Horray for Hollywood!!!

We have two options for this blog assignment. We could compare our assigned novel Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis which is considered a campus novel with an academic film of our choosing or we could find three pictures that represent aspects of the novel. I wonder which option I’m going to choose?

Hmmmmm??

 

 

AHHHHH!!! The cinema! Prepare yourselves, folks! As wordy as I tend to have been in my last blogs, we are now on a subject that I adore. I could hold a week long seminar on films. HOLLYWOOD! The Magic Store! La-La Land! The Dream Factory! A long, long time ago…..in a galaxy far, far away….There lived a girl. This girl had a dream. Her dream was to take Hollywood by storm and become one of the most prolific character actresses that ever graced the silver screen. She would surpass Shelley Winters’ three Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress. She would make it onto AFI’s Top 100 list. This girl (who, for fun, built a database comparing AFI’s Top 100 Lists and the winners of the Academy Awards major awards to cross reference a trend of which films actually endured the test of time to be termed as “classics” versus the “trendy” tendencies of the Academy Awards during any specific year. True story!) dreamed of becoming immortalized on celluloid.

Meanwhile, back in reality, this girl is actually taking a literature class and this is only an assignment. Ok, I need to breathe for a moment and calm down. I have been informed that I have organization trouble with my blogs. So, I will try…really, really try to organize my ADD brain firing on 28 different levels so I can prepare a cohesive blog assignment. Oh look…a squirrel!  I will try to limit the length of my discussion to try to stay on topic (I sound like Dr. Bender here, don’t I?) and try not to pull in all of the juicy tidbits and asides about different actors, directors and films to keep this….well….academic. Wish me luck!

I want to address “academic film” first. My understanding of this assignment is that an academic film is one that is set in and the plot is forwarded by collegiate campus life. That’s a little difficult for me to swallow actually. You see, there are SO many great films that deal with academia. Most are on my all-time favorites list. Dead Poet’s Society (I always want to become a teacher after watching this one), To Sir, With Love (Sidney Poitier, I mean come on!), Rudy (one of the best sports films out there), Stand and Deliver, Freedom Writers, The Ron Clark Story and I could go on and on. All of these great films deal with the prejudices, traditions, stereotypes and learning process of academia. Why just limit it to the collegiate level? So, in a mild protest, the film I chose was not on our list. It is set in the collegiate life however. If you have never seen it, I encourage you to do so.

 

 

With Honors is a story about a Harvard graduate student Montgomery “Monty” Kessler.  Monty has arrived at Harvard through a different path than his three roommates. Monty comes from a single parent home of medium to low income. Monty is smart and works hard to “earn” his place at the esteemed university unlike his three roommates who, through the course of the film, we find out all come from privileged backgrounds. Monty’s entire life is consumed by completing his thesis in Government in the attempts to graduate Suma Cum Laude from Harvard University thus securing the rest of his life.

When his computer hard drive fails deleting his thesis, Monty travels to a copy center to make copies of his one and only manuscript. Monty slips on the snowy streets losing his thesis through a grate into the boiler room of the Harvard Library where a transient, Simon Wilder, happens to have discretely made his home.  Monty goes looking for his thesis and finds Simon stoking one of the boilers with the pages of his beloved thesis. Desperate, he makes a deal with Simon. Monty will get “things” for Simon and Simon will “pay” Monty with pages from own his thesis. Over the course of the academic year, Simon teaches Monty about love, life and the difference between the “have’s” and the “have not’s” opening up a whole new perspective for Monty to view the world.

This movie is campy and predictable. It was filmed, after all, in the early 1990’s. The acting is only adequate and there are no awe inspiring images from the cinematography. However, this movie is wonderful. It’s one of those movies that doesn’t require anything from you but to simply watch it. Brendan Fraiser (hubba hubba!) plays the straight man Monty to Joe Pesci’s Simon Wilder. This is an odd coupling that almost works.  I also love that Gore Vidal plays Monty’s arrogant, stuffy and demanding Faculty Advisor, Dr. Pitcannon. One of the best scenes in the movie is when Simon, the bum, matches wits with Vidal’s character during a class that Simon is sitting in on battling the experienced realistic self-learner with the pompous, aristocratic, pessimistic and heralded Government professor.

 

 

You know, once again, my ADD is my albatross. When I write one of these blogs, I usually don’t know how it will progress much less how they are going to end (I guess my disorganization reflects that). The fluidity of my writing is better when I just write I have found. For you see, it wasn’t until I sat and pondered the comparison of Lucky Jim to With Honors that I discovered how incredibly alike they are.  First and foremost is the idea of a paper that is the catalyst in which Jim Dixon and Monty Kessler hinge the success of their entire careers.  Jim needs to become a published scholar to influence his Department Chair, Professor Welch, to extend his contract. Monty must impress his Faculty Advisor, Dr. Pitcannon, with his intellectual and regurgitated graduate thesis turned in on time to receive honors for his degree. The entire length of both plots the characters have tunnel vision in achieving a goal in which both eventually find out that they don’t want. Jim detests teaching and his chosen subject. So why pursue it? He pursues it because it is expected of him. Monty tries so hard to be driven and focused to rise above his born social status eventually realizing that there is more to life than just the recognition of honors. They both become human by the end of their tales rather than being assimilated into the pomposity of academia. Another similarity is the prejudice of classes. For Lucky Jim, World War II allows for lower class students to enter prestigious universities. The staunch traditional views of the established faculty resent the “lowered standards” having to teach to the masses rather than the assumed elite. In With Honors, Simon Wilder is treated as subhuman because of his transient status not given credit for the mind he has and the love of knowledge that he hungers in him. He has to break through the stereotype to reveal the human being that he is just as Monty has had to break through the circumstances of his circumstances. It takes Monty a while to do that. A poignant phrase uttered by one of Monty’s roommates was said in jest with no malice; however, it is spot on! “Harvard doesn’t have any standards left! They’ll let in anyone who is bright!”. Satirically, this shows the mindset of old-fashioned views about academia. Finally, Jim Dixon sheds his shackle by giving his speech that Mr. Welch has baited him into giving. Granted, it was alcohol induced. However, he rages against everything that he has had to endure to try to keep a job that he loathes.  He refused to fall in line and points out the fallacies of the institution. It is not until he is true to himself that his “luck” ultimately changes. Jim is rid of Margaret. He is rid of the Welches and he, surprisingly, get the girl in Christine. For Monty, it is not until he decides to trash his beloved original thesis that spouted everything he assumed was expected by his advisor and write something that he believed in that he found release. Learning about Simon and from Simon showed Monty the world in all of its beauty and all of its despair. Monty learned about life and learned that it is a nobler thing to achieve honor within yourself than what is printed on your diploma. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Lucky Jim which for me to say is something. The writing was witty and the characters sublimely flawed. I have often felt like many of Jim’s faces; however, my traditional Southern upbringing has prevented me from displaying.  It was a very easy read for me and probably one of the very few times in my life that I literally couldn’t put a book down (or in this case my phone).

Art for Art’s Sake: Modern Art in Mrs. Dalloway

Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863) Édouard Manet

The Luncheon in the Grass by Edouard Manet is one of the best examples of modernist art.  The juxtaposition of the naked women with completely dressed men provokes questions about what Manet is saying about society. The two men appear unimpressed by the woman’s nudity as they enjoy their picnic. They are further oblivious to the other woman bathing in the background. The nude woman’s pose, twisting her body to confront the viewer with her gaze, is suggestive of an assertion of power.

This painting reflects aspects of Mrs. Dalloway in several ways. If we view Manet’s painting as an illustration of how society views women, we can infer that Manet believes that society keeps women in place through “stripping down” or limiting their freedom. Manet seems to be saying that women need only assert themselves to be recognized. These themes are similar to Woolf’s in Mrs. Dalloway, in her opinion women were treated like second- class citizens by society. In Mrs. Dalloway, the female characters find some way to express their freedom within the constraints of their gender roles; they forge joy in parties, motherhood (the extent to which it is convenient), shopping, romance and other superficial endeavors. Both Woolf and Manet seem to critiquing the idea of “feminine” and “masculine,” suggesting that a society that limits one sex manufactures their identity.

Time (Las Viejas) (1810 – 12) Francisco de Goya

In his painting, “Time” Francisco de Goya creates an image of the living dead. Goya depicts two old women dressed in pretty clothes – though they themselves are skeletal – and one winged man looks down at a book that reads “Que Tal?” – Spanish for “How are Things?” or “What’s up?” One woman is dressed in red and black with a veil, suggesting mourning. The other woman is dressed in white and wearing jewelry.  Father time appears to be approaching the women undetected only partially revealing his intent.

Goya is critiquing the vanity of trying to cover up or hide your age. The painter asks us to consider the point in denying the passage of time by placing him directly behind the two corpse-like women clearly oblivious to him. This painting reminds me of the vanity of the elderly women in Mrs. Dalloway, the importance placed on beauty during Victorian society. Woolf makes the passage of time integral to the understanding of her novel while Goya symbolizes the ridiculous nature of denying age.

The Visage of War (1940) Salvador Dali

 In his painting “The Visage of War” Salvador Dali comments on the nature of war. Dali created the painting amidst the Spanish Civil War and World War II. The painting shows the face of war similar to a skull. The eyes are filled with infinitely receding skulls. The background is brown and barren, with Dali’s handprint in the lower right corner.   

This painting serves as a reminder of the true cost of war. Dali makes the statement that death is endless because war repeats itself. The Visage of War can also be seen as a comment on the living face of war or the survivors. This image is reminiscent of Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway. As a veteran of World War I, Septimus carries with him memories of all the atrocities he has witnessed. Septimus is the face of war because he lives with the constant reminders of his past. 

Tenure and Lucky Jim: Satirizing a Professor’s Life

    

  Tenure and Lucky Jim: Satirizing a Professor’s Life

In this 2008 comic film, Luke Wilson stars as Charlie Thurber, an associate English professor at a Pennsylvania university struggling to compete for tenure in the English department. As the film opens, Charlie attends the tenure meeting for his friend and colleague Jay Hadley (played by David Koechner) in the anthropology department. Hadley is snubbed for tenure, the two get drunk and toilet paper the home of one of the members of the tenure committee who voted against Hadley. The next morning Charlie drives past the home and the audience is able to see the Professor is very elderly and in a wheelchair.

That evening Hadley and Thurber attend a campus party, where Hadley (a Sasquatch expert) consumes ecstasy and spends the night hunting for Sasquatch. Charlie dodges the advances of a flirtatious student, returning home to edit his article. The following evening, Charlie attends a faculty party at the Dean’s house, bringing with him a bottle of wine marked with a “discount price: $6.99” sticker on it; this snafu seems to be the precursor to an evening of bad luck. Thurber subsequently spills wine on the Dean’s antique table cloth after learning that the university hired a new professor from Yale, Elaine Grasso (played by Gretchen Mol) a talented young woman poised to be his rival for tenure. Adding to the satirically absurd tone of the film, Thurber sees Bigfoot on his way home.

As the film progresses, Thurber and Hadley orchestrate a series of pranks designed to embarrass Grasso and get her fired. Thurber’s articles are rejected by a series of journals and he worries his career is in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Grasso opens up Thurber asking him for help with classroom lectures. Thurber realizes Grasso is not a threat and the two become friendly. The film closes with Thurber’s tenure review where the Dean casts a tiebreaking vote, offering him tenure based on Thurber’s popularity with his students. However, one condition of the Dean’s offer is fewer courses in order for Thurber to focus on publishing more articles. Thurber decides to quit the university and teach high school so he can focus on his students.

   

The Comic Novel: Lucky Jim and Tenure

            There are several similar aspects of the movie Tenure and the structure of the comic novel Lucky Jim. While the actual plot may differ, many elements essential to the development of the comic novel exist in Tenure and thus parallel Lucky Jim.

The first element that Lucky Jim and Tenure have in common is Resolutions. According to Dr. Bender’s Slideshare, in a comic novel “the guy gets the girl and/or achieves object of desire – hero’s rise – social order restored in some way – hero’s epiphany – avoids catastrophe” (Bender, 8). This is exactly what happens in Tenure, at the end of the film Charlie Thurber achieves his goal of tenure and begins dating Elaine Grasso. In terms of resolution, Tenure and the comic novel are very similar.

Another aspect that Tenure and Lucky Jim have in common is satire. In both works, the institution of higher education is satirized. In Lucky Jim, the goals and presences of higher education are satirized – what is established and proper v. what is new and unknown. According to Dr. Bender’s Slideshare about the comic novel, “The world’s hypocrisies and deceptions are targets that must be attacked, comedy the literary weapon of choice” (Bender, 9). This is the purpose of both Lucky Jim and Tenure; to satirize pretentious academic life.

In addition to this, Tenure and Lucky Jim share an absurd, lighthearted tone. In Tenure, Charlie sees a Sasquatch, it is accepted as reality that there is a “squatch” in the woods. This type of absurd event serves to remind the viewer of the alternate reality being created by the satire. Again according to Dr. Bender, characteristics we may find in a comic novel are “critiques/criticisms of people, ideas, society, & culture” (Bender, 10). Tenure satirizes several elements of university life; the irony of the pressure to publish versus teaching well, the ridiculous nature of some academic pursuits, and university politics. In this way, Tenure and Lucky Jim are especially similar because they both satirize university politics and professor’s personalities.

 

Works Cited

Bender, Ashley. Comedy, Satire & the English Novel. N.p.: Slideshare, 11 July 2013. Slideshare.

When you first catch a glimpse at the title of the novel Lucky Jim written by Kingsley Amis one would assume that the story is about a man named Jim that is lucky. We begin to see how this assumption may not be so true, first Jim is basically stuck hanging out with Margaret a woman that Jim was not attracted to, second he had a job that he wanted to advance in but he was not showing initiative. One example of Jim’s bad luck is when he falls asleep smoking and burns holes in the Welch’s sheets. “Had he done all this himself? Surely this would mean the loss of his job, especially if he failed to go to Mrs. Welch and confess what he’s done, and he knew already that he wouldn’t be able to do that.” (Amis 61) Jim’s only solution was to hide the burn marks from the cigarettes was to make it seem as if moths had eaten through the sheets.
I chose this photo because in my opinion it shows a man who has no worries, or cares in the world but if you look at the details you will see that not everything is as it seems. The multicolored background leads one to believe that his life is not consistent, his world is in shambles. The flower that he is holding isn’t dead but it vibrant and beaming with life. One moment when Jim begins to feel that his life is turning around when Christine agrees to go out with him. “Dixon felt like a special agent, a picaroon, a Chicago war-lord, a hidalgo, an oil baron, a mohock. When she turned and faced him at the edge of the floor, he found it hard to believe that she was really going to let him touch her.” (Amis 115)

I chose this photo because modern day society could relate to the character Homer Simpson in comparison to that of Jim Dixon. As a young child and even now that I am older I notice that regardless of how Homer feels, or who he is in front of his facial expression and attitude portrays how he feels at the current moment. One episode Homer was so angry with his son Bart that he turned the color green as if he were The Hulk as shown in the bottom right corner. Homer has many moments of immaturity which almost directly relates to the story Lucky Jim.
Jim Dixon experiences many different emotions throughout the story and shows many different faces. At the start of the novel Jim and Margaret have a date later in the evening and he finds himself “becoming creased and flabby like an old bag with strain of making it smile and show interest and speak its few permitted words” (Amis 8). After a night of drinking Jim expresses his hangover and face as “heavy, as if little bags of sand had been painlessly sewn into various parts of it, dragging the features away from the bones, if he still had bones in his face.” Many people have a hard time hiding how they are feeling and Jim’s character is no different from any of us.

Margaret and Christine seem to be the two main women that in some sense caught Jim’s eye. Although she is described as “small, thin, and bespectacled with bright make up, (Amis 13)” Dixon did spend quite a bit of his time with Margaret partly because he felt bad about her suicide attempt, but he also felt “It was a pity she wasn’t a bit better looking” (Amis). Christine on the other had is described as “irresistible attack on his own habits, standards, and ambitions something designed to put him in his place for good” (Amis 36). Based on these few words one could attest to the desire that Dixon felt from first glance about Christine but towards the end of the novel he did have a bit of frustration towards her adolescent mindset marrying Bertrand.
I chose this photo because it could resemble the way that the reader incisions Christine and Margaret. I would suggest seeing Margaret as the woman in the green skirt and Christine being the woman in the gown. “Christine” in the gown portrays our character in the novel mainly because it looks as if this woman in fact does take better consideration to how she is viewed by society or her friends and family; whereas the woman on the right looks as if she kind of just threw something on. In reality both women as one point or another in the novel were receiving Jim’s attention in both a positive and a negative way hence the photo I chose. Both women in the picture are unattractive in a sense but what one lacks the other makes up for.

 

Cassandra Israel

Art Isn’t Easy!!

By Cassandra Ferrell

Way back in the sunrise of my youth, I lived and breathed theatre and musical theatre. I was a hopeless romantic with a cock-eyed optimistic view of the world. I would only remove my rose-colored glasses to clean them from time to time. I was moved by music, art, theatre and cinema. Unfortunately, I only had a proclivity for theatre. I was not blessed with musical or artistic talent much to my annoyance. However, even to this day, my love and appreciation for the Humanities still stirs my more aged and realistic soul from time to time. This assignment has caused such a stir.

Our assignment for this blog is, “find three pieces of modernist art (e.g., painting, sculpture) that, for you, represent some aspect of Woolf’s novel, such as themes, images, symbols, style, an entire scene, etc.” in reference to Mrs. Dalloway by Virgina Woolf.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

By Georges Seurat

1884 oil on canvas

This painting is the masterpiece of artist Georges Seurat. “Seurat’s impressionistic style came to be known as Pointillism (from the French word “point,” or “dot”), but he preferred the term divisionism—the principle of separating color into small touches placed side-by-side and meant to blend in the eye of the viewer.” (metmuseum.org) In this painting, Seurat depicts a solitary moment of the Parisian bourgeoisie relaxing on a beautiful Sunday afternoon where they can see and be seen among their class. One of my many favorite musicals is Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Soundheim based on this painting and the song above is the opening number of this musical. I feel it represent perfectly the struggle of an artist, whatever medium, trying to release their art into the world.

Virgina Woolf sets the first half of Mrs. Dalloway within Regent’s Park. I kept visualizing Seurat’s painting above every time the setting switched back to the park. The park, I feel, played a significant role within the novel. Our class had several discussions about Woolf’s doubling within this novel that mainly focused on characters. However, I see a doubling of places as well between Regent’s Park being the place of socialization for the middle and lower classes and of Clarissa’s party being the place of socialization of high society. Septimus, Rezia and Peter meet a variety of people in the park. A nursemaid, Maisie Johnson, Mrs. Dempster, the nursemaid with a baby carriage and Elise Mitchell are all characters that Woolfe introduces the reader to through her stream-of-consciousness technique giving various impressions of the single day in which Mrs. Dalloway occurs as well as third party opinions of the major characters.

Big Ben

By Andre Derain

1906 oil on canvas

Big Ben is another example of Pointillism. Andre Derain was one of co-founders along with Henri Matisse of Fauvism. Fauvism is one of the first breaks from Impressionism though this painting is not an example. Fauvism is described as” often subjective response to nature was expressed in bold, undisguised brushstrokes and high-keyed, vibrant colors directly from the tube.” (metmuseum.org)

Virgina Woolf uses the London landmark of Big Ben throughout Mrs. Dalloway. The first instance of Big Ben chiming Clarissa notes, “…a suspense before Big Ben strikes. There! Out it boomed. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable.” (Woolf 20). Irrevocable by definition means “not able to be changed; final”. Woolf is describing the finality of time, of a moment, that will never come again. I noticed during every chiming of Big Ben the character who the reader was following either faded into a flashback of an event experienced long ago or the chime brought the character back from a flashback into the presence acting like a time portal or time machine shifting the reader from one time period to another. Several instances Big Ben served as a death toll when Peter tries to imagine a world where Clarissa as died and when Clarissa finally comes to grips with Septimus’ death. Woolf also uses the same phrase, “The leaden circles dissolving in the air” over and over again throughout the novel portraying the sound of the chimes for Big Ben as having cohesion and texture.

Lost Boat

Silvia15

2011 photomanipulation

I found little to no information concerning the artist of this piece. I know her name is Silvia and she is from Spain. However, this portrait really hit home with me concerning Mrs. Dalloway. Silvia has incredible work if you want to see more of her pieces at http://silvia15.deviantart.com/. This piece is a representation of Surrealism. I took an Art History course last fall and discovered that I’m not a huge fan of 20th century art. My tastes range in the Romanticism and Impressionism genre. However, there was one movement of the 20th century that I was fascinated with and that is Surrealism. Surrealism is basically the dream state. It can be beautiful and it can be disturbing just like your dreams.

There are several themes within this piece that I can relate to Mrs. Dalloway. The sea and water are constant themes as well as birds. What struck me in particular with this piece, however, is the green dress reminiscent of Clarissa’s silver green “mermaid” dress and the lost boat. As Peter flashed back to Clarissa meeting Richard Dalloway for the first time, the group went on an evening boat ride. Peter was ecstatic that Clarissa came back to get him to go with the rest of the group. For Peter, it was a wonderful evening. As they climbed back into the boat to return home, Peter resigned himself to the fact that Clarissa “will marry that man”(Richard Dalloway). His love and passions were lost on that boat ride home and the course of his life irrevocably change. Peter would never be the same.

Works Cited:

“Study for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. N.p. 2010-2012. Web. 08 July 2013. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/51.112.6

“Fauvism”. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. N.p. 2010-2012. Web. 08 July 2013. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fauv/hd_fauv.htm

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando, Florida:

Harcourt, Inc, 1925. Print.

Mrs. Dalloway and Modern Art

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/964

This piece of art named Drawing from Stereoscope was done by William Kentridge in 1998–99. He created this marvelous artwork using charcoal, pastels, and colored pencils on a piece of paper. This drawling now currently hangs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

I picked this drawling because the man in the picture reminds me of Septimus. The man looks depressed and over come with sadness. It is like he is almost drowning in his own sorrows. In Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, no matter how happy life maybe Septimus was unable to feel anything or kind of emotion and blames it on the world. “it might be possible that the world itself is without meaning.” (Woolf, p.88) Septimus seems to suffer from post traumatic syndrome disorder (PTSD) from his days serving in the war and seeing his best friend Evans, dying right before his eyes.

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/george-hyde-pownall-big-ben-over-westminster-5457101-details.aspx

This Painting is called Big Ben Over Westmindter Bridge by George Hyde Pownall. This impressions oil painting shows the details of the srtists love for his town and the modernist times. He liked to paint in the traditional styles of John Atkinson Grinshaw and James Abbott McNeil of his time.

I picked this painting because it reflexted what the London streets would have looked like in the time period of Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. The painting protrays how Clarissa describes the streets, being busy with lots of people walking around and driving motor cars. In the far background is the Big Ben clock tower that helps ties all the characters together. Big Ben plays a symbol of significants in all of the characters lives and ties them together. When Big Ben chimes, it brought back a memory of some kind to every character. When Big Ben strikes half past the hour and Peter remembers Clarissa shooting at him “Remember my Party!”(Woolf, p. 48).

By: Wendy Dinsmore

Modernist Art Related to Mrs. Dalloway

Modernist art is known as art that depicts many things, emotions, realism in the world, and any expectation that does not relate to the standards of “old art dating back to before the 19th century. Surrealism is a fad that started around the 1920s. Artists during this time period rebelled and took it upon themselves to redefine art through their eyes. “Though these explorations of the human figure had a long tradition in the history of art, Surrealists went further, breaking taboos and shocking viewers in their depiction of mutilated, dismembered, or distorted bodies. In the 1930s, such visions may have had particular resonance given the still-pervasive sight of World War I veterans—many left limbless or using prosthetics—and the specter of a second World War on the horizon” (moma.org).

This piece in my opinion relates to Clarissa and her relationship with Peter and Richard in a sense. Peter had moments throughout the story when we really got to envision how deeply his feelings ran for Clarissa. In the same instance we could see that Richard loved Clarissa and was content with their relationship. This picture shows how you can be intimate with someone and not really know who they are, or if this is in fact the person you are supposed to be with. I am sure we all know how it feels to be in love and want to have the fairy tale ending that seems to only happen in the movies. A moment that stood out to me was after Peter left Clarissa’s home; “Remember my party, remember my party, said Peter Walsh as he stepped down the street, speaking to himself rhythmically, in time with the flow of sound…” (Woolf 48).

Lucrezia Warren Smith and her husband Septimus Warren Smith came to mind when I saw this image. When we are first introduced to her in the story she is trying to get Septimus to the park because he is not well and the doctor recommended that he “take an interest in things outside himself” (Woolf, 21). Rezia in my opinion being the best wife she can but the stress that Septimus is feeling is affecting her as well. We are told by Woolf that Rezia is, “only twenty-four, without any friends in England, who had left Italy for his sake, a piece of bone” (Woolf 16). Rezia tried to and had succeeded in hoping for their relationship but began wishing Septimus had succeeded in killing himself.

“Artists living in the rapidly modernizing world of late 19th-century Europe wished not only to depict modern (for them, contemporary) everyday life, but also to reveal the emotional and psychological effects of living in a world in rapid flux”(moma.org). This picture presents a person in my opinion that is stressed, and worried, or even confused. It suits both characters in the story since the effects of the war had taken a toll on both of them, Septimus in the form of PTSD and Rezia in the form of anxiety, sadness, and defeat. Rezia wants to be happy with Septimus and the fact that his sickness, strains their relationship makes the reader be able to relate to her more.

“The end of the 19th century in France is known as La Belle Époque (“the beautiful age”), in part because of the high cultural development that occurred at that time. Entertainment for the general public was a fairly new phenomenon. Artists, writers and patrons frequented Parisian cabarets, where singers and dancers enjoyed growing acclaim for their talents” (moma.org). Although this image depicts that of a dancer I chose this photo to relate it to the women that we are introduced to in Woolf’s story.

Clarissa is at a moment in her life when she is trying to decide whether or not she has made all of the right decisions. Rezia is sad and confused about her husband and how he is feeling. Sally was once a free spirit and now a wife, married with children. Woolf was a supporter of feminism and women’s rights and this picture resembles a free woman. A woman free in spirit, mind, and body, not worried about how she has lived life but how she is living life in the moment.

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando, Florida:
Harcourt, Inc, 1925. Print.
http://www.moma.org

Cassandra Israel