently boarded the omnibus” (pg.132). Also symbolic, is the path that Elizabeth travels aboard this omnibus. She heads towards downtown London and away from Westminster. Here we can see that Woolf makes a point in separating Elizabeth from the old that her mother represents. Instead, Elizabeth is of a new generation; a generation, which will begin to embrace capitalism and equal rights.

Other examples of members of this new generation are manifested in incidents that occur at Clarissa’s party. Using Clarissa as a representation of the old era, Woolf contrasts Clarissa’s standards with the standards of typical people of the early 20^th century. One example during the party is where Clarissa warns Professor Brierly and Jim Hutton who were simply debating Milton. “’But the noise!’ she said. ‘The noise!’ ‘The sign of a successful party.’ Nodding urbanely, the Professor stepped delicately off’” (pg.173). This line is a pristine example of the contrast between those of the current early 20^th century and the old-fashioned Clarissa Dalloway. What Clarissa finds as unacceptable for a party, Professor Brierly dismisses. Also made apparent is another old custom rooted in insincerity. Peter Walsh points this out during the party when he is thinking, “’How delightful to see you!’ said Clarissa. She said it to every one. How delightful to see you! She was at her worst—effusive, insincere” (pg.164). In the older days, it was proper courtesy to say such a thing to everyone present regardless of your personal opinion. In the days of Mrs. Dalloway however, it was more widely acceptable to be honest and sincere under those circumstances. Clarissa Dalloway plays an extremely important role in bringing across Woolf’s message to the world; a message that times are changing and so are conventions of every kind.

Changing Gender Roles Between Emma and Mrs. Dalloway

The way in which Jane Austen’s Emma and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf display genders allows us to examine the ways in which gender roles changed between the early 1800s and early 1900s. In this century great progress was made towards the equality of the sexes and independence of women. Woolf explicitly intended to contrast her book with the traditional views of the roles of women. In doing so, she presents to us many instances, which may be taken and used in order to increase our understanding of the subject. These instances are even more valuable upon being contrasted with the earlier representations we see in Emma.

In Emma we can observe the restrictions placed on women and the expectations society pressed onto the sex in the early 1800s. First and foremost, women are not to marry downward. In order to keep the family name among the higher ranks, women must marry within or above their class. We see this in Emma when Mr. Elton proposes to Emma in the carriage. She proceeds to point out his lower (though probably acceptable) status. Her resistance to the idea of marriage to a man even a step below her in status gives us an idea of the stress placed on women to uphold the family name. As a result, we may also note that marriages are not always made according to affection. Oftentimes, these marriages occur between people who do not even have any attraction towards each other. In these years, marriage was seen as a duty. In another section of the novel, we observe another restriction placed on women in this time period. Women are not to walk alone or in general be alone. We typically see Emma accompanied for her walks. In one particular scene, she is unaccompanied, which leads to suspicion. The reasoning behind this is that the families did not want women to become pregnant with an illegitimate child. These children were outside of the family and most likely of a lower man’s blood. In this era, we are presented with a view of women that is restricted and very much pressured by class standing.

Mrs. Dalloway on the other hand presents us with a contrasting view in lieu of Emma. At the very beginning of the novel, we accompany Clarissa on a walk to pick up some flowers in London for a party she’s throwing. Her errand seems a simple task. Yet, this task is something unspeakable for women in the era of Emma. The ability for women to walk out in public by themselves is in a large part due to the growth of the culture of shopping. Shops became an acceptable place for women to go by themselves. Also purposefully contrasted with the old era are the limits of proper public discussion. Peter observes this when he is aghast upon seeing “water closets” mentioned in the newspaper. He also notices boys and girls flirting in public and finds it appalling. Peter claims that years earlier nothing like this would have happened. Here Woolf is hinting at the change that has begun. Publicly acceptable behavior for the genders has gradually loosened from the times of Emma, and it continues to loosen to this day.

Gender and Death

One of the most fascinating characters in Mrs. Dalloway seems to be Peter Walsch. His ambivalence and ability to not make a decision makes him such a relatable character to the audience. At the same time Peter represents the male gender well with the way his personality seems to be masked by a hard shell that cannot let people in. Peter represents the male gender while Mrs. Dalloway represents the female gender. Virginia Woolf shows cultural differences between these two characters in Mrs. Dalloway. What is expected by society of the two characters, their interests, and mental thoughts differ greatly. As much as these two characters differ though, they are similar in their thoughts of death.

Men during the 1920’s are fascinated in innovation. Airplanes are flying overhead like never before and buildings are going up taller and thinner. They are the master of their industry. This male fascination with machinery can be seen when Peter is going on his walk of London. He stops to regard the monuments left after warfare and also notices the new technological developments around London from when he was last there. Probably more important to Peter than any of these previous sights is the sight of a woman who he is obviously attracted to as he is on his walk. His drive and interest in this woman causes him to follow this woman for a good mile or two in downtown London.

Clarissa goes on a walk similar to Peter’s. They occur at separate times but go through about the same area. It is interesting to note what Clarissa notices during her walk compared to the masculine representations Peter sees during his walk. Clarissa instead sees flowers. She sees beautiful sights and focuses in on the shops and boutiques she passes by. Clarissa’s representation of the female gender does it justice. The women of her class during this time would be concerned with the outer appearance of things just as Clarissa is.

While these two characters represent two opposite genders, they are similar in the way they both think about death. Peter carries his pocketknife around as if it is a weapon and he is defenseless without it. When Woolf goes inside Peter’s thoughts we see he is almost always going back to the idea of death. The female he follows during his walk seems to be a brief distraction from the thoughts of impending death. Clarissa has her weapon too when Peter comes to visit but hers is a sewing needle, thus supporting Clarissa’s representation of the female gender. And when Woolf leaves the mind of Peter for Clarissa, we see that Clarissa has experienced a good deal of death in her family already yet she is no more comfortable with the idea than when we see Peter’s thoughts. Woolf has made a very interesting point with her gender representations using these characters. People during the time must have had these impending thoughts of death probably due to the poor working conditions at the turn of the century. It seems that distraction to the idea of death is the only way to live life with some sort of peace.

Space, Time, War

In the last section of his book, The Culture of Time & Space 1880-1918, Kern talks of war. Not just any war, but the Great War. It was called the Great War, because it was thought to have been the war to end all wars. The technology jump into this war was gigantic and changed how we looked at war since. Kern specifically goes into how war’s sense of time and space was altered.

Time was affected by a few main technologies, the advent of standard time, the rapidity of communication, and the displacement of leadership from the battlefield. Standard time allowed coordinated attacks to occur, and increased coordination in troop deployment. Thanks to trains and the associated technologies, troops could be rapidly deployed to the front lines. Rapid communication also helped the coordination along long battle fronts. Fortunately or unfortunately this allowed the high ranking officials to make plans far away from the front lines. This distanced them from the horrors of war and perhaps led to orders that were not optimal. Since main command was further away there was also an increase in smaller units who had to make decisions for themselves in real time. This was especially important when the line was breached or heavy fire was raining down.

While the changes in time were great, the changes in space were arguably even greater. Weapons had improved dramatically since the Napoleon era. Guns were not limited to a couple hundred yards, but rather a couple thousand. This lead to wide zones between the trenches called “No Man’s Land,” where there was not a living soul. Artillery could now fire beyond their sight. The artillery men felt detached from combat as they neither knew those they who they were firing upon nor those who were firing upon them. Airplanes also changed the landscaped of war, as neither trenches nor walls nor any sort of barrier could stop their attack. The range of attack of these bombings blurred the lines of home and front, soldier and citizen. When war could reach home, the effects of war seemed that more personal.

War has continued to change since then. It was thought that there would be no more wars after that one considering how much more devastating they had become. Obviously this is not the case as it was merely World War I, with at least another to follow. Now we can have combatants fighting from half-way around the world thanks to combat drone technology. Warfare has progressed beyond just the physical and has moved on to the digital, information, and economic. War has become less about broad motions and more about precise tactical use of force. Hopefully this change in tactics will lead to less civilian involvement.

It is both exciting and terrifying to try and imagine the war of the future. Will it be fought with killer androids, or deadly diseases? Just how quickly could the world end in a nuclear holocaust? These are questions that I hope I will never know the answers to.

Space and Privacy

As one reads further and further into Mrs. Dalloway, the technological references seem to be growing. The book has an airplane fly over the head of Mrs. Dalloway. The city architecture has become more efficient than ever. But along with these physical accomplishments that are occurring at the time of Mrs. Dalloway, there are also the accomplishments in the field of science, specifically psychological counseling. All these changes in technology in Mrs. Dalloway seem to be changing the structure of society at the same time. Atleast with what we see in London when comparing the books Emma and Mrs. Dalloway, this shift in the culture changes the way people interact. This appears to finally lead to a change in what is considered privacy.

Privacy is the state of being free from intrusion, and we probably see the best example of this in Mrs. Dalloway with Septimus. Septimus served in the war and has come back a mental wreck. He is guided to see a new doctor of sorts by his current one that has not been able to help with Septimus’ problem. After seeing Sir William Bradshaw, Septimus is diagnosed as being on the verge of a mental breakdown that could happen any minute. He is sent to the country where he will rest and be isolated from the community. Septimus feels tortured by Sir Bradshaw but goes along with it just as his other patients have.

Conversely, the audience seems to see very little intrusion of privacy in Emma. The best example of the fact is that the audience never sees Emma in her bedroom. She lives in a very large house and only has but a few people living in it, with servants she never sees. People do not walk into other peoples bedrooms during this time. We do not see Emma’s bathroom. Anything near the lavatory would be out of the question. But these were just the customs of the times, or the norms.

As time passed and the audience switched back to Mrs. Dalloway, London has grown exponentially. Of course this was in part due to the technological advances of travel, buildings, and science. With the growth in London, the city has become denser in the process. This is the first time we get the sense that space is limited. In Emma, it is all rural living. She lives on the outskirts of London in the country. Space seems infinite. People communicate with each other in the most polite of ways and never probe too far into the sensitive personal lives of others. This differs greatly from Mrs. Dalloway, where the doctors that can’t get into the minds of their patients seemingly just send their patients into isolation. Just like the military forced their way on Septimus, the doctors seems to be doing the same thing. Their patients have to conform to the conventions the doctors think are correct, and if the patients can’t, then they are labeled as different. There is obviously minimal privacy during the time of Mrs. Dalloway, but this lack of privacy seems to be the result of a lack of space. When people are drawn into closer quarters with each other: hundreds of people living within a block, the difficulty to keep items private becomes most difficult.