Mental Health - Mrs. Dalloway V

"So, thought Septimus, looking up, they are signaling to me. Not indeed in actual words; that is, he could not read the language yet; but it was plain enough, this beauty, this exquisite beauty, and tears filled his eyes as he looked at the smoke words languishing and melting in the sky" (Woolf 21-22).


Woolf uses Septimus's character in order to give depth to society's perceived notion of madness. Septimus is always trying to communicate with things, but he never figures out how to communicate with the people he should really be communicating with. By portraying the emotions of a madman, Woolf is opening up a door to understanding and sympathy toward those dealing with metal illnesses. As the early nineteenth century was the dawn of how mental illness is treated today, Woolf's attention to current issues is obvious.


"Overview of Mental Health in New York and the Nation." New York State Archives. Web. 05 June 2012. <http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_health_mh_timeline.shtml>.
Woolf, Virginia, and Francine Prose. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, 2003. Print.

Priorities - Mrs. Dalloway VI

"She had pawned her grandmother's ring which Marie Antoinette had given her great-grandfather to come to Bourton" (Woolf 188).


In this quote, Woolf alludes to the infamous French queen Marie Antoinette. She is known for being an unaware leader, and for the misattributed quote "let them eat cake." In this quote, Woolf shows that she has a good knowledge of history, as the queen truly did want to help her subjects. 
In this quote, Woolf also explores the strength of the ties formed from memories. Although the ring was extremely valuable, Sally felt it more important to visit a place than to hold onto that piece of family history.


"Marie Antoinette | Queen of France." Lucidcafé. Web. 05 June 2012. <http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95nov/antoinette.html>.
Woolf, Virginia, and Francine Prose. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, 2003. Print.

Consolation - Mrs. Dalloway VII

"Fear no more the heat o' the sun/Nor the furious winter's rages" (Woolf 9).


The piece of poetry that Virginia Woolf uses in her novel is alluding to the poem found in Shakespeare's Cymbeline. The poem is a type of funeral song, trying to find consolation after the death of a loved one. Clarissa reads the poem after thinking some tumultuous thoughts about how much life matters, and the poem almost seems to be there to console her.

Shakespeare, William. "Fear No More the Heat O' the Sun." Cymbeline. The Poetry Foundation. Web. 05 June 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176855>. 

Woolf, Virginia, and Francine Prose. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, 2003. Print.

The Time of Memories - Mrs. Dalloway VIII

"What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had aways seemed to her, when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air" (Woolf 3).


In her book, Virginia Woolf plays with time in a way most books do not. In this quote, she is describing just how easily a memory can pop up and transport a person back in time. All it took for Clarissa to feel as if she was back at Bourton was the sound of a hinge squeaking, and that sound sends her into thinking back on, and questioning, the choices she made in her past.


Woolf, Virginia, and Francine Prose. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, 2003. Print.

Distraction - Mrs. Dalloway IX

“But what letters? A C was it? an E, then an L? Only for a moment did they lie still; then they moved and melted and were rubbed out up in the sky, and the aeroplane shot further away and again, in a fresh space of sky, began writing a K, an E, a Y perhaps?” (Woolf 20).

Virginia Woolf uses the symbol of the aeroplane to represent how short human attention spans can be; the people are all extremely interested in the car, and who is inside of the car, until they spot a shiny aeroplane. Then, the car is completely forgotten.

Woolf also uses the letters the plane is writing to symbolize the unclarity often found when analyzing symbols. After the letters are seen, the people all sit about trying to decipher the meaning of the letters; eventually, a few people agree that one of the words was “toffee,” but other than that, the letters stay muddled. 


Woolf, Virginia, and Francine Prose. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, 2003. Print.

Objective Information - Mrs. Dalloway X

"A charming woman, Scrope Purvis thought her (knowing her as one does know people who live next door to one in Westminster); a touch of the bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, light, vivacious, though she was over fifty, and grown very white since her illness" (Woolf 4).

In this quote, Virginia Woolf jumps from the thoughts of Clarissa Dalloway, and into the mind of one of her neighbors; Woolf does this in order to give the readers some information about Clarissa: she is thought well of by those who know of her; she is rather wealthy, as she lives in Westminster; she is a bit bird-like, which Clarissa comments about herself later on in her narrative; and Clarissa is over fifty, and has dealt with some sort of illness. Although Woolf could have let the readers know all this information through Clarissa's thoughts, by using a bystander the information becomes more objective.

Woolf, Virginia, and Francine Prose. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, 2003. Print.

Mattie's Grit - True Grit I

"I got up, my feet freezing, and arranged Papa's blankets and slicker over me as makeshift covers. Then I slept alright" (Portis 30).

Although Mattie is the one searching for a man with "true grit," it seems as if Portis has made her the character who truly has grit. Part of what makes her character so attractive is her lack of complaints toward things a girl would normally complain about, her resilience and unembellished mannerisms. If Portis had not giver her these qualities, the story whose have much less affect.

Portis, Charles, and Donna Tartt. True Grit. New York, NY: Overlook, 2010. Print.

Golden Memories - True Grit II

"I thought to ask him about the other gold piece, then checked myself, afraid he might force me to give over the one I had recovered" (Portis 198).

Mattie puts a large emphasis on the gold pieces and their meaning to her; she is ecstatic when they recover the first piece, and is constantly thinking about finding the second. It seems as if Portis uses them as a symbol of a piece of her father that Mattie needs to win back from Chaney; they are also symbolic in that they help lead her to avenge her father's death.

Portis, Charles, and Donna Tartt. True Grit. New York, NY: Overlook, 2010. Print.

Murderous Quantrill - True Grit III

"'I was told in Fort Smith that you rode with Quantrill and that border gang. . .I heard they murdered women and children'" (Portis 158).

The Civil War was a time of division in the Nation. When Portis references Captain Quantrill, he is referencing a man who was "notorious for being one of the most vicious butchers in the Civil War" (Sanders). Portis does this for many reasons, one of which may be to add some historical relevance to his fictional novel. Another reason could be to display Rooster in a different light, as he does not come across as a considerably dangerous or evil person; but when meeting one of Quantrill's men, most people would expect a scary man. Portis is making a statement about what war can do to a person, and how they can recover from that change.

Portis, Charles, and Donna Tartt. True Grit. New York, NY: Overlook, 2010. Print.

Sanders, Stuart W. "America's Civil War: Guerrilla Leader William Clarke Quantrill's Last Raid in Kentucky." Editorial. America's Civil War Mar. 1999. History Net: Where History Comes Alive - World & US History Online. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. .

Drinking Silly - True Grit IV

"He drank even as he rode, which looked difficult. I cannot say it slowed him down any but it did make him look silly. Why do people wish to be silly?" (Portis 171).

Throughout the entire novel, Mattie seems to comprehend things in a very level-headed way; she approaches most things quite logically and does not tend to make a big deal out of issues like danger or race. But when it comes to drink, Portis has Mattie express an absolute disgust and incomprehension as to why people do it, especially since her father was shot in a drunken disagreement. Portis may be using Mattie's story and how drink affects it by always leading to mischief to portray his own feelings about the substance.

Portis, Charles, and Donna Tartt. True Grit. New York, NY: Overlook, 2010. Print.