1. Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway

2. Virginia Woolf ( )
a significant figure in London literary society
Mrs Dalloway (1925)
To the Lighthouse (1927)
Orlando (1928)
A Room of One’s Own (1929)
Leslie Stephen, her father, was a notable historian, author, critic
The sudden death of her mother in 1895, when Virginia was 13, and that of her half-sister Stella two years later, led to the first of Virginia's nervous breakdowns
The death of her father in provoked her most alarming collapse and she was briefly hospitalised

3. She married Leonard Woolf in 1912.
Lyrical novelist, stream of consciousness technique
Feminist writer
"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

4. Last note
„Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those 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. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that—everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. V”

5. Mrs. Dalloway
The novel was published in 1925, in the midst of the greatest experiments in modernist writing.
It was written between 1922 and 1924, it is set on a Wednesday in 1923.
During this time the Woolf’s moved, in early 1924, into Bloomsbury from Richmond, the quiet suburb they had been living since because of her breakdown and illness

6. London
“The whole of London… music, talk, friendship, city views, books, publishing, something central and inexplicable, all this now within my reach, as it hasn’t been since August 1913” (The Diary of Virginia Woolf).

7. Woolf’s view of the novel
“I should say a good deal about The Hours, and my discovery: how I dig out beautiful caves behind my characters; I think that gives exactly what I want: humanity, humour, depth. The idea is that the caves shall connect, and each comes to daylight at the present moment” (The Diary of Virginia Woolf).

8. Group work
Interpret the title of the novel! Why is Calrissa called Mrs. Dalloway?
Interpret the first sentence of the novel! What is the significance of flowers in the text?
What is the function of the aeroplane’s „messages? (pp )
What is the function of memories in the novel (the episode about Sally Seton, for instance)?
Who is Septimus Smith? What is his role in the novel?

9. Group Questions
What is the role of Peter Walsh in the novel? Why does he perceive himself as a solitary traveller? (p ) Compare him to Clarissa’s husband, Richard!
What is the role of doctors in the novel? What does Dr Bradshaw mean when he says that Septimus is suffering from „a lack of proportion”?
What is the role of Miss Kilman in the novel? Why does Mrs Dalloway hate her?
What is the significance of the party in the novel? Why does Clarissa feel dissatisfied by her own role?
Interpret the ending of the novel! How do you read the image of Clarissa, why does the novel end with this vision?