#so very virginia woolf/clarissa of her

[viciouslyvainvictorian]

Historicist Approach to Mrs Dalloway’s Mentally Ill: Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus

The hyper idealistic, romanticized, and  whimsical nature of the 1920s has a dark underbelly that us in the post-modern age prefer to not recognize. The citizens must continue their lives in the Post-War era, but, unlike history books, there are no clean chapters dividing the after-effects of a war that lasted over half a decade. The story that takes place within the book Mrs Dalloway is a cast of characters; such as Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus, going through their life in a single day, and reflecting about their life, and finding their downfall or self worth in their lives. The book Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, displays post-war London veterans by examining  shell shock that Septimus suffers, and this examination will utilize how shell shock syndrome can leave one disillusioned and coerce its victim into suicide by using the technique of stream of consciousness to depict the frantic state of thought Septimus and Virginia Woolf encountered due to traumatic events such as war and sexual abuse showing the want for control.

Mrs. Bird, a World War One nurse, was asked her opinion on shell shock, and this was what she had said, “a person normally who gets shell shock is a very, more or less, brave, courageous person, because he bottles everything up.” (Marlborough, 00:16-00:53). This description can be seen in Septimus’ character as well. The book even goes as far as giving him a traumatic event to repress into the dark recess of his mind: the death of his war friend Evans. When he learns of this, he is described as “far from showing any emotion or recognising that here was the end of a friendship. . .” (Woolf 45). Symptoms of Shellshock syndrome by Hugh Crichton-Miller, a notable practitioner in this time, are “unreasonable emotional fits, poor concentration, and ‘mental attainments chiefly along artistic lines” (Loughran 70). The critic, DeMeester, gives a more contemporary understanding: “His traumatic war experiences shattered the cohesion of his consciousness and left it fragmented, a stream of incongruous and disconnected images and bits of memory devoid of the connections” (DeMeester 653). Mrs Dalloway is able to reinforce these claims effortlessly and timelessly with its masterful interpretation of Septimus. The narrator’s voice and Septimus’ voice become intertwined which makes it difficult to decipher when the book begins to read like, “But he himself remained high on his rock, like a drowned sailor on a rock. I leant over the edge of the boat and fell down, he thought. I went under the sea. I have been dead and yet am now alive, but let me rest still” (Woolf 36). Interestingly, this description that Septimus thinks of himself can be him attempting to explain that he is not the old him anymore, and that his mind has changed so much that he is basically a new person. He came from the amniotic fluids of the ocean, like a fetus coming from nothing and becoming alive, he is reborn, but, also like a newborn baby, he needs to recover from this change.

The change he needed was not the change he wanted. The character Septimus’ entire character arch is dedicated to him reclaiming control of his own mind, and by extension is destiny. The doctors, Holmes and Bradshow, believe that he needs to be stuffed into one of “Holmes’ homes” because Septimus has thought about suicide one too many times (Woolf 50-51). It is unclear if the idea of being put into a far away care facility or his  doctors are his trigger. The care facility seems to be Septimus’ Hell, and the doctors are his harbingers of doom. When Death and Dr. Holmes come to visit Septimus in his final hour, Rezia, his wife, blocks the stairway so that Holmes cannot advance, but this is a pathetic attempt as she is easily removed by Dr. Holmes (Woolf 78). Dr. Holmes was coming to end Septimus’ life as he knew it, he had came to take Septimus to a care facility; however, little did he know, Septimus life would be ending by suicide this evening. This was the change that he wanted, self-control. Mental Illness makes it difficult to find the reality of control in the fog of one’s mind. Virginia Woolf, the author and a victim of mental illness, is perhaps the best guide to display this fog.

The end of the book Septimus takes his own life. Once Septimus makes the decision to take his own life, the thoughts come rushing to Septimus, as the narrator states, “Holmes was coming upstairs. Holmes would burst open the door. Holmes would say. . . Holmes would get him.” (Woolf 78). The writing and the narration are too intertwined, and every idea and thought are forced together. The sentences are choppy, evoking a machine gun that Septimus may have used in World War One. Septimus then begins to take back control of the thoughts, and the sentences begin to slow their pace.  The stream of consciousness used in the following thoughts, “Mrs. Filmer’s nice clean bread knife with ‘Bread’ carved on the handle. Ah, but one mustn’t spoil that. The gas fire? But it was too late now. Holmes was coming” (Woolf 78). The words pause and jump from option to option in the room before settling on the final method.

Once Septimus chooses the window, the narration-- the mind-- instantly freezes.  The thoughts are slow and calm that an incomplete thought is more than enough to suffice the feelings that Septimus has: “The sun is hot. Only human beings?” (Woolf 78). The excerpt began with Holmes attempting to break into the room, infiltrating Septimus’ mind, and when Holmes ultimately succeeds, the machine gun writing returns: “Holmes was at the door. ‘I‘ll give it to you!’ he cried, and flung himself vigorously, violently down on to Mrs. Filmer’s railings” (Woolf 78). Once Septimus throws himself out the window, the narration falls quickly along with him until the words are also impaled and dead on the railings with Septimus. The paragraph ends there, and the next words that follow are spoken from Dr. Holmes which he shouts, “That Coward!” (Woolf 78). The frantic words from the narrator have vanished, and everything is calm. The words flow as if there is a new narrator, and the old narrator died with Septimus.

Septimus’ suicide gives an exceptional insight into Septimus' mind, showing his panic, his methodical decision of how he wants to take his life, and how he still loves to live life even when he’s in the process of taking his own life. The excerpt begins with “Holmes was coming upstairs. Holmes would burst open the door. Holmes would say, ‘In a funk, eh?’ Holmes would get him. But no; not Holmes; not Bradshaw” (Woolf 78). Septimus makes a quick investigation to himself about Holmes; Holmes is coming, Holmes will get into his room, his head, and invalidate every whim and action Septimus has ever done and every emotion he has felt . Septimus has been forced to feel this way because he “must” obey them (Woolf 77). He must obey because his emotions violated the law (Woolf 77). The only exception is if Septimus takes control of the situation. 

Septimus decides that he still has some resistance in him left, and he is not gone until Holmes, or anyone else, gets a hold of him. He was locked into an upstairs chamber, nowhere to run. Reasoning is no longer an option for him, so he is led to the belief that he must take his life. His first option is “Mrs. Filmer’s nice clean bread knife” (Woolf 78). He notices that “Bread’ is carved onto the handle” but decides not to use it for these reasons: he notices that it is very beautiful, and its handle reminds him of its function: to cut bread, not himself. He then looks over at the fire that is burning, but he quickly rules it out as an option because would not get the job done quickly enough, and he would still be salvageable. 

When Septimus has decided on his method of death, his sense of control is back and his brain begins to wander, for example: “But he would wait till the very last moment. He did not want to die. Life was good. The sun is hot. Only human beings? Coming down the staircase opposite an old man stopped and stared at him” (Woolf 78). His thought is the clearest it has been, that he enjoys life, and even in this moment he is enjoying the time he has. When Septimus finally took control of his own destiny, he can now finally be at peace. He was able to think that, “Life was good,” and he could just enjoy the simplicity of life, and not worry about going to jail, not worry about the War, and not worry about his own emotional breakdowns. Perhaps the old man stopping to look at him is a grim reminder of Death stopping to get him, but Septimus is calm.  All of this is thrown, literally, out of the window when Holmes barges in. The sill is the barrier between life and death for Septimus and when Holmes throws the door open he also makes Septimus throw himself out of the window. DeMeeter makes an excellent insight on the author’s writing “Although Woolf’s form is particularly well-suited for depicting trauma and deftly manifests in art a psychological condition that science failed to understand until half a century and several wars later, it is ill-suited to depicting recovery” (DeMeeter 652)

This character can be Virginia Woolf’s own attitudes. Although she is no war veteran, she did suffer bouts of manic-depressive episodes, and she did end up dying to suicide in a way to take control of her own life (Boeira 70). Septimus’ hostility to doctors and being stuffed into a care facility could stem from Virginia Woolf’s exposure to them; provided that it was “her half-sister Laura, who spent most of her life at the Priory Hospital Southgate in London” (Boeria 69)  The similarities between her attitudes, her dwelling on the human mind, and her reasoning of her own suicide can all be read in her many characters she had written, but specifically Septimus there is an uncanny resemblance. Like Septimus, and many others, she was given a traumatic event that was difficult to stomach; however, unlike Septimus, hers was her half-brothers sexually abusing her when she was as young as six. (Boeria 70). This traumatic event would send her on a long downward spiral into manic episodes, like her character Septimus, and eventually take her own life. Her final words to the world seem eerily similar to Septimus’ attitudes which state, “I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of these terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do” (Boeira 70). It seems as if she romanticized, and found peace taking her life in the character of Septimus when the narrator stated during his suicide, “He did not want to die[,] Life was good” (Woolf 78). Sadly, he did take his own life and she too; however, it can be seen that the character she created was a shell of her mental self and her real life self both found peace in controlling their destiny. 

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, examines post-war London lives by examining shell shock that Septimus suffers, and this examination utilizes how shell shock syndrome can leave one confused which can lead to suicide by using the technique of stream of consciousness to depict the frantic state of thought Septimus and Virginia Woolf undergo. Septimus suicide queues in not only in that time’s respect diagnosis of shell shock syndrome, but it also accurately displays the inner peace he can undergo from it. The accuracy is reaffirmed by modern day critiques analyzing Mrs Dalloway as well as World War One nurses answering questions about shell shock syndrome in their victims. The mastery of stream of consciousness in Mrs Dalloway is utilized by someone who has also gone through a traumatic event in her life, and it seems that Septimus is a vehicle for Virginia Woolf’s own way of coping with her mental anguish.

Works Cited

Boeira, Manuela V., et al. “Virginia Woolf, Neuroprogression, and Bipolar Disorder.” Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria, vol. 39, no. 1, Jan. 2017, pp. 69–71. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1590/1516-4446-2016-1962.

DeMeester, Karen. "Trauma and Recovery in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway." MFS Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 44 no. 3, 1998, p. 649-673. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/mfs.1998.0062.

Lougran, Tracey “Languages of Diagnosis: Hysteria, Neurasthenia, and Changing Pre-War Psychological Medicine.” Shell-Shock and Medical Culture in First World War Britain, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017, pp. 52–78. Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare.

Marlborough, Adam Matthew Shell shock patients; VD cases; Spanish flu epidemic, 1918; reaction to end of war. 1915-1918. http://www.firstworldwar.amdigital.co.uk.ezproxy.mtsu.edu/Documents/Details/IWM_Track_50 [Accessed April 13, 2021].

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway. Benediction Books, 2017.

[bookmuseum]

[REVIEW] Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

3/5 stars (★★★)

"She would not say of any one in the world now that they were this or were that. She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged. She sliced like a knife through everything; at the same time was outside, looking on. She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day."

Reading Virginia Woolf is challenging, but delightful. I think Jenny Offill's Foreword described it accurately when she said that this novel is "suspiciously dull." To be honest, every single time I picked up the book I could only get through about 20-30 pages maximum before I felt my eyes drooping and I had to sleep, even if it was my third nap that day. Woolf's writing just has that lullaby-like quality to me. That isn't to say I disliked the book. Seeing a lot of people's negative reviews, I can see why this book that depicts one single, aristocratic British day in June 1932 isn't everyone's favorite. I found myself very bored, -- so many "scenes" where rich people think about how rich and sad they are, o woe! -- but I feel like, more than most texts, Mrs. Dalloway can be appreciated more if you know Woolf's life and personality. This Penguin Classics Deluxe edition included some of Woolf's notes and the letters she sent out to her loved ones while writing this novel; like with everything, she took great, great care in its composition. I could really feel her devotion to getting the perfect sentence right on every page. This was the first "serious" work of hers that I've taken up since I finished graduate school (where I had to take a modernism and life writing class, which I ended up writing on Woolf about for the final paper). I'm happy to say I still enjoy reading her even though I'm not a huge fan of modernism.

As typical of Woolf, her sentences were strikingly beautiful. I found myself wishing I could highlight or memorize most of the passages in the book. I adore how she can thread words together so eloquently:

"Did it matter then, she asked herself, walking towards Bond Street, did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely; all this must go on without her; did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely?"

Woolf was 43 when she was writing this book, so not exactly near the end of her life, but she'd lived through The Great War and by then had already gone through some of the most traumatic experiences in childhood and her early adult years that'll stay with her forever. I found Clarissa to be a more "glitz and glam" version of Woolf. I liked her well enough, though I disliked pretty much everything Woolf revealed about her character: She's stuck up, prejudiced, and nearly paralyzed by her own vanity, but it's those attributes that made her such an interesting heroine. I found her more interesting than Septimus Smith because she was so quietly solemn -- "There was an emptiness about the heart of life; an attic room" -- and faced death and aging as an inevitable fact one has to resign oneself to. Clarissa's moments of "What is it? Where am I? And why, after all, does one do it?" felt tender and honest. No one can really do everyday epiphanies like Woolf can. She's a genius at contrasting existential philosophy and grand realizations with the humdrum of life like flowers, people walking their dogs, grocery shopping, walking in the park, sewing a dress, etc. There's an almost timelessly painful quality to it because, as Peter Walsh says, "It was awful . . . awful, awful! Still, the sun was hot. Still, one got over things. Still, life had a way of adding day to day." Mrs. Dalloway was difficult to read because pretty much nothing happened for most of its 160+ pages, but that's where the brilliance lies: The external events like a party or an airplane flying overheard are never as deep or transformative as what one single person feels inside, and it's in everyone, this capacity for endless multitudes, and we're meant to carry it with us without ever truly understanding the meaning of it all -- in both ourselves and other people, though their internal mechanisms are very terrifying to even consider, even if you loved them:

"[F]or what can one know even of the people one lives with every day? . . . Are we not all prisoners? She had read a wonderful play about a man who scratched on the wall of his cell, and she had felt that was true to life -- one scratched on the wall. Despairing of human relationships (people were so difficult), she often went into her garden and got from her flowers a peace which men and women never gave her."

I loved all of Woolf's comments on the process of aging, getting older, and growing apart from people you used to love, which is why I liked Peter and Sally Seton's parts best. Even when we got to learn about Clarissa's past and deepest thoughts, she felt impregnable (pun intended) in a way that kind of unsettled me. She was like an automaton. Peter and Sally had more life about them, especially since they were more relatable: Peter is an expat returned home to a London he's both familiarly disillusioned with and also estranged by, and Sally, who used to be the life of the party and wild, is an older woman married to a dull man but nevertheless more content with her lot in life (and her children) than her ex-lover and friend Clarissa. I loved that final conversation between Peter and Sally at the party; they have that charming debate about how they're supposed to keep going in this life. It was ironic because previously Peter had said, "A terrible confession it was . . . but now, at the age of fifty-three, one scarcely needed people any more. Life itself, every moment of it, every drop of it, here, this instant, now, in the sun, in Regent's Park, was enough. Too much, indeed." Then with Sally he contradicts himself: "But no; he did not like cabbages; he preferred human beings, Peter said." I loved their back and forth, their fleetingly shown friendship, which ended in Sally saying the iconic line, "What does the brain matter . . . compared with the heart?"

I think this conflict between the brain's search for meaning and the heart as an extant organ that simply keeps our lives pumping ultimately failed within Septimus. He claims to understand and know everything, but his cynicism ate him up in the end: "It might be possible, Septimus thought, looking at England from the train window, as they left Newhaven; it might be possible that the world itself is without meaning." I've never fought in World War I and watched all my friends and comrades die right in front of me, but Septimus has kind of become this household literary representative of people with depression and suicidality. Since Woolf killed herself, everyone turns to Septimus and over-analyzes his character and beliefs, which I don't necessarily blame critics for. If I had read Mrs. Dalloway when I was a teenager or just starting out college, I most likely would've found him more engaging:

"So he was deserted. The world was clamouring: Kill yourself, kill yourself, for our sakes. But why should he kill himself for their sakes? Food was pleasant; the sun hot; and this killing oneself, how does one set about it, with a table knife, uglily, with floods of blood, -- by sucking a gaspipe? He was too weak; he could scarcely raise his hand. Besides, now that he was quite alone, condemned, deserted, as those who are about to die are alone, there was a luxury in it, an isolation full of sublimity; a freedom which the attached can never know."

While I sympathized and saw myself all too well in Septimus, I found his ruminations unoriginal. His pain makes him as small as his ego is big because of it. I felt sorry for his wife Rezia more than I felt bad for him. I think Woolf did an amazing job fleshing out Septimus' character, especially her exploration of his "emasculation" due to the trauma, as well as his pitiful detachment to everything. When he said, "One cannot bring children into a world like this. One cannot perpetuate suffering, or increase the breed of these lustful animals, who have no lasting emotions, but only whims and vanities, eddying them now this way, now that," I really felt the weight of those lines. Woolf's doctors consistently told her not to have any children because of her mental illnesses; it's unclear whether or not she did actually want to be a parent, but that absence of motherhood would always haunt her. Septimus' firm refusal to have kids because all he saw was the unethical implications of it felt very close to home.

Many have said far more intriguing and clever things about Mrs. Dalloway, but these are my simple observations after having read the book for the first time around. I do think it's one of those novels that exponentially expand and "shape-shift" the more you come back to it. Your experience and time with the book really depends on where you are in life, which is never predictable. I think the older one gets, the more they understand how resigned yet still hopeful this book is. It had all the things I loved about Woolf: the undulating water motifs, the staggering yet commonplace epiphanies, the stream of consciousness style, the overuse of semi-colons, and the tragic yet delightful romanticism of the mundane. Next to To The Lighthouse, it is the most Virginia Woolf book I have read of hers so far.

To end, I found Jenny Offill's Foreword and Elaine Showalter's Introduction very informative and good. I recommend reading them before and after reading Mrs. Dalloway because it sets up a good foundation, whilst also ties up some loose ends you might have missed from your first read-through.

[talesfromtrigadora]

April Book Review

I only managed to read three books for the month of April. The goal was 12 in order to catch up to my goal of 50 books for this year. The problem was the third book.

Max Brooks: World War Z

I'm actually interested in how this book managed to be translated into a movie as the format is very interesting. It's a non-repeating collections of accounts from different people's experience with the Zombie Apocalypse. The thing that was not so great about it (another reason why I'm interested in the movie) is that it didn't feel like a story. I finished the book really having no idea what happened beyond zombies. The story-telling itself was very good and compelling, but I miss not having a character to take away from it. The only one I sort of remember is the soldier who worked with a dog. Oh, and the Japanese character who was blind.

Kee Malesky: All Facts Considered

Similar to the above book, this one was also a collection of related facts split up into chapters. It was interesting, but again nothing really stood out to me (something about Goths being ancient warriors?). It felt like the sort of book that would work very well to dig trivia out of for events or Caribou's trivia board. Beyond that, it didn't stick with me.

Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway

This was the problem book for this month. I had such a hard time getting through it. It felt like a combination of a Faulkner novel and The Great Gatsby or a Jane Austen novel, except the perspective jumped so abruptly between character's POV, sometimes in the middle of paragraphs, that it was impossible to hold a clear idea of what was going on and who everyone really was. The novel is supposed to be about Clarissa Dalloway, yet it seemed far more to be about her from the perspective of a jilted, love-sick man than from her actual perspective. And his POV became immensely tiring very soon into the novel. In fact, the two most interesting characters, Clarissa and Septimus, were almost exclusively told to the reader through the people who claimed to love them, and yet spent far too much of their thoughts making it very clear their love was far more for a fantasy they perceived over the actual person than for who the person was. I am intrigued to perhaps see The Hours, which is based on the book, but I think I would just rather read Faulkner (at least his ramblings stick to a clear POV) or Austen.

[on-new-years-tay]

2023 Book Reviews

Idea by the lovely @thatwasthenightthingschanged ✨

I’ve recently started a module on medieval woman’s literature which explains the randomness in books lol

Autumn by Ali Smith: she quickly became my favorite author with my favorite writing style, loosely goes in and out of situations, kinda like flash fiction, challenges Brexit 5/5

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf: a tad strange as everything by Virginia in my opinion, Clarissa Dalloway is unbearable but I guess that’s the point, still like the writing style, gives a nice idea of life in the 1910s 3/5

Cleopatra and Frankenstein: very moving, you know the ending before it starts but it is not boring or predictable, shows that everyone has gone trough some shit 4.5/5

Everything I know about love by Dolly Alderton: seemed a bit pretentious as first but definitely grew on me, this is not a fiction novel but it tends to feel like it, she lives a very different life than me 3.5/5

Voyage in the dark by Jean Rhys: again a bit strange, challenges immigration and racism, main character loves retail therapy, dramatic 3.5/5

How not to fall in love by Emily Foster: boring, predictable, unrealistic, don’t know what I expected, some romance never hurt nobody 1.5/5

Never let you go by Kazuo Ishiguro: that guy won the Nobel price for literature, he is seriously a good writer, it is odd and frustrating but so relevant and important, dystopian 4/5

Thinking with Trees by Jason Allen-Paisant: beautiful poetry that connects human kind to nature, 4/5

The Lais of Marie de France by Marie de France: medieval fairytales that are slightly absurd and secretly feminist, worth a read if you are into historic lit but do yourself a favor and read the modern English version 4/5

Visions showed to a devout woman by Julian of Norwich: support an anchorite in her delusions, wish I was her, medieval visions of Christ’s crucifixion 2/5

The book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe: had 14 children, then decided she wanted to be married to God instead of her husband, she goes on fun trips! (Pilgrimage), again support a girl in her delusions, unintentionally funny, hates her husband, 3/5

Girl, Woman, other by Bernadine Evaristo: feminists, shows the struggles of various woman, not (!) written in verse as people assume, not a light read but a good read 4.5/5

Hope you enjoyed it, happy reading ✨

[pazodetrasalba]

Clarissa

Dear Caroline:

Myself, I read Mrs Dalloway at uni, and rather liked it. I had already tackled To the Lighthouse on my own, buying a cheap Penguin copy while I was on holiday in Berlin. She is literary Modernism at its best, but this is so trivial it hardly deserves to be mentioned.

What might be a tad less trivial is evaluation of characters, as you are doing here. Your choice is apt, as Miss Kilman and Clarissa Dalloway do represent polar opposites in the novel. Personally, I tended to like Miss Kilman more when I was younger and lefty - her resentment against the Epicurean rich, her self-righteousness, her courageous wearing of her poverty as an armor, and her going against the grain of popular prejudice. Now, I have inclined more towards Mrs Dalloway. I imagine a utilitarian would have severe issues with her life choices. As you say, Dalloway chooses one sphere -which might seem frivolous- for her ordeals and optimizations: turning the parties she throws into a work of art and her attempt at self-fulfillment and improvement of the world. This is precisely how I see one's purpose in life: pursue happiness by trying to do stuff you love, you find intellectually and/or aesthetically and/or ethically fulfilling, and give it your best. Really try to be the best at what you do, whatever you choose, and take pride in the fashioning of (your)self. This might be very sub-optimal if your goal is maximizing utility and 'doing the most good', and I'd agree you'd have a point, but only at a certain, massive cost -unless selfless sacrificing yourself for other is your personal understanding and experiencing of the pursuit of happiness.

Quote:

If only she could make her weep; could ruin her; humiliate her; bring her to her knees crying, You are right! But this was God’s will, not Miss Kilman’s. It was to be a religious victory. So she glared; so she glowered

Virginia Woolf

[andromedaexists]

The Hours || Michael Cunningham

★★★★☆ 1/2

TW: SUICIDE

I just finished my next book! I told you guys that I hopes I would like the next one more than the last and I did! holy shit

I am going to throw my thoughts and discussion below a cut due to the nature of the book. Please be advised by the trigger warning and keep yourself safe.

omgomgomg this book is amazing. I was very hesitant when I first picked it up. I knew that the very first thing I would read in the book was a suicide scene. The prologue depicted Virginia Woolf's death.

This make me uneasy. Especially since this is a genre of book that I normally would not read. It was already out of my wheelhouse and then added sensitive material like that front and center.

However, I did have to read the book for class, so I pushed through.

This novel tells the story of three women (Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway in the 90's, Mrs. Laura Brown in the 40's, and Virginia Woolf). The way it approaches this is by alternating POVs. Each 'chapter' is a scene from one singular day in each character's life. And through this singular day we learn the overarching plot of the story.

It is such a new (to me) way to tell this kind of story and I am all here for it! Not only that, but the writing itself was done well. I never once got lost or didn't know what was going on, even with the sparse amount of details that the author gives at any given moment.

But I think the one thing that I have remained undecided on is the physical format of the book. You see, I am a hard back kind of person. If given the option for a hard back copy, I will take it. So when I saw that I could get a normal paperback or a hard cover, I went my normal hard cover route. I did not expect what came. It was as if I ordered this book off wish! It is tiny. The paperback is normal size (I've seen ym classmates editions), but the hard cover is legitimately like 3"x4". tiny

Past this point I will be discussing the overarching plot, if you wish to not have that spoiled for you, you can finish reading here!

Virginia writes a book about Mrs. Dalloway, then commits suicide before she is able to move back to London with her husband.

This book is then bought by Laura Brown, a self proclaimed bookworm who doesn’t understand how someone like Virginia could be driven to suicide. She then reads the book and contemplates suicide herself (not due to the book, just came to the realization that she could die because of the book. She lives because of her son and unborn child). Laura eventually leaves her husband and children, but lives.

One of her children, the son, is Richard. He meets Clarissa at 18 and gives her the nickname Mrs. Dalloway after the book his mother used to read. Seems to be the most significant tie to his mother that we get through the narrative of this story. However, this day that we see of Clarissa is the day that Richard kills himself. This brings Clarissa and Laura together at the end of the book.

The way that we learn this overarching story is very interesting. We know from the very beginning that there is a tie between Clarissa and Virginia through the name Clarissa holds. We also know from the beginning that Laura reads Virginia’s works. However, we do not know how these three women are connected other than through the literary work. We do learn the names of Richard (from Clarissa’s pov) and Richie (from Laura’s pov) at the beginning of the book, but his last name is not revealed until he dies at the end. It was an oh moment for me, as you can see in my notes. I didn’t put it together until the last name was revealed.

Overall, I think this book is amazing. It reveals information on a need to know basis and does it’s best to not spoil it’s overarching plot until the last three sections of the book. Wild.

I am planning on writing little things like this every time I read a book just to help me keep track of them. If I don’t write down my opinions and thoughts right away I am liable to forget them. I am hesitant to call these a review because i’m really just not comfy with that lol I will do my best to make sure I appropriately tag and warn about topics. If I miss any please let me know!

[andromedainruins]

Homework || Starting a Novel

This homework for SAN is due on Monday, Feb. 20th. We are to read pages 1 through 112 of The Hours, by Michael Cunningham (through the third "Mrs. Brown" section), and write a page or two (double-spaced) of commentary, discussing the characterization of each of the three protagonists, as well as the close third-person point of view and how the voice of the narrator does or does not change as the point of view switches from one woman to another.

I am putting this under a cut because of how long it is. I do not believe I included spoilers in this assignment, but just in case I will put the spoilers tag as well.

The sections about Clarissa Dalloway have a very unique tone. They are almost pessimistically optimistic. She is written in a way that sees the beauty in everything from the drug dealers on the corner to the beautiful flowers in the flower shop, but it almost holds a tone of forced optimism. As if she has been walked over for so long and just… got sick of it. If the world isn’t going to be as bright and gold and beautiful as she thought it would be then she would search for those bright and gold and beautiful moments herself.

The sections about Virginia Woolf are starkly different in tone. They seem almost… flighty? No, that is not the word I want. They are distant, almost dissociated from Virginia herself. They describe her thoughts and her actions but they do so through a hazy sheen. 

The sections about Laura Brown are more realistic. Not optimistic or pessimistic, just existing. Like, you can clearly feel her distaste for her marriage and life and how much escapism she gets out of reading Virginia’s books. 

It’s almost as if the narrator, in knowing the emotions and thoughts of each of the women, has thought to show us the intrinsic differences between the characters through how they view the world. This is a really powerful way to tell the story, even if it is a bit difficult to grasp at first. I think this is an amazing way to keep the distinction between each character without being overbearing. Like, yeah they each have separate names and the chapters are titled with their names, but I have memory issues and focusing issues at the moment and the only thing helping me keep the characters separate is the clear and distinct tones. I love it.

The further into the book I get, the less I can make a distinction between the women. What started as very clear narrative tones have blended together into a haze of poor mental states. It makes it hard to keep track of who’s doing what in my mind, though I feel like going through and separating what each chapter is about for Wednesday's assignment is greatly helping me there. As far as what’s changed, it seems like Clarissa has picked up the mental fugue state that Virginia started in, while Laura has donned Clarissa’s optimistically pessimistic outlook on life. Virginia’s sections are very short and it’s hard for me to get a grasp on the tone in them.

[baileye]

She showed how parents, friends, lovers, and spouses can become more unknowable over time, not less—there is a core to their personhood that never gives itself up.

//

There is a dignity in people; a solitude; even between husband and wife a gulf; and that one must respect … for one would not part with it oneself, or take it, against his will, from one’s husband, without losing one’s independence, one’s self-respect—something, after all, priceless.

It’s typical of Woolf to take a romantic scene and make it steely—that’s the price, you might say, of inner privacy. Marriage, love, and intimacy only take you so far; at the end of that path, you fall back on the austere, solitary dignity of the inner life. And yet Clarissa prefers austerity to intimacy. She thinks, from time to time, about Peter Walsh, who was in love with her, and whom she might have married instead of Richard. Peter was thoughtful, intellectual, romantic, passionate. He loved to talk, and took her thoughts seriously. He was determined to know her, soul-to-soul. To people who hold intimacy to be the highest good in a relationship, that’s a desirable thing. “But with Peter everything had to be shared; everything gone into. And it was intolerable,” Clarissa thinks. Years later, sitting in the park, she is still rehearsing, in her mind, the arguments she and Peter once had: “Suddenly it would come over her, If he were with me now what would he say?” Richard gives her privacy, and, therefore, inner solitude; he lets her soul remain her own. Of course, he never says “I love you.” Meanwhile, Peter thinks, of Clarissa, that there has always been “this coldness, this woodenness, something very profound in her … an impenetrability. Yet Heaven knows he loved her.”

[whosafraidofvirginiawoolf]

The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters

[writerthreads]

How to write a gripping beginning

by Writerthreads on Instagram

Personally, I find beginnings to be one of the hardest parts of the whole book because it's so important. The beginning is what makes or breaks your book. It's what keeps readers interested after they pick it up at a store, or when they first download it on their Kindle. Below are some tips, as well as some analyses, on how to perfect a story's beginning.

Introduce your main character and the setting: Mrs. Dalloway

By "introduce", I don't mean a giant 10-page info dump on royal family tree or the ten kingdoms the world is made up of. Rather, I'm thinking of a character in a place, or doing something. The best, and one of the most famous examples would be how Virginia Woolf started Mrs. Dalloway:

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.

Already, you have the titular character, Mrs Dalloway, introduced. She's doing something, too. She's saying that she's going to buy flowers herself, setting up a scene later where she's probably going to, or back out of, buying flowers. The pronoun "herself" suggests to the reader in Woolf's era that she's of a middle-class background and that somebody (eg. a servant) would normally be running errands for Mrs. Dalloway, but the character wanted to do this simple task herself.

I could go on forever about how each word in this simple sentence has implicit meanings and my ex-A Level Eng Lit teacher will probably be very proud of me, but that's not the point. The main idea is that in just a single sentence, a lot is being revealed to the reader without the writer having to info dump anything.

Allow me to continue to the second paragraph of the book:

For Lucy had her work cut out for her. The doors would be taken off their hinges; Rumpelmayer's men were coming. And then, thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning-fresh as if issued to children on a beach.

More characters are introduced now: we have Lucy, Rumpelmayer and his men. Mrs. Dalloway's full name is revealed, and so is her personality through her thought. It's childlike, whimsical and light, and that's why her name "Clarissa Dalloway" is used here instead of the stiff "Mrs. Dalloway".

In just two paragraphs, we are introduced to the titular character and some minor characters are mentioned. We also know bits and pieces of what's going to happen. Woolf artistically starts off the book with simple prose. Everything is well thought out, yes, Virginia Woolf is a literary genius, yes, but this is something that we can all do: write a simple introduction without weighting readers down with lots of detail we don't need, and get straight into the story.

Start in media res

Fun fact: "in media res" is also the name of our Discord Server!

When you start in the middle of an action, readers are transported straight to the story, hooking them in. For example, if you were writing a rom com, you could start with the main character bumping into a long-lost friend:

Emma saw a familiar cowboy hat bobbing in and out of the crowd in front of her. Emma found herself pushing through sweaty limbs into the crowd, trying to catch a glimpse of the person who wore the hat, trying to see whether it was really her friend who had ghosted her five years ago.

Obviously this isn't the best beginning in the world, but you get the point.

Try something interesting

A strong story opening makes you want to know more. Donna Tartt does this perfectly in A Secret History:

The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.

What is up? Who is Bunny? What's so serious about their predicament? Tell us more!!! Bunny's death makes us want to know what has happened, while mentioning the characters' situation wants us to know what's going to happen. Tartt forces us to continue on to find out the full story.

Lead with a strong statement

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy:

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Tolstoy’s first line introduces the domestic strife that drives the story’s tragic events, using a bold, sweeping statement, while Dicken's catchy first sentence introduces us to the book's main themes.

There are way more examples of good beginnings that you can only learn from by reading. If you're a beginner, literally comb through a library shelf of the genre you're writing in and see how published authors have written their beginnings. Alternatively, you could go check out our post on the best story beginnings for more ideas!

[whilereadingandwalking]

In Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones, translated by Clarissa Botsford, Hana is a woman coming from the mountains of northern Albania to live with her cousin in the United States. By all accounts a normal story, but Hana is deeply uncomfortable. For the last several years of her life, Hana has lived as a man, Mark Doda. On the eve of her grandfather’s death, desperate to maintain her autonomy, Hana adopts an ancient custom that allows a woman to convert to being a man, with all the social norms and respect that entails, as long as she remains a virgin. And now, in her cousin’s house, she might be ready to try and find her way back. Back to a Hana she can live with. 

The book reminded me of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: it uses a strange scenario to poke at the absurdity of gender essentialism and the idea of gender roles. Her people in northern Albania sincerely believe that women must be married young, and have all these traditional role distinctions, and yet they are able to embrace her transformation into Mark and never question it once her choice is made. Hana herself has internalized some of these ideas, and even more so, she’s gotten used to being completely and utterly alone. She isn’t sure how to regain that feeling of control and understanding of her body—because she isn’t so sure she ever had it in the first place. 

On first read, I was uncertain about the ending. For much of the novel, she is so resolute and quiet, and I almost felt like I didn’t recognize her in the last few chapters. What does it mean that she can’t make herself come? What does it mean that she doesn’t feel satisfied until she has sex with a man? At first, I misread this as a strange reversal, a return to gender normativity: she as a woman must have heteronormative sex to regain her womanhood.

But this is wrong. It’s by revealing the norms that Dones, like Woolf, best mocks them. We see, even when Hana doesn’t, that all the things she was as a man should still be hers as a woman. She knows too that gender is an outfit of sorts, that the norms that made people see her as a man were nothing but a paint job, that the ‘transition’ to being a woman is just another paint job of its own. What the ending really is meant to get at is that living as a man was not actually a choice for her either. She says very early in the novel, explicitly, that she is not a man, not trans. She lived as a man. But she did this because it was the only way to retain an autonomy, safety, and stability that should have been, but wasn’t, hers as a woman. To retain her independence, and for her grandfather, she became Mark Doda, but she had to give something up to do it: she had to act the male gender, put it on, and she couldn’t slip, couldn’t allow herself certain softnesses. If a sworn virgin becomes intimate with someone, breaks her oath, then her protection is gone, and she becomes a transgression. This is what she’s still scared of. She made an oath. She can adjust her walk, apply lipstick. But none of those are as important to the custom as whether or not she has had sex with a man. Her attitude in the final pages says it all. There was something, a release, a softness, an intimacy, that she was worried she’d never regain after being Mark, and by the end, she knows she does have it: there can be an ending, a permanent one, to the era in which she had to act gender in order to sustain her autonomy. She has officially broken her oath: that is what scared her, because she wasn’t sure she could let go of that. But not anymore. Content warnings for mentions/comments of fatphobia, ableist language, gender essentialism, sexism, threatened rape.

[blairwaldcrf]

The Kids are Alright (Are We?) - Nate/Dan/Blair

ao3... gossip girl au. chapter 1/?

summary: when two children get detention together they never expect to unlock a secret their parents have kept (both knowingly and unknowingly)

i.e. Dan Humphrey and Blair Waldorf are disaster characters but I love them and so does Nate.

......

Sometimes Dan Humphrey wished he had made his morning coffee an Irish more than others, and this is one of them. Having finally gotten halfway into an op-ed he was supposed to finish by the end of the week, he had thought the day was going great. A phone call from the Principal of his daughter’s private grade school didn’t agree. Clarissa, adopted daughter of Dan and Nate Humphrey-Archibald, was a beautiful tiny nine year old girl with terrifying intelligence and aptitude for trouble. Maybe it was in the name, the ones the likes of Virginia Woolf and Samuel Richardson had waxed poetic on, but she was the kind of force Dan was all too familiar with. It was why he had fallen in love with her at the agency before they had even decided on the age of the child to adopt.

When he and Nate had gotten her a place in this prestigious school Clarissa had been a model student for the first semester. Any layman who had read even just one article on child psychology would say she was trying to prove her worth to her new parents, but when she had settled into the easy enveloping love that both her fathers and the extended Humphrey family gave, she changed. She became more herself, arguing with teachers about the quality of their class material-- at nine-- which Dan’s father liked to remind him was the age Dan had as a child. Before the year had even finished she had tested well out of third and into fifth grade. No longer met with educational boredom, she had instead turned to social approval and pranks to win over her classmates who thought she was a baby in comparison to their ripe old age of ten and eleven years old.

So now, on top of writing op-eds and working on his second novel, he had to volunteer on the PTA committee and make donations about once a week so his daughter wasn’t kicked out of the school that cost him and his husband Nate as much as community college tuition.

This time it was a prank that involved the teacher’s bathroom that required him to drive to the school office and deal with Principal Pipton, quite possibly the most annoying and frustrating woman Dan had ever had the misfortune of meeting. If he lived a different life he would very much wish to have gone into education and ousted her from the school himself.

Nicole, the young front desk attendant for the school, was nice enough to give him a sympathetic smile as she waved him back into the larger Principal office when he arrived. Nate was standing on the side of the chair Clarissa sat in across from Pipton’s desk, but there was an unfamiliar presence of two more in the room. From the look of things, Clarissa had finally found herself an accomplice.

Instagram models would have been jealous of the probable mother in the room, her blonde hair longer and shinier than anything short of a celebrity could accomplish. She was tall even without the heels she was sporting or the fashionable outfit that went along with it, but her and her child looked nothing alike.

The kid was probably the younger side of third grade but had no air of confidence about him as he sat in the chair too large for his frame. Physically, he reminded Dan of a younger version of himself. Mess of brown curls, big brown eyes, and pale skin. He wondered how on earth his daughter had convinced such an obviously straight laced kid to pull off a big prank. God knew that there wasn’t anyone who could have done it to him back in the day.

“Sherry,” Dan greeted the Principal congenially. The woman gave a dazzling smile that betrayed the clear annoyance given in the tight way she returned his handshake. “Let’s get this through, shall we?”

Nate sent him a warning glare at the slight-- it wasn’t Dan’s fault he always came off sarcastic to Nate’s amiability-- but the corners of Nate’s mouth still flickered with the same exhausted acceptance they had reached. Unfortunately Clarissa had caught the exchange and smirked, dark brown hair pulled out of her braid and wild as it always was. Despite the hours Dan had spent learning how to do hair from both his sister and online tutorials. When they both gave her unamused looks she turned back around and ignored them, grinning as she did so with the same charming smile that seemed genetically similar to Nate’s.

“Well normally we’d go through the usual routine with Ms. Clarissa here,” the Principal began. “But this time there isn’t any way she accomplished the feat alone and her dragging one of our star students like Eliot into trouble just isn’t acceptable.”

“Clarissa scores in the top of her class,” Dan replied, the edge not quite out of his tone. “I understand that she can cause trouble but implying that she’s tainting--,”

“What Dan means--,” Nate interrupted. “Was that we agree that her pranks are immature and need to stop, but that everyone should be accountable for their own actions. It would be unlike Clarissa to bully anyone into going along with her.”

Now it was the mother of said accomplice’s turn to talk, and she had a warm voice and a gentle calming hand on her kid’s shoulder. Instead of looking at the principal-- Pipton looked offended by this-- she turned to her kid and gave a small conspiring whisper. “Please tell me you actually let loose for once.”

Staring at his feet instead of any of the adults, Eliot admitted, “Yeah, I helped her.”

The woman grinned, much to Principal Pipton’s dismay. “I’m sure his mother Blair would have something different to say about that.”

Even though it had been years, Dan found himself having a pull in his chest at the name of the first girl to break his heart. Luckily it wasn’t a common occurrence, the name not quite popular. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t also had almost ten years to get over it.

“And I apologize that she’s busy defending a client in court.” Was the suddenly serious response, even if it held a gentle quality. “But since she’s not here, I’m sure we’ll be fine with whatever punishment you deem necessary for a ten year old.”

Nate barely veiled a chuckle as a cough in his throat but Dan couldn’t quite manage to purse his lips enough to cover his smirk.

Principal Sherry Pipton sent them off with detention for the children and heavy disapproval for the parents, and as they walked out of the office and past the front desk Dan does the most impulsive thing he’s done in ages and asks Eliot’s guardian, “What’s Eliot’s mother’s last name?”

She regarded him with confused surprise as most people would, but tentatively answered, “Waldorf. Why?”

Throat tightening as he stopped in his tracks, he gave a fake and dismissive smile. “Just don’t hear the name often.” Nate narrowed his eyes now, holding Clarissa’s hand as they all stalled.

“Dad, come on.” Clarissa complained. “I want to go home and read Dickinson now.”

“You read poems?” Eliot asked her, both kids oblivious to the emotional storm Dan was on the brink of showing. “What kind--,”

“Let’s go, Dan.” Nate interrupted, picking up on the seriousness. “It was nice to meet you all.”

Blair Waldorf . The girl that shattered his heart into so many pieces he hadn’t been able to let anyone pick them up except for Nate years later-- and that was only because he had never expected Nate to begin with. He’s numb as he follows his family out of the school and into the cab, barely making small talk as Nate covers for him by taking Clarissa’s attention. Eleven years. Eleven years had gone by since he had heard her name and now their worlds were colliding again because of their school children? I mean how had Blair even managed to have a ten year old?

Oh.

[prideunbi]

Hii~~ Carry On/Book Asks!!!! Hmm do you like the original or new cover art better? Any character you were annoyed with/disliked? Any books written in multiple perspectives where you liked all the perspectives equally? Reading anything right now? - Mich ☆

For the cover art hmm, I love both! You? Okay, I hated Penelope! For soo many reasons! She treated Simon (lol) pretty badly, and was just overall a character that just irked me. I actually prefer books in third person, even though two of my favorite books are written in first person, lol!! However! One of my all time favourite novels, the hours by Michael Cunningham, is written in three separate decades of three very different women’s lives! You have Virginia Woolf’s life during the 1920’s just as she was writing Ms.Dalloway, which is what connects all three women in the narrative. then you have another woman, Laura Brown, post WW2 and she is beginning to read Ms. Dalloway. Then you have Clarissa who was dubbed the nickname Ms. Dalloway in the 1990’s of New York! She’s apart of the LGBT+ community, as are list of her friends. They don’t have any labels at use, obviously, so I’ll go with the word ‘queer’ with no malicious intent meant by the word. I absolutely adored the book, especially because Virginia Woolf is one of my all time favourite writers. Sorry about that ramble, tho! I just cannot rave about it enough, tbh. I loved all the characters so dearly, and appreciated how well the author explained their difficulties, empathising them equally with great understanding, although being from different era’s! What about you? At the moment, I’m not reading one specific book. I did finish the first book of the raven cycle, raven boys, but I didn’t enjoy it quite that much for personal reasons. Hope it’s ok I don’t elaborate! BUT! I am reading the Goldfinch by Donna Tartt because of the movie coming up! What about you? Anything you’re reading? How did you like Carry On? Tell me everything and feel free to shoot me some texts about it whenever I’m happy to talk ^^

[dazblogfashion]

Here is some research I made on the 1920s showing all their trends and fashion at that time period they had including the technology, clothing styles, news, adverts and things people sell in the 20sFor this I had to find information first to support my answers in my researching. Gather some pictures from my 20s to show and prove my information in my work. I wanted to get as much research in this task and support all my questions as much as possible. This interested me a lot with the fashion during that period, who were the important and well-known people at that time, the technology etc. To this day the 1920s was a very memorable era in its history.

Here is a Video that explains and infills all the history during the past and how it all started to change to the way life is right now to this day. This was a very successful era as fashion had changed completely since the 1800s.

Model T

This is a very old car that was introduced in 1908 called the Model T and was created by Henry Ford. Tom was a very well-known person and very intelligent with his work and findings. He was one of the first people to create the first vehicle with wheels and a steering wheel that could move. This massively changed people's lives as this would make their lives so much easier for their transport. People were so shocked as this was life-changing. Although not many people couldn't afford this vehicle as it was too expensive before the 1920s. In the 20s there was a lot of mass production as they were selling too many products at once and so the prices dropped massively. More than fifteen million Model T's were manufactured in all,reaching a rate of 9,000 to 10,000 cars a day in 1925, or 2 million annually, more than any other model of its day, at a price dropped of just $26.At that time the Model T was the best and high record-selling.

Here is a bit of extra information given in a bit more depth and easy to understand about the development of the Ford Model T vehicle.

Here is an example of what you need to know with a short video that shows you what overproduction had changed as products got cheaper and dropped massively including the extra products as more people could buy more highly new technology and have access to everything. This was massively revolutionary for people in 1920. This also saved a lot of money for the people at that time with the prices dropping but still having access to high techno and still improving.

Equal Rights

Before the 1920s women had no chance of freedom or right as they thought women were useless and worthless at anything so they were not capable to work without allowance, this was very rare to find women to work. In fact, most women were at home cleaning and sweeping around the house, having to look after their kids and raise them without them having a social life outside. They were obligated to get married and have kids together so they will become housewives whilst their husbands go to work and gain money. Women were to be punished if they went against the rules or seem to be hiding something from the police. In 1920, all the women wanted to fight against the rules so they gathered around to find freedom and diversity to change things so women and men had the same equal right to do things, to work, make money, go out clubbing and enjoy themselves. Since women had the right to vote, they went against the rules making their own and becoming rebellious.

This is a website about Virginia Woolfs ebook giving a quick brief what her work is written about and how her life was during the 1920s.

Flappers

Flappers are Middle-aged women known for their energetic freedom, embracing a lifestyle viewed by many at the time as outrageous, immoral or downright dangerous. Now consider the first generation of independent American women, flappers pushed boundaries and barriers to economic, political and sexual freedom for women. Their fashion was near enough about lowered skirts to the waits and short, cropped hair in a bob, danced at jazz clubs and practiced sexual freedom that shocked the Victorian morality of their parents. Freedom for the women meant, working and making money and having their own job to show their independence and capability to do it on their own, free to do anything such as drinking/smoking, clubbing, and socialising with other people. No one could stop them overall. The 1920s also brought about Prohibition, the result of the 18th Amendment ending legal alcohol sales. Combined with an explosion of popularity for jazz music and jazz clubs, the stage was set for speakeasies, which offered illegally produced and distributed alcohol. Flapper dress-They donned fashionable flapper dresses of shorter, calf-revealing lengths and lower necklines, though not typically form-fitting: Straight and slim was the preferred silhouette. They wore high heels and threw away the corsets as they didn't want them and was not necessary for them in favour of lingerie and bras. They use a lot of make up suck as: rouge, eyeshadow around the eye, mascara and any either cosmetics. In this era it was all about standing out form people. Being diverse.

This is a video with women and men dancing together on stage dancing in the style of Charleston. Charleston is a very famous dance in the 1920s that women and men loved to dance to and enjoy themselves in their free time as this is what kept people from going. Dancing was a very popular thing in the 1920s.the main genres were jazz, classic, blues, swing, different dance bands and ragtime.

[drunkwalkhme]

Ooh i like this game a lot x) so.. cast your mutuals as... characters of your favourite books 💚

OOOOO I LOVE THIS ONE

i thought if i was considering shakespeare on this because so many of the plays are in my faves but it wouldn’t be fair so our dear lady macbeth (:3) if i didn’t

i’m mentioning the same people again sorry guys just spamming aajsbaj

Ely! okay i can think of so many amazing characters that have your vibeof course you are Lady Macbeth, so no doubts on thatbut you also somehow remind me of jane eyre because she’s amazing and also sill so classy and i can’t really explain why, but thinking about it mrs. dalloway came o my mind, clarissa is a very gentle character and she always seems to be in love with the world around her so there you go

josé @let-the-water-take-you reminds me of ariel of the tempest because he’s witty and clever and always seems to know what’s coming next, but also patroclus from the song of achilles because he’s also so gentle and deserved the world

simi @sapphealing reminds me of ophelia ever since she had an url with that quote from the lumineer’s song ajsbayg but i’d also say viola from twelfth night bc that’s probably one of the best constructed shakespeare characters on the comedies. the shakespeares vibes are real

 @unrulykitten here’s a book i love called into the water by paula hawkins and the protagonist has this witchy misterious vibe i think matches youbut also juliet

ania @all-the-grief first of all you are raskolnikov, all those times he just got pissed with people for not understanding them and just being super edgy? true slavic icon we love and respectand second of all obviously virginia woolf from the hour’s book that is very much the same as the movie so yes, aquarian icon

(well it seems i am a shakespeare blog jsaabsjbj)

thank you so much ely!! i had so much fun doing this and i hope you like yours :3 love you babe

[a-reader-from-venus]

Review: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is a novel I’ve been wanting to read for a long time - I mean, really long time. I’ve had this novel sitting on my to-read list for the past five years...yeah. So last semester, when it appeared on the syllabus as one of the reads for my Modern British Literature course, I thought “yes, finally!” I’m not good with consistent reading, even with books I actually want to read, as you can tell. 

The premise of this novel is simple: Clarissa Dalloway is a middle-aged woman who is preoccupied with preparing for an upcoming party she’s hosting, and the entirety of the narrative takes place in a single day. 

At first, she appears as the perfect socialite and hostess, but as the novel progresses, she’s actually a complex character, full of regrets and passions never realized. Most of the novel is her, and other character’s, reexamination of the choices she’s made in her life and coming to accept them by the end of the novel.

My professor described Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway as “one of the best novels ever written.” After reading it, I’m inclined to agree with him. This is a very beautiful and haunting narrative, serving as a close reading of human interaction and behavior. 

Woolf’s writing is, to me at least, hard to describe. It’s unique as she employs a technique known as stream of consciousness.

At times, I was swept away by such beautiful sentences (ones I wish I came up with, honestly) and imagery - ones that made me pause to take in their complexity and beauty. At other times, however, the writing does become too jumbled, too wordy, and it becomes necessary to reread a paragraph to understand what was going on. 

My favorite aspect of this novel were the characters. I felt as if I knew them personally, and could understand their pains, their regrets, their anger. Even if I didn’t like one character, I could still sympathize with them. They weren’t written like typical characters in a novel; they were written like actual people. 

One of the more shocking parts of the narrative was the instances of blatant homoeroticism involving the lead character and another female character, considering that, when this was published in 1925, was a taboo subject. I thought it added a bit of quirkiness to the novel, especially when I compare it to other novels of this period. 

I don’t expect many to like Mrs. Dalloway because it can be a difficult read. It also doesn’t follow the traditional chronological outline of a typical story. But it is a moving and revolutionary artwork, and if that’s something that interests you, I recommend it heavily.