Virginia Woolf’s classic example of modernist fiction, Mrs. Dalloway, is a unique literary experiment for a number of reasons. Chief among them is the fact that this novel only covers one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she plans a party. The unique part of this timeline is not that the story only covers one single day, but that Woolf’s timeline is not as chronological as the description would seem to entail....
Virginia Woolf’s classic example of modernist fiction, Mrs. Dalloway, is a unique literary experiment for a number of reasons. Chief among them is the fact that this novel only covers one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway as she plans a party. The unique part of this timeline is not that the story only covers one single day, but that Woolf’s timeline is not as chronological as the description would seem to entail. Indeed, Woolf incorporates flashbacks from both Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus, and this disorients readers while deviating from a strictly chronological detailing of this single day. In one key scene, Clarissa reflects on a lesbian experience:
“Then came the most exquisite moment of her whole life passing a stone urn with flowers in it. Sally stopped; picked a flower; kissed her on the lips. The whole world might have turned upside down! The others disappeared; there she was alone with Sally” (35).
Thus, Woolf’s prose does have some relation with a chronological timeline, but her defamiliarizing techniques render the story more disorienting than a strictly chronological story.
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