James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner: Narrative Techniques and Themes

Posted on Feb 2, 2025 in English Studies

Joyce’s “The Sisters” and “Eveline”:

James Joyce was a brilliant young man who studied in Jesuit Catholic schools. His family was middle-class, but they endured different economic problems due to his father’s irresponsible behavior. He went to University College of Dublin, where he studied languages and graduated in 1902. In 1902, he left Ireland to study medicine in Paris, but a few months later he returned to Ireland because his mother was dying from cancer. He met Nora Barnacle, a young woman from Galway, in late 1904. The two left Ireland soon after to live in Italy, Switzerland, and France for four decades, never returning to Ireland again. Joyce died in Zurich in 1941, and Nora passed away ten years later in the same city. Besides Dubliners (1914), he wrote the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and the experimental text Finnegans Wake (1939).

In Dubliners, Joyce depicted the stories of his city under four different aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life. Its origin can be historically traced to the period of Irish Nationalism when anti-British sentiment was high. It was written not much later after the Irish Potato Famine and the subsequent movements that tried to defy the atrocious British rule during his stay in Ireland and Italy in the early 1900s.

• Historical Context: Written in the early 20th century and set in contemporary Dublin, the stories reflect the stagnation of Ireland under British rule and the pervasive influence of the Catholic Church. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw cultural nationalism rise, with movements like the Gaelic Revival promoting Irish language and heritage. However, everyday life in Dublin remained constrained by religious dogma, colonial control, and economic hardship. This was a time of anticipation for Irish independence (achieved partially in 1922).
• Literary Context: Joyce was part of the modernist movement, breaking away from Victorian traditions of linear storytelling and clear moral resolutions.

Characteristics in Dubliners:

• Focus on the mundane and everyday life to explore larger existential and moral themes.
• Use of epiphany (a moment of sudden insight).
• Realism, unadorned prose, and a critical portrayal of Irish life, capturing the “paralysis” of its people.

The Dubliners (1914), “Eveline”

“Eveline” is a short story published for the first time in 1904 in the Irish Homestead. It later made a place in his compilation of short stories Dubliners (1914).

Summary

“Eveline” mainly tells the story of a young woman, Eveline Hill, who is 19 years old and works in a Dublin shop. Throughout the story, she recalls the happy moments in her life, as well as her father’s drunken brutality towards her and her brothers, displaying what is called a stream-of-consciousness style of writing, which is illustrated as well in other novels such as Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. She also revisits the people who had left her, either leaving Ireland (for example, a priest who is now in Melbourne) or dying (her mother and her brother Ernest) and her own plans to leave Ireland with an Irish sailor named Frank, who is living in Argentina but whom she met a while ago when he was on vacation in Dublin. Finally, due to several factors, she does not leave her family and decides not to take the ship that would take them both to Argentina. These factors may be her father’s disapproval of Frank, fear of the unknown reality in Argentina, and the promise she made to her mother before she died, about keeping the family united.

Characters:

Eveline (Harry and Ernest, her brothers, passed away):

Frank (lover): From Dublin, but currently a sailor with a home in Buenos Aires, Frank meets Eveline on a visit to Dublin. Eveline describes him as “kind, manly, open-hearted” and likes hearing his stories about his travels. Frank begins walking Eveline home after she is finished working at the Stores and eventually starts courting her. Frank invites Eveline to become his wife in Buenos Aires. Joyce implies that Frank may be of a higher social or financial status than Eveline since he takes her to the theater and they sit in a section that Eveline is “unaccustomed” to. Aside from that, not much is known about Frank’s thoughts or intentions. Eveline is not in love with Frank, or at least not yet, but it is unknown whether or not Frank loves her. They have only been seeing each other for what seems to Eveline like a few weeks.

Eveline’s Father: Was abusive to her siblings and mother, but spared Eveline when she was young since she was a girl. He used to go searching in the field for her and her siblings with a blackthorn stick to call them inside, and appears to be a figure feared by all of the neighborhood kids. He also seems to take pride in showing off the photo of his old friend, a priest who moved to Melbourne. He has recently begun to threaten Eveline, now that she is older and there is no one else around to protect her. He squabbles about money with Eveline on Saturdays, worried that she will waste it. He also forbids Eveline from seeing Frank, assuming that he is unfaithful because he is a sailor.

Eveline’s Mother: Made a lot of sacrifices for her husband and family, and according to Eveline, didn’t receive respect from her peers and perhaps had a reputation for having a violent husband. She died of an unspecified illness, and was driven mad by her “life of commonplace sacrifices,” although it is unclear if her mental state is related to her death.

The Children: The relationship between Eveline and the children she cares for is never stated, but she is their caretaker and she is in charge of feeding them and making sure they go to school. They seem to have been part of the family since before her mother died and went along on the family picnic, although it is difficult to differentiate if and when the narrator is talking about the children she cares for, and when she is talking about her siblings when they were young.

The Waters, the Dunns, and the Devines: Three families that used to live on Eveline’s street. She mentions playing with children from these families during her childhood, but now the Waters have gone back to England and Tizzie Dunn has died. Though Eveline does not specify, it is implied that the other families have also either moved away or died.

Little Keogh the Cripple: Another one of Eveline’s neighbors who used to play in the field. He used to keep watch for Eveline’s father in the field and warn the other children when he was coming. The fact that he is crippled is quite possibly a conscious decision on Joyce’s part to foreshadow Eveline’s later paralysis, and also perhaps reflects the fact that many Dubliners remain “crippled” or paralyzed – immobile and trapped in monotonous Dublin life, unable to find an escape.

Symbols:

Dust represents monotony. The dust in the house keeps collecting no matter how frequently Eveline cleans it, paralleling the monotony of Eveline’s life in Dublin: she is constantly taking care of people or cleaning, only to wake up and do the same thing the next day. The children will always grow hungry again just as the dust will always collect again. In the opening lines, Eveline breathes in the scent of “dusty cretonne” and notices that she is tired. The dust is a reminder of her endless daily tasks, which seem empty of meaning. Dust also represents death, or the cyclicality of life. It calls to mind the Biblical phrase “from dust to dust,” which implies that dust is simply the absence of existence, either pre- or post- life. At one point Eveline wonders “where on earth all the dust came from,” not because she is genuinely curious but because she is fed up with the senseless repetition of her housework.

Water, specifically the sea, represents the unknown, and Joyce uses it to illustrate Eveline’s fear of the unknown. At the end of the story, when Eveline is filled with anguish and rendered immobile by the difficulty of her decision, she feels “all the seas of the world tumble[d] about her heart.” The fact that her heart comes back into the story is significant since she reveals that she has a health issue of palpitations. This image implies that the very thought of leaving Dublin and entering the unknown “seas” is causing her emotional distress, and perhaps heart palpitations as well. She feels that Frank is “drawing her into” the seas and that eventually “he would drown her.” She is not ready for the unknown, and she feels like Frank is pressuring her. The sea also represents freedom, which is one and the same as the unknown to Eveline. She is afraid of both freedom and the unknown.

Brown and Red: Joyce uses the color brown to signify the dreariness of Dublin. However, in this particular story, he also contrasts it with the new red houses that are being built on Eveline’s street. So here, brown represents Eveline’s childhood image of Dublin, and red represents the changes that have happened in Dublin since Eveline has become an adult. This contrast from brown to red is a change, but it is a very small one. Eveline knows that Dublin is changing, but the changes are tiny in comparison to the changes that moving to an entirely different country would present.

Analysis: “Eveline”: Eveline’s story illustrates the pitfalls of holding onto the past when facing the future. Hers is the first portrait of a female in Dubliners, and it reflects the conflicting pull many women in early twentieth-century Dublin felt between a domestic life rooted in the past and the possibility of a new married life abroad. One moment, Eveline feels happy to leave her hard life, yet at the next moment she worries about fulfilling promises to her dead mother. She grasps the letters she’s written to her father and brother, revealing her inability to let go of those family relationships, despite her father’s cruelty and her brother’s absence. She clings to the older and more pleasant memories and imagines what other people want her to do or will do for her. She sees Frank as a rescuer, saving her from her domestic situation. Eveline suspends herself between the call of home and the past and the call of new experiences and the future, unable to make a decision.

Themes

Death: Death is both figuratively and literally discussed in this short story. In the example of people who are no more part of Eveline’s life are described as though ‘they are no more.’ But this is not the case in the majority of the persons who are alive but are no more in contact with her. This going has become the metaphor of death. She describes life before her mother’s death better than what it is at present. Marriage is also a metaphor for death for her because, as a result of it, she will lose her identity, and she will be no more. Her husband will become her master and identity, and she will ‘drown’ in unknown seas. In those times, when women married, they lost all their rights and liberties, so marriage can be compared to slavery. According to Joyce, the meaning of life in Dublin is death.

Catholic Values: One of the major factors that need to be blamed for the failure of Eveline’s escape plan is her Catholic religion. Catholicism teaches sacrifice, promises, and guilt. When Eveline considers all these factors, she smells heresy because, for her own ends, she is deserting her father. At the end, she decides to sacrifice her own future and freedom for her family, and that will result in rewards from God.

Nostalgia: Nostalgia is another prominent theme in Dubliners. In “Eveline”, the protagonist’s main fetter is nostalgia, her thoughts begin and end with nostalgia, and that stops her from liberating herself. She is aware of the problems of the Dubliner life that emotionally kill a person. But she can’t leave Dublin because with it all her memories and identity will die, she won’t have the memory of sacrifices that she gave for her family.

Escapism and the Exotic: The threat of repeating her mother’s life spurs Eveline’s epiphany that she must leave with Frank and embark on a new phase in her life, but this realization is short-lived. She hears a street organ, and when she remembers the street organ that played on the night before her mother’s death, Eveline resolves not to repeat her mother’s life of “commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness,” but she does exactly that. The society in Argentina will be different, and people won’t judge her for her past. This is an insinuation towards her sex-related activities in the past where there may have been certain dark shades, and she wants to get rid of them. She fancies that escape will be a solution to all her problems. The idea attracts her, but when the time to make a decision comes, she can not decide because it in itself is a hard struggle. Through this theme, the author conveys the message that escape doesn’t always yield positive results and may even worsen the situation. One more thing, in Dubliners, we notice that there are rare opportunities for escape, and for this reason, many characters fantasize about the escapes they expect to find.

Paralysis: Eveline’s paralysis within an orbit of repetition leaves her a “helpless animal,” stripped of human will and emotion. The story does not suggest that Eveline placidly returns home and continues her life, but shows her transformation into an automaton that lacks expression. Eveline, the story suggests, will hover in mindless repetition, on her own, in Dublin. On the docks with Frank, the possibility of living a fully realized life left her. In the majority of the stories in Dubliners, the inability to take bold steps is noticed clearly. The same is the case with Eveline; she takes the step and reaches port but is unable to board the ship. She is paralyzed at the final moment when a single step can change her life, and she refuses to take this step. It is clearly shown to the reader through the slow slideshow of all the happenings, and he/she laments her inaction. Her mental paralysis is caused by the nostalgic feelings and the disbelief of men that she has seen.

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925)

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is known as the most important female modernist author. She was born in London and spent all of her life there, unlike other members of the “Lost Generation” (Pound, Joyce, Faulkner, Hemingway, etc.) who gravitated towards Paris. She was a member of the Bloomsbury Circle (founded in 1910). In 1912, she married Leonard Woolf, and in 1917 both founded Hogarth Press, their own publishing house. Woolf struggled with her mental health from a very young age, and she eventually committed suicide by drowning herself in a river in 1941. Her most notable works are: Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928), and The Waves (1931). Her essay A Room of One’s Own (1929) is an important piece of literature for 20th-century feminist thought.

• Historical Context: Written in the aftermath of World War I (1914–1918), the novel reflects a world grappling with unprecedented loss and trauma. Britain was undergoing significant social changes: traditional class structures were eroding, women had gained partial suffrage (1918 for property owners over 30), and urbanization was reshaping daily life. The collective shock of war, combined with new psychological theories (Freud), redefined societal narratives.
• Literary Context: Woolf was a key figure in modernist literature and part of the Bloomsbury Group.

Characteristics in Mrs. Dalloway:

• Stream-of-consciousness narration to explore inner thoughts and emotional complexity.
• A focus on temporality and subjective experience, capturing life as fragmented and fluid.
• Exploration of alienation, identity, and trauma in modernity.

Summary

Mrs. Dalloway (1925) is a novel that contains different points of view (Clarissa Dalloway, Elizabeth, Peter Walsh, Septimus and Rezia Smith, etc.), while revisiting their memories while walking on the streets of London (“stream of consciousness” or “narrated monologue”). The novel takes place on a single day of June of 1923, when Clarissa Dalloway, a 52-year-old upper-class woman, navigates through the moments of her life, the decisions she has made and so on, while preparing herself for a party that night that would be hosted in her house. Woolf’s novel is generally credited for its use of the technique of “stream of consciousness.”

Note: I prefer the term “narrated monologue,” employed by Dorrit Cohn in her book Transparent Minds. I reserve the concept of “stream of consciousness” for more experimental texts such as “Penelope,” the last chapter of Joyce’s Ulysses, one that features eight long sentences without punctuation.

Long Summary: All the action of Mrs. Dalloway takes place in London during one day and night in mid-June, 1923. Clarissa Dalloway is an upper-class housewife married to Richard, a politician in the Conservative Party. Clarissa is throwing a party that night, and in the morning she walks about London on her way to get flowers. She enjoys the small sensations of daily life and often muses on her late teenage years at Bourton, her family’s country home. She passes a car bearing an unknown but important personage, and an airplane skywriting an advertisement.

Clarissa returns home and is visited by Peter Walsh, an old friend from Bourton who has been in India for years. Peter was once passionately in love with Clarissa, but she rejected his offer of marriage. Peter and Clarissa have always been very close but also very critical of each other, and their brief meeting is laden with shared memories. Peter leaves when Clarissa’s daughter Elizabeth enters, and he walks to Regent’s Park, thinking about Clarissa’s refusal of his marriage offer. He follows a young woman, idealizing her from afar.

The point of view shifts to Septimus Warren Smith, a veteran of World War I who is suffering from shell shock. Septimus and his Italian wife, Lucrezia, wait in Regent’s Park. Septimus imagines that he is a kind of prophet and has hallucinations of his dead soldier friend Evans. Septimus was once an aspiring poet, but after the war he became numb and unable to feel. He believes his lack of emotion is a crime for which the world has condemned him to death, and he is often suicidal. Lucrezia has been taking Septimus to Dr. Holmes, who is convinced that Septimus has nothing wrong with him and is “in a funk.” That afternoon the Smiths visit Sir William Bradshaw, a famous doctor who subscribes to a worldview of “proportion” and is a psychological bully to his patients. Sir William plans to send Septimus to a mental institution in the country.

Richard Dalloway has lunch with Lady Bruton, a descendant of famous generals, and Hugh Whitbread, a shallow but charming aristocrat. The men help Lady Burton write a letter about emigration. After lunch Richard gets roses for Clarissa and plans to tell her he loves her, but when he sees her finds he cannot say it out loud. Clarissa considers the privacy of the soul and the gulf that exists between even a husband and a wife. Richard leaves and Elizabeth emerges with Doris Kilman, her history tutor. Doris Kilman is poor, unattractive, and bitter, and has been trying to convert Elizabeth to Christianity. Miss Kilman and Clarissa hate each other and are jealous of the other’s influence on Elizabeth. Miss Kilman and Elizabeth go shopping and then Elizabeth leaves, leaving Miss Kilman to wallow in hatred and self-pity.

Septimus grows suddenly lucid while Lucrezia is making a hat. The couple designs the hat and jokes together, sharing a moment of happiness. Then Dr. Holmes arrives to visit Septimus. Lucrezia tries to stop him, but Holmes pushes past her. Septimus thinks of Holmes as a monster condemning him to death, and Septimus jumps out the window, killing himself as an act of defiance.

Peter hears the ambulance go by and marvels at it as a symbol of English civilization. He lingers at his hotel and then goes to Clarissa’s party, where most of the novel’s upper-class characters eventually assemble. Clarissa acts as a “perfect hostess” but is worried the party will fail, and she is aware of Peter’s silent criticism. Sally Seton, a woman Clarissa had loved passionately as a teen at Bourton, arrives unexpectedly. The once-radical Sally has married a rich man and settled down. The Prime Minister visits briefly but his appearance is anticlimactic. Sir William Bradshaw arrives late, and his wife tells Clarissa about Septimus’s suicide. Clarissa goes off alone to consider the sudden arrival of death at her party, and she feels a kinship with Septimus. She admires the purity of his soul and considers her own often shallow existence. She sees Septimus’s suicide as an act of communication. Peter and Sally reminisce, waiting for Clarissa to join them. Clarissa finally appears and Peter is filled with ecstasy and terror.

Characters:

Clarissa Dalloway: The eponymous protagonist. The novel begins with Clarissa’s point of view and follows her perspective more closely than that of any other character. As Clarissa prepares for the party she will give that evening, we are privy to her meandering thoughts. Clarissa is vivacious and cares a great deal about what people think of her, but she is also self-reflective. She often questions life’s true meaning, wondering whether happiness is truly possible. She feels both a great joy and a great dread about her life, both of which manifest in her struggles to strike a balance between her desire for privacy and her need to communicate with others. Throughout the day Clarissa reflects on the crucial summer when she chose to marry her husband, Richard, instead of her friend Peter Walsh. Though she is happy with Richard, she is not entirely certain she made the wrong choice about Peter, and she also thinks frequently about her friend Sally Seton, whom she also once loved.

Septimus Warren Smith: A World War I veteran suffering from shell shock, married to an Italian woman named Lucrezia. Though he is insane, Septimus views English society in much the same way as Clarissa does, and he struggles, as she does, to both maintain his privacy and fulfill his need to communicate with others. He shares so many traits with Clarissa that he could be her double. Septimus is pale, has a hawklike posture, and wears a shabby overcoat. Before the war he was a young, idealistic, aspiring poet. After the war he regards human nature as evil and believes he is guilty of not being able to feel. Rather than succumb to the society he abhors, he commits suicide.

Peter Walsh: A close friend of Clarissa’s, once desperately in love with her. Clarissa rejected Peter’s marriage proposal when she was eighteen, and he moved to India. He has not been to London for five years. He is highly critical of others, is conflicted about nearly everything in his life, and has a habit of playing with his pocketknife. Often overcome with emotion, he cries easily. He frequently has romantic problems with women and is currently in love with Daisy, a married woman in India. He wears horn-rimmed glasses and a bow tie and used to be a Socialist.

Sally Seton: A close friend of Clarissa and Peter in their youth. Sally was a wild, handsome ragamuffin who smoked cigars and would say anything. She and Clarissa were sexually attracted to one another as teenagers. Now Sally lives in Manchester and is married with five boys. Her married name is Lady Rosseter.

Richard Dalloway: Clarissa’s husband. A member of Parliament in the Conservative government, Richard plans to write a history of the great English military family, the Brutons, when the Labour Party comes to power. He is a sportsman and likes being in the country. He is a loving father and husband. While devoted to social reform, he appreciates English tradition. He has failed to make it into the Cabinet, or main governing body.

Hugh Whitbread: Clarissa’s old friend, married to Evelyn Whitbread. An impeccable Englishman and upholder of English tradition, Hugh writes letters to the Times about various causes. He never brushes beneath the surface of any subject and is rather vain. Many are critical of his pompousness and gluttony, but he remains oblivious. He is, as Clarissa thinks, almost too perfectly dressed. He makes Clarissa feel young and insecure.

Lucrezia Smith (Rezia): Septimus’s wife, a twenty-four-year-old hat-maker from Milan. Rezia loves Septimus but is forced to bear the burden of his mental illness alone. Normally a lively and playful young woman, she has grown thin with worry. She feels isolated and continually wishes to share her unhappiness with somebody. She trims hats for the friends of her neighbor, Mrs. Filmer.

Elizabeth Dalloway: Clarissa and Richard’s only child. Gentle, considerate, and somewhat passive, seventeen-year-old Elizabeth does not have Clarissa’s energy. She has a dark beauty that is beginning to attract attention. Not a fan of parties or clothes, she likes being in the country with her father and dogs. She spends a great deal of time praying with her history teacher, the religious Miss Kilman, and is considering career options.

Doris Kilman: Elizabeth’s history teacher, who has German ancestry. Miss Kilman has a history degree and was fired from a teaching job during the war because of society’s anti-German prejudice. She is over forty and wears an unattractive mackintosh coat because she does not dress to please. She became a born-again Christian two years and three months ago. Poor, with a forehead like an egg, she is bitter and dislikes Clarissa intensely but adores Elizabeth.

Sir William Bradshaw: A renowned London psychiatrist. When Lucrezia seeks help for her insane husband, Septimus, Septimus’s doctor, Dr. Holmes, recommends Sir William. Sir William believes that most people who think they are mad suffer instead from a “lack of proportion.” He determines that Septimus has suffered a complete nervous breakdown and recommends that Septimus spend time in the country, apart from Lucrezia. The hardworking son of a tradesman, Sir William craves power and has become respected in his field.

Dr. Holmes: Septimus’s general practitioner. When Septimus begins to suffer the delayed effects of shell shock, Lucrezia seeks his help. Dr. Holmes claims nothing is wrong with Septimus, but that Lucrezia should see Sir William if she doesn’t believe him. Septimus despises Dr. Holmes and refers to him as “human nature.” Dr. Holmes likes to go to the music hall and to play golf.

Lady (Millicent) Bruton: A member of high society and a friend of the Dalloways. At sixty-two years old, Lady Bruton is devoted to promoting emigration to Canada for English families. Normally erect and magisterial, she panics when she has to write a letter to the editor and seeks help from Richard Dalloway and Hugh Whitbread. She has an assistant, Milly Brush, and a chow dog. She is a descendant of General Sir Talbot Moore.

Miss Helena Parry (Aunt Helena): Clarissa’s aunt. Aunt Helena is a relic of the strict English society Clarissa finds so confining. A great botanist, she also enjoys talking about orchids and Burma. She is a formidable old lady, over eighty, who found Sally Seton’s behavior as a youth shocking. She has one glass eye.

Ellie Henderson: Clarissa’s dowdy cousin. Ellie, in her early fifties, has thin hair, a meager profile, and bad eyesight. Not trained for any career and having only a small income, she wears an old black dress to Clarissa’s party. She is self-effacing, subject to chills, and close to a woman named Edith. Clarissa finds her dull and does not want to invite her to the party, and Ellie stands alone nearly the whole time, aware that she does not really belong.

Evans: Septimus’s wartime officer and close friend. Evans died in Italy just before the armistice, but Septimus, in his deluded state, continues to see and hear him behind trees and sitting room screens. During the war, Evans and Septimus were inseparable. Evans was a shy Englishman with red hair.

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

Nick Carraway is the narrator, who is from Minnesota and is Jay Gatsby’s neighbor. Nick has rented a house in West Egg. He first goes to visit his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom (who has a lover, Myrtle Wilson), in East Egg. There, he also meets Jordan Baker. Symbolic importance of two spaces: West Egg vs. East Egg (fictional names for Great Neck and Manhasset Neck, respectively, two areas separated by Manhasset Bay).

F. S. Fitzgerald was born in Minnesota but raised in New York. He was born into an upper-class family and attended Princeton University; he did not complete his degree due to a personal crisis that made him abandon studies and join the army in 1917 (remember, WWI was 1914-18). While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda, his future wife, a girl from a very rich family that only accepted to marry him once he obtained success with his first novel, This Side of Paradise (1919). Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1921), was also very successful; and his collection of short stories Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) made him an iconic figure in New York (Fitzgerald is credited to have coined the term “jazz age”).

In 1924, the Fitzgeralds moved to Paris, where he became close friends with Ernest Hemingway. In 1925, Francis S. Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby (1925) and, despite a good critical reception (T. S. Eliot praised the book, for example) it was a commercial failure during Fitzgerald’s lifetime. After returning from Paris in 1927, Fitzgerald tried to survive financially by publishing short stories and working in the Hollywood film industry (his most important period in Hollywood was 1937-39), but he had severe issues of alcoholism and his wife Zelda suffered from permanent mental illness. They went through very hard times in the 1930s. Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in 1940, at the age of 44.

• Historical Context: The story is set in the Roaring Twenties, a decade of post-World War I economic boom in the U.S. This era was marked by industrial and technological advancements, Prohibition (1920–1933), and a cultural shift toward hedonism and materialism. While wealth and consumerism defined the period, social inequalities and racial tensions persisted, and the economy’s instability would culminate in the Great Depression (1929).
• Literary Context: Fitzgerald is associated with the Jazz Age, which he helped to name. His writing combines modernist tendencies with a focus on romanticism and decadence.

Characteristics in The Great Gatsby:

• Symbolism (the green light, the Valley of Ashes).
• Cynicism about the American Dream and a critique of social stratification.
• A mix of lyrical prose and realism to reflect both beauty and moral decay.

Who’s Nick Carraway, the narrator?

• Origins: From Minnesota.
• Family history: Hardware family business.
• Education and work: Yale (an Ivy League university).
• Life in New York: Works in New York, he’s neighbor to Gatsby. Nick has rented a house in West Egg. He first goes to visit his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom, in East Egg. There, he also meets Jordan Baker.

How’s his experience dealing with this people?

• Daisy.
• Tom: He has a lover, Myrtle Wilson.
• Jordan Baker: She plays golf.

Symbolic importance of two spaces: West Egg vs. East Egg (fictional names for Great Neck and Manhasset Neck, respectively, two areas separated by Manhasset Bay): Besides West Egg and East Egg, there are two additional spaces: 1) The valley of ashes. 2) New York City.

Modernist Issues

• The “lost man”
• Unreliable narrator

American Topics

• The American dream = parallel with Gatsby’s dream
• The “roaring” 20s
• [The Great Depression], it’s somehow present: corruption, because OBVIOUSLY it is not mentioned in the novel. Something is not working in the US society/economy.
• “the party is over”/Except Gatsby, the rest of the people are very immoral.

Adaptation of the “American dream”. Some other people don’t explain why Nick is unreliable. “Possibly…”Nick is projecting his own view, very critic, pretentious, a classicist, he feels morally elevated, he is a judge, against what his father told him: to judge anyone.

1. The Lost Man (the corruption of the “American Dream”): Gatsby is an anti-hero because he’s the typical lost man character. He’s lost between his humble past and his present. To perceive the story as only a story of an individual (Gatsby) would be a mistake. It is a story of a whole America and its way of life. It is not an autobiography of Fitzgerald, but there are some hints of his life. It’s a critic of the America of the 20th. It serves as a metaphor for the corruption of the American dream and the decline of the American society. America has always seen as the promise land, with a lot of opportunities. American Dream: America will give you the opportunity to succeed if you work hard and have social compromise. But, if you are rich if you are successful, community must benefit from your success. It is not that idea of individual prosperity. Gatsby asks Daisy to marry, she says not because he has no money. The same happens to Fitzgerald. So, both go away to gain money. The difference is that when Gatsby comes back, Daisy is married with another man. Jay Gatsby Gatsby is lost between his past and his present. His idealistic conception of his life, and his real life. His mind is full of shadows; behind his fortune there are some illegal business, they are not clear at all. Also, he’s ashamed of his origins. His dream is to recuperate Daisy. He is a very idealistic person. Originally money was only an instrument to finally get Daisy. But then, he gets obsessed with money and also starts seeing Daisy as an office of possession too. When he goes back, he does not know if he loves Daisy as he used to love her before, in a very romantic way, or if she is in love with what the woman represents, she represents money (he wants to belong to that society, to her high-social status). It appears that he doesn’t care about the fact that she is married. He’s apparently the embodiment of the American Dream: he was poor in his childhood, and then he managed to gain money. But, in reality, he’s ashamed about this, he pretends to be someone that he’s not, he’s acting all the time and many people realizes (another reason why he is lost). We feel sorry for him because he’s never going to be accepted in this society.  So, his idea of the American Dream finally fails. No one attends his funeral. Fitzgerald criticizes that American has become very materialistic. The America of the 20th is very described in this novel, where people are very materialistic, very little irresponsible… Tom and Daisy They are lost in the sense of moral values. They don’t have moral values. They are selfish, superficial, irresponsible… They have empty lives. Their relationship is not a sincere one. 2. Formal experimentation (the unreliable narrator) Nick is the narrator, he’s tremendously unreliable. It is surprising that the name of the novel is Gatsby, but he does not appear almost until the end and he says nothing. So, who is the main protagonist? He feels himself different from the rest, he’s very lucky. “I’m inclined to reserve all judgements”: he judges everyone, so he lies us from the very beginning. He presents himself in a position of moral superiority, he sees himself superior to everyone. Bond business= investment (easy money, not the product of hard work). Chapter 3: “Everyone suspects himself of at least…”. Very suspect. He is involves in Tom’s cheating Daisy. He’s quite unmoral. Chapter 2. “The apartment was on the top floor…”: at certain times, Nick is drunk, so drunk, that his view is blurry. Chapter 3. “He smiled understandingly…”: He’s talking about Gatsby. Everything we know about Gatsby is through Nick. We don’t have an accurate description of Gatsby. “It faced or seemed to face…” he’s inventing, projecting his thoughts on Gatsby. His point of view is very partial, very prejudice, we can’t trust him. 3. Impressionistic landscapes: Beginning of chapter 2. Descriptions are pure impressionistic. We don’t want to imagine them as objective descriptions. Metanarrative or metafictional comment. [Here Nick is talking about Gatsby, in retrospective. He says Gatsby was the only person he liked. In a literal way, Nick is writing a book]  

William Faulkner (1897-1962) • Historical Context: Written during the late 1920s, the novel is set in the American South, reflecting the aftermath of the Civil War (1861–1865), Reconstruction (1865 1877), and the racial and economic stratification that persisted into the 20th century. The decay of old Southern aristocratic families symbolized the broader collapse of traditional values in a modernizing world. • Literary Context: Faulkner was part of the Southern Gothic tradition but also heavily influenced by modernism. Characteristics in The Sound and the Fury: • Experimental structure with stream-of-consciousness narration and fragmented timelines. • Focus on memory, trauma, and decay as reflected in the Compson family. • Themes of moral corruption, the passage of time, and societal decline. • Southern Gothic elements: decaying settings, flawed characters, and a preoccupation with the grotesque and tragic. He was a modernist – he makes it difficult for the reader (though, at the end, it’s always very rewarding to understand) Although he wasn’t an ex-patriot – He did live in the US, he never left home. He was born in Mississippi. He’s a Southern writer (unavoidable influences). He’s probably one of the most important American writers. Faulkner had very little formal education – he preferred to develop his mind independently. He began publishing in 1924. – The Marble Faun (1924) – poetry based on romanticism – quite bad He had an influence on the English Romantics in his novels, such as Keats >> In context, Faulkner, was incredibly romantic. – Soldier’s Pay (1926) – quite weak – Mosquitoes (1927) – quite weak – Flags in the Dust (1929) – he rewrote it → Sartonis ‘Yoknapatawpha Country’: the setting for his stories (it was like is invented microcosm)Sartoris family, Compson family, Sutpen family, McCaslin family → all of them were quite wealthy families (because they had plantations and slaves) He was fascinated with the history of the South He was very concerned with the African-American (the Beauchamp family), and he was also interested in the rise of the middle-class after the civil war (Snopes and Bunden families) – The Sound and the Fury (1929) Faulkner was extremely prolific General theme for him → History (the glorious past of the South) and past vs. present History associated with: time and consciousness. More themes are: – the decline of Old South – the rise of New North . Narrative innovations (stream of consciousness + human psychology) – and a narrative voice with different narrators. – As I Lay Dying (1930) – one of the narrators is the mother: she’s dead (dead narrator!) – Sanctuary (1931) – Light in August (1932) – Absalom! Absalom! (1936) – most experimental novel Mixture of personal style (which is the opposite of Hemingway’s Iceberg Principle), and a the Southern Gothic. He was a great comical writer, but he was a very good Southern writer. He received the Nobel prize in 1950. He was pretty wealthy, and he bought a plantation with blacks. Faulkner was accused of racism and sexism (Paul thinks he is too complex to be reduced to these terms) – It is important not to confuse an author with his narrative. In the 1940s, he became so interested in the problems of the blacks, he wrote a novel. – Go Down, Moses (1942) He was an Alcoholic, of course He also worked in Hollywood – he worked on the script based on a Hemingway’s book. The Sound and the Fury (1929) The name comes from a passage by Shakespeare, on Macbeth Faulkner loves to make it difficult for us – we have to solve puzzles (psychoanalysis) Time structure and fragmentation: – Chapter 1 → April 7th, 1928 – Benjy – Chapter 2 → June 2nd, 1910 – Quentin (end of chapter = suicide) – Chapter 3 → April 6th, 1928 – Jason – Chapter 4 → April 8th, 1928 – Omniscient narrator, focused on Dilsey (Easter Sunday) There can be a confusion on chapter 3: Quentin = Caddy’s daughter (the other Quentin has already committed suicide) Each one is obsessed with Caddy in a different way – Quentin is obsessed with Caddy because he loves her (he’s actually obsessed with her virginity = protect the family’s honour) – Benjy cries when Caddy’s gone – Jason hates her because now he has to take care of her daughter (he’s also a misogynist) The story is narrated (organized) from the most obscure narrator (Benjy, who is mentally retarded), to Quentin (intelligent, but not so very balanced), to Jason (materialistic), to an omniscient narrator Benjy’s obsession with time → everything is like a big present >> there’s no past nor future for him Quentin’s obsession with time → he wants to escape from it Jason’s obsession with time → time = money Quentin’s chapter – Is Quentin remembering before or after the suicide? We cannot know.  Chapter 2 → Quentin hates time, he wants to escape from it. He’s obsessed with Caddy, with her virginity. The most reminiscence of Joyce’s Ulysses – the same happens to Quentin (he’s walking through the streets and he sees clocks, and he hates it) – Quentin has inherited the anger of his father, BUT his father has a dimension of cynicism, which Quentin does not have Quentin waited for the academic year to finish before committing suicide (so all the money wasn’t wasted) – ‘Dalton’ Ames: was one of Caddy’s boyfriends (probably Quentin’s father) Quentin cannot escape from the Southern past, and he feels it is his duty to honour Caddy’s virginity (the family values) – he cannot achieve this, everything he does is so ineffective – that’s why he commits suicide – The little Italian girl: she’s like her little sister = Caddy, and he feels he has to protect her, but this girl has a real brother, who does what he cannot do with her real sister (Caddy) He asks Caddy to commit suicide together, she says OK, though she does not do it – She MAY have done it Chapter 3 →consequences of Caddy being pregnant Jason is the cruellest character, but he’s also humorous He feels like a victim, but he hates everyone – He’s the only who gets a happy ending Time for him = money Jason hates women, he’s always angry, he only thinks about money Chapter 4 → The chapter is told by an omniscient narrator The first part of the chapter focuses on Dilsey, and then on Jason Dilsey and her relation with time → the clock in the kitchen is broken, but Dilsey can tell what time it is (heal their relation) It is Easter Sunday, in the morning Dilsey is the cook, an old black woman, but who is not fat – she does not fit the stereotype Faulkner avoids stereotypes and he has a sense of respect for Dilsey If there’s a hope for humans in the novel, it’s the blacks (end of the white aristocracy/blacks endure) Purple = the colour of loyalty Faulkner vs. Hemingway = the style: difference in attitude 

James Joyce’s “The Sisters” and “Eveline” • Narrative Techniques: o Realism: Joyce uses detailed descriptions of everyday life and ordinary people, providing a snapshot of Dublin’s social fabric. o Epiphany: Each story builds to a subtle moment of realization or self-awareness for the protagonist. o Symbolism: Recurring symbols, such as light and dark or paralysis, convey themes of entrapment and revelation. o Free indirect discourse: This technique blends the narrator’s voice with the thoughts of the characters, though subtly. • Types of Narrators: o “The Sisters”: A first-person narrator, a young boy, recounts his experiences and observations, inflected with his naivety. His perspective gives the story its ambiguity, as he does not fully understand what he is observing. o “Eveline”: A third-person limited narrator closely follows Eveline’s thoughts and emotions, immersing readers in her internal conflict. • Common Themes: o Paralysis: The characters struggle with an inability to act decisively, reflecting societal and personal stagnation. o Duty vs. Desire: Eveline, for example, is torn between her obligations to her family and her longing for escape. o Loss and Mortality: Both stories grapple with death, absence, and the constraints they impose. o Religion and Guilt: The omnipresence of Catholic morality shapes the characters’ lives and decisions. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway • Narrative Techniques: o Stream of Consciousness: Woolf deeply delves into the inner thoughts of characters, capturing their consciousness with free-flowing and fragmented prose. o Shifts in Perspective: The narration moves fluidly between characters, blurring the boundaries of individual viewpoints and creating a mosaic of interrelated experiences. o Time and Temporality: The novel spans a single day but interweaves the past and present through memory and flashbacks, emphasizing how time shapes identity. • Types of Narrators: o Omniscient Third-Person Narrator: Though the story uses third-person narration, it often feels intimate due to the stream-of-consciousness style, which closely mirrors each character’s inner voice. o Multiple Focalizers: Clarissa Dalloway, Septimus Smith, and others serve as focal points through which the story unfolds. • Common Themes: o Time and Mortality: The characters reflect on aging, the inevitability of death, and the passage of time. o Alienation: Both Clarissa and Septimus feel disconnected from the world, highlighting isolation in modern urban life. o War and Trauma: Septimus represents the psychological scars of World War I and the failure of society to address them. o Gender and Identity: The novel critiques societal expectations for women, as Clarissa struggles with her roles as wife, hostess, and individual.  Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby • Narrative Techniques: o Retrospective Narrative: The story is told as a flashback, with Nick Carraway recounting events from the summer of 1922. o Unreliable Narration: While Nick presents himself as objective, his own biases and involvement complicate his account. o Symbolism and Motifs: Recurring images, such as the green light, the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, and the Valley of Ashes, carry deeper thematic meanings. o Juxtaposition: Contrasts between West Egg and East Egg, or illusion and reality, structure the narrative. • Type of Narrator: o First-Person Peripheral Narrator: Nick Carraway is both a participant and an observer in the story. His narration provides an outsider’s perspective on Gatsby while remaining central to the unfolding drama. • Common Themes: o The American Dream: The novel critiques its corruption, emphasizing materialism and moral decay. o Love and Obsession: Gatsby’s idealized love for Daisy represents a flawed, unrealistic pursuit. o Social Stratification: The divide between old money, new money, and the working class underscores entrenched inequalities. o Illusion vs. Reality: Gatsby’s life is built on a facade of wealth and grandeur, exposing the emptiness beneath. Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury (First Three Sections) • Narrative Techniques: o Fragmented Structure: Each section presents events out of chronological order, reflecting the instability and decay of the Compson family. o Stream of Consciousness: Deep immersion in characters’ interior monologues conveys their fragmented and unreliable perspectives. o Symbolism: The family’s declining estate and Quentin’s obsession with time signify decay and the burden of legacy. o Nonlinear Timeline: Events overlap and repeat, emphasizing the cyclical nature of family dysfunction and historical trauma. • Types of Narrators: o Benjy (Section 1): A first-person narrator with a limited, sensory perception of the world. His disability leads to an unfiltered but nonlinear narrative style. o Quentin (Section 2): A first-person narrator whose psychological torment results in disjointed, introspective, and unreliable storytelling. o Jason (Section 3): A first-person narrator whose cruel, bitter worldview provides a sharp, cynical perspective. • Common Themes: o Decay and Decline: The novel depicts the fall of the Compson family and the broader disintegration of Southern aristocracy. o Time and Memory: Obsessions with the past, especially in Quentin’s section, symbolize the weight of legacy and tradition. o Loss and Innocence: Caddy, an absent but central figure, embodies lost purity and unattainable ideals for the other characters. o Family Dysfunction: Relationships are fraught with resentment, rivalry, and despair, illustrating personal and familial failures. 

Joyce, Dubliners (1914), The Sisters INTRO: James Joyce’s “The Sisters” is an exploration of religion, paralysis, and the dead’s hold on the living. It follows a young, unnamed boy from Dublin who is processing the death of a priest named Father Flynn with whom he had a close but unnerving relationship. “The Sisters” is the first story in Joyce’s Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories set in Dublin, which was first published in 1914. “The Sisters” and the fourteen other short stories offer a realistic depiction of what life was like for the Irish middle class in the early 20th century. The Sisters” opens with an image of a Dubliner gazing through a window and reflecting on a dilemma. Such a symbol appears throughout the collection, and here it is particularly important because it draws attention to the narrative point of view. “ The narrator peers through Father Flynn’s window because he is looking for the two candles that will signify Father Flynn’s passing.  //What’s the meaning of the title? Are “the sisters” the main characters in this story, or do you think that Joyce is somehow misleading us? ➢ Religious connotation of the title, it’s an indirect introduction to Catholicism even though the two women are not nuns but simply sisters of Father Flynn. The two women took care of the old priest. ➢ We get to know the Father through secondary characters such as the sisters (who speak of their brothers in good terms) and Old Cutter (who has a negative opinion of the priest, and says that he was too close to the boy). – This is first story in Dubliners, and it is the only instance in which first-person narration (the boy is telling the story from his point of view) is dominant. There are some passages of first-person narration in the two stories that come after “The Sisters” but, overall, the third-person narration is dominant throughout the book. Why do you think Joyce chose the first person to open the book? ➢ He wanted to reflect the boy’s point of view. Then he changed his technique, probably because he felt confident enough as to use the third- person narration while at the same reflecting the characters’ thoughts and motivations Is this a plot that contains a number of surprises, accidents and changes of fortune, or are we dealing with a rather ‘simple’ plot that we can paraphrase? ➢ It’s a simple plot. There’s a dead priest and a boy and a group of adults talk about him. ➢ The boy is trying to come to terms with the dead of this priest who was close to him. ➢ Two worlds: childhood vs. adulthood. The boy pronounces words that he can’t really understand (see beginning of the story). ➢ There are certain aspects that are never resolved. Did the priest commit some kind of sexual abuse on the boy? – The boy mentions the word “paralysis.” What’s the literal meaning of this word in the text? What’s its metaphorical meaning? ➢ Literal: Father Flynn was ill. Physically and, later, mentally disabled. ➢ Metaphorically: “paralysis” as the state of Dublin and Ireland in general .- Do you think that there are pieces of information that we, the readers, never get to obtain? Why is that? ➢ How exactly Father Flynn died. We know he suffered a crisis after he dropped the chalice. They say it was “the boy’s fault.” After that he was found laughing in the confessionary. ➢ The “sexual abuse” accusation. – Who’s Father Flynn? Do we see him doing things, talking to people, expressing his opinion on things, etc.? Or we can only rely on what other people say about him? ➢ The adults said they didn’t like that the boy was close to him. They use the term “queer” twice. Did something wrong occur? – Look for explicit, and implicit, references to the Catholic liturgy. Why does Joyce incorporate these symbols into the text? ➢ There are many symbols and elements from Catholic rituals. Joyce does not openly mock them but by presenting them through the boys’ eyes we can feel that he’s somehow distorting their meaning. It’s a blend of the realistic and the symbolic/religious. – How do you read the ending of the story? PARALYSIS: In “The Sisters,” and in the rest of the stories in Dubliners, strange and puzzling events occur that remain unexplained. Father Flynn suffers from paralyzing strokes and eventually dies, but his deterioration, epitomized by his laughing frenzy in a confessional box, also hints that he was mentally unstable. The reader never learns exactly what was wrong with him. Similarly, Father Flynn and the young narrator had a relationship that Old Cotter thinks was unhealthy, but that the narrator paints as spiritual when he recounts the discussions he and Father Flynn had about Church rituals. However, the narrator also has strange dreams about Father Flynn and admits to feeling uncomfortable around him. Joyce presents just enough information so that the reader suspects Father Flynn is a malevolent figure, but never enough so that the reader knows the full story. Such a technique is hinted at in the first paragraph of the story. The narrator thinks of the word paralysis when looking at Father Flynn’s window and says the word sounds strange, like the word gnomon, a term that generally refers to instruments, like the hand on a sundial, that indicate something. Joyce does exactly that: He points to details and suggestions, but never completes the puzzle. INTERSECTION OF LIFE AND DEATH AS A THEME: The physical presence of Father Flynn lingers throughout the story, coloring the narrator’s experience of dealing with death in life and showing how a death interrupts normal human activities. Father Flynn plays a fleshly role in the story. His approaching death makes the narrator think of the corpse, which he eventually sees. When Father Flynn dies, the narrator continues to think of his physical presence, particularly the lurid way in which his tongue rested on his lip, and dreams of his face. Such bizarre physical images evoke the awkward nature of death. Like the episodes of Father Flynn’s odd behavior that the sisters recount, the narrator’s memories give Father Flynn a haunting presence that is fearful and mysterious, not beautiful and neat. In the final scene with the sisters, eating, drinking, and talking become difficult since death frames those activities. After viewing the corpse, the narrator declines the crackers offered because he fears that eating them would make too much noise, as if he might disturb Father Flynn in his coffin. Similarly, the narrator’s aunt is unable to broach the subject of death. She asks questions about how Father Flynn died, but her thoughts trail off. Father Flynn may be dead, but in many ways he is still very present among the living. RELIGIOUS AS A MOTIF: The inability of the narrator and his aunt to eat and speak during their visit to the sisters recalls the sense of paralysis that the narrator connects to the dying Father Flynn in the story’s opening paragraph. This link between paralysis or inaction to both death and religion underpins all the stories in Dubliners. Characters face events that paralyze them from taking action or fulfilling their desires, as though they experience a kind of death in life. In “The Sisters,” such paralysis is connected to religion through Father Flynn. Father Flynn’s dropping of the chalice and his inability to grasp the same object in his coffin suggest that the rituals of religion lead to paralysis. His sisters also attribute his demise to the strains of clerical life. The crippling quality of religion resurfaces in other stories like “Grace,” in which Joyce more directly questions the role of the Church in the lives of Dubliners. Breviary: In Roman Catholicism, a breviary is a book that contains the service to be delivered each day, which includes certain prayers, hymns, and lessons. Father Flynn spent a lot of time studying the breviary; however, in an important moment in the story, Eliza walks in on him half asleep, with the breviary having fallen from his lap. This scene stands out because Father Flynn’s loss of physical grip on things relating to Catholicism—most notably, the chalice, but also the breviary—represents his loss of metaphorical grip on religious teaching that are relevant to the community. Rosicrucian is a member of secret society that centered around the study of alchemy and metaphysics and first emerged in the 17th century. They claim to have access to spiritual wisdom handed down from ancient times. At the beginning of the story, Old Cotter jokingly accuses the narrator for being a Rosicrucian because he spends so much time on his religious studies with Father Flynn. In this context, the use of the word Rosicrucian is meant as an insult; Old Cotter doesn’t value religious studies and esoteric knowledge, and thinks the narrator should spend more time outside, with people his own age, learning things that are more practical. Simony refers to the (now-defunct) practice in the Catholic Church of paying for entrance to heaven, which was particularly rampant in the 9th and 10th centuries. Early in the story, the narrator dreams that he is smiling at Father Flynn, absolving him of the sin of simony. The implication that Father Flynn participated in the illicit practice of accepting money from parishioners to secure their entrance to heaven is one of several hints in the story that the deceased priest may have been corrupt in multiple ways.SYMBOLS: chalice symbolizes the relationship between the Catholic faith and the community portrayed in “The Sisters.” In Roman Catholicism, chalices are used during Mass and in communion ceremonies. They are used in moments when priests convene with their parishes, when members of the church are invited to partake in religious ritual, which creates the possibility for the chalice to represent the harmonious union between a priest and his parish. But in this particular story, the chalice is only introduced when readers learn that the priest in question, Father Flynn, has accidentally broken it—presumably due to his deteriorating health. The chalice also appears during the priest’s wake, as he has been placed in the coffin “loosely gripping” the chalice. In both of these moments, the priest’s poor treatment of the chalice symbolically represents his poor treatment, or inability to properly tend to, the relationship between the Catholic church and the people of the local community. Snuff represents the priest’s corruption, and, by extension, the corruption of the Catholic Church as a whole. In the story, the narrator relates to readers how he would often supply the priest with his snuff, often helping him to prepare it because the older man’s deteriorating health prevented him from opening the packet himself. The narrator describes Father Flynn’s clumsiness as he uses the snuff, which causes him to spill snuff all over his “ancient priestly garments” and also gives him discolored, ugly teeth. In brief, Father Flynn’s snuff habit is extraordinarily inelegant, and undermines the objective of his traditional priest’s clothing, which is to make him appear to be a respectable, spiritual figure. However, Father Flynn’s addiction to a material substance, which sullies his garments, prevents him from embodying that role. In a way, this serves to humanize Father Flynn.  

Mrs. Filmer: The Smiths’ neighbor. Mrs. Filmer finds Septimus odd. She has honest blue eyes and is Rezia’s only friend in London. Her daughter is Mrs. Peters, who listens to the Smiths’ gramophone when they are not at home. Mrs. Filmer’s granddaughter delivers the newspaper to the Smiths’ home each evening, and Rezia always makes the child’s arrival into a momentous, joyous event. Daisy Simmons: Peter Walsh’s lover in India, married to a major in the Indian army. Daisy is twenty-four years old and has two small children. Peter is in London to arrange her divorce. Evelyn Whitbread: Hugh Whitbread’s wife. Evelyn suffers from an unspecified internal ailment and spends much of her time in nursing homes. We learn about her from others. Peter Walsh describes her as mousy and almost negligible, but he also points out that occasionally she says something sharp. Mr. Brewer: Septimus’s boss at Sibleys and Arrowsmith. Mr. Brewer, the managing clerk, is paternal with his employees and foresees a promising career for Septimus, but Septimus volunteers for the war before he can reach any degree of success. Mr. Brewer promotes Septimus when he returns from the war, but Septimus is already losing his mind. Mr. Brewer has a waxed moustache and a coral tiepin. Jim Hutton: An awful poet at the Dalloways’ party. Jim is badly dressed, with red socks and unruly hair, and he does not enjoy talking to another guest, Professor Brierly, who is a professor of Milton. Jim shares with Clarissa a love of Bach and thinks she is “the best of the great ladies who took an interest in art.” He enjoys mimicking people. Psychological Time It is the time of the mind, not the same as the time of watches or clocks. Your mind doesn’t give you the same sensations as a watch. It is subjective and impersonal. It can be compressed and extended, not probably voluntarily. Time in a flux. Many modernist writers were interested in portraying time in a different way. This change in time has to do with industrialization. How hours of labour were paid. Modernists are very interested in the human mind. Modernist tried to capture the elusive qualities of psychological time and experience. Layered, allusive and discontinuous experience. The idea of Woolf is that the mind of the character is what rules. In the case of Mrs Dalloway, Clarise’s mind is always in the past, constantly travelling to the past, how she used to spend summer. Clarise’s mind is all the time mixing remembers from the past, concerns of the future… We get to know the character well because we know his concerns about the future, her memories, her obsessions, we get to know deeply the character… We know her mind. The tunnelling process: she speaks about the tunnels that connect the present, the past and the future of the character. The characters’ mind travels back and for through these tunnels. We understand characters not for their actions, but for their thoughts. Stream of consciousness They want to represent the human mind, make a portray of the mind, how it functions… Represent the mind in a very powerful way (vivid representations). Characters think more than speak. Rather more intricate than representations of speech in direct or indirect mode are representations of thought, which can be conceptualized as a kind of silent speech or inner speech. “What horrible weather they have here”, he thought (direct discourse) He thought that the weather in these parts was really horrible (indirect discourse). The narrator knows what the character thought. Free indirect speech is a style of third-person narration which combines some of the characteristics of third-person report with first person direct speech. What distinguishes free indirect speech from normal indirect speech, is the lack of an introductory expression such as “He said” or “he thought”. Example: He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. And just what pleasure had he found since he came into this world? (we have the impression that it is a very impersonal thought; it sounds like an I). The second part is the character thinking.  Stream of consciousness (formal experimentation) is a style that seeks to imitate how people think. It is usually very fragmented and chaotic and composed by means of free indirect discourse. We don’t have organised thoughts; we have this spontaneity. Supported by ungrammatical constructions which represents our chaotic mind. It’s a more vivid representation of the thoughts of the character. We reaches to know the character perfectly; it’s a flow of thoughts. At the end of the novel, we tend to understand the characters very well. The structural principle is not a chronology of events but the principle of free association (facts are presented as they happen in the mind of the characters, not as they happen in the character’s life). Time in the novel is an alternation of real clock time (with the trivial daily actions of the different characters along the hours of just one day of their lives in London on June 13, 1923) and the time of their minds, which moves recurrently back to different moments of their pasts. 2 important events: Clarissa’s party and Septimus suicide. Tunnelling process: Virginia Woolf created metaphorical “tunnels” towards the characters go back to the past. These tunnels connect the moments from the past with the moments from the present. It’s a sort of recording, whether they are thoughts, memories, what the characters see, observe… a collection of things. It’s is a form of interior monologue. Interior monologue is not the same as stream of consciousness. It is a compilation of thoughts, memories, wishes and ideas. However, thoughts are very rational and appear logically organized and structured. The novel as a spiderweb: Each character has its own narrative lines. In this novel we have disnarrative lines because we have different stories going on. Each character focuses in his/her own story. They work separately but they converge at certain moments to the centre such as in Clarissa’s party and then diverge again. So, some of the stories get connected through certain events in the novel. The consequence of the use of Stream of consciousness is that the narrator is almost imperceptible (example of the typical self-effacing narrator). Also, the consequence of the interest in the human mind, to represent in a vivid and powerful way the way people think. These characters are marked by a moment in the past, to which they are all the time going back. Clarissa goes back to the moment in which she rejected marrying Peter Walsh. Septimus returns to the moment when he was with Evans in the war, WWI. The novel takes place in only one day, June 13, 1923, in London. The novel starts with aged Clarissa and suddenly it turns to the young Clarissa. We are inside the mature Clarissa and then the young Clarissa appears. THE LOST MAN In this novel, the lost man is a woman, Clarissa. She finds herself between two worlds (the 19th century British Victorian society and the modern urban life of the early 20th century), so this is what causes her feeling lost. World has changed a lot, now women has more opportunities… The kind of woman she is vs. the woman she could have been. She is insecure and unstable, constantly wondering whether she did the right thing or not when she said not to Peter. Her mind is a mind in conflict. She is psychologically, emotionally and sexually “lost”. We don’t know what Clarissa really thinks, if she is still in love with Peter, if not… “So, she would still find herself arguing…”: she is thinking of Peter. She is trying to convince herself that she has made the right decision. The relationship between Clarissa and Richard is not very romantic nor intense, they appear to have separately lives. However, with Peter everything has to be shared, he’s more intense. Then, she remembers the moment Peter asked marrying him. She’s very narrow-minded, so she thinks that women are supposed to married with a rich man, with a good social status… Peter is not that. “She sat on the floor – that was her first impression of Sally…”: We don’t know if this attraction she feels for Sally is physical or what. “Suddenly, Mrs Coates…” (p. 15). A group of characters looking exactly at the same place. They are separately, in their own lives, in their own thoughts, but at some point they are looking at this aeroplane. Then, we have different thoughts. All characters have been connected by means of the aeroplane./Indirectly, Septimus is also present in Clarissa’s party because people are speaking about him. Clarissa thinks constantly about death, so, she is maybe depressed “She had one thrown…”. She does not think of death as a negative connotation, for her is like a kind of liberation. She thinks very positively about death. Clarissa identifies herself with Septimus, even not knowing him. She also thinks about suicide. Instead of feeling sorry for Septimus, she feels glad of him. THE BIG BEN AND PATRIARCHY The hours often connect the characters. Distinction of two different times: the time of the mind and the time of the big ben. The sound of the clock striking the hour is a kind of restraint, it’s a call of attention to be serious, to be less passionate and living a in a more organised patriarchal word. For example, when Clarissa has this kind of flow of thoughts and suddenly the clock strikes, that remember her/force her to go back to present. Trees and Flowers: Tree and flower images abound in Mrs. Dalloway. The color, variety, and beauty of flowers suggest feeling and emotion, and those characters who are comfortable with flowers, such as Clarissa, have distinctly different personalities than those characters who are not, such as Richard and Lady Bruton. The first time we see Clarissa, a deep thinker, she is on her way to the flower shop, where she will revel in the flowers she sees. Richard and Hugh, more emotionally repressed representatives of the English establishment, offer traditional roses and carnations to Clarissa and Lady Bruton, respectively. Richard handles the bouquet of roses awkwardly, like a weapon. Lady Bruton accepts the flowers with a “grim smile” and lays them stiffly by her plate, also unsure of how to handle them. When she eventually stuffs them into her dress, the femininity and grace of the gesture are rare and unexpected. Trees, with their extensive root systems, suggest the vast reach of the human soul, and Clarissa and Septimus, who both struggle to protect their souls, revere them. Clarissa believes souls survive in trees after death, and Septimus, who has turned his back on patriarchal society, feels that cutting down a tree is the equivalent of committing murder. Waves and Water: Waves and water regularly wash over events and thoughts in Mrs. Dalloway and nearly always suggest the possibility of extinction or death. While Clarissa mends her party dress, she thinks about the peaceful cycle of waves collecting and falling on a summer day, when the world itself seems to say “that is all.” Time sometimes takes on waterlike qualities for Clarissa, such as when the chime from Big Ben “flood[s]” her room, marking another passing hour. Rezia, in a rare moment of happiness with Septimus after he has helped her construct a hat, lets her words trail off “like a contented tap left running.” Even then, she knows that stream of contentedness will dry up eventually. The narrative structure of the novel itself also suggests fluidity. One character’s thoughts appear, intensify, then fade into another’s, much like waves that collect then fall.Traditional English society itself is a kind of tide, pulling under those people not strong enough to stand on their own. Lady Bradshaw, for example, eventually succumbs to Sir William’s bullying, overbearing presence. The narrator says “she had gone under,” that her will became “water-logged” and eventually sank into his. Septimus is also sucked under society’s pressures. Earlier in the day, before he kills himself, he looks out the window and sees everything as though it is underwater. Trees drag their branches through the air as though dragging them through water, the light outside is “watery gold,” and his hand on the sofa reminds him of floating in seawater. While Septimus ultimately cannot accept or function in society, Clarissa manages to navigate it successfully. Peter sees Clarissa in a “silver-green mermaid’s dress” at her party, “[l]olloping on the waves.” Between her mermaid’s dress and her ease in bobbing through her party guests, Clarissa succeeds in staying afloat. However, she identifies with Septimus’s wish to fight the cycle and go under, even if she will not succumb to the temptation herself. Moments of (interrupted) revelation: Page 36: “Only for a moment; but it was enough. It was a sudden revelation […] Then, for that moment, she had seen an illumination” [Clarissa’s attraction for women] Interruptions: In the past, Peter interrupted Clarissa’s moment with Sally. Elizabeth now interrupts Clarissa’s moment with Peter, who has kissed her. Peter, back in London after five years in India (he left London in 1918), represents: ✓ Clarissa’s past (she rejected his marriage proposal). ✓ Class differences (he was expelled from Oxford, never got along with Clarissa’s father, is aware of Clarissa’s social upbringing). ✓ New sexuality and morality (he always disapproved of Clarissa’s Victorian mentality; now she’s going to marry a soon-to-be divorced woman). ✓ The contrast between the metropolis (London) and the Empire (India). He still admires British civilization even though he is aware that it is in crisis after WWI. Septimus Smith symbolizes the psychological effects of WWI – he is a war veteran who is now mentally disabled (“Septimus was one of the first to volunteer,” 95). He is associated with suicide. Woolf writes: ”London has swallowed up many millions of young men called Smith” (94). He met Lucrezia in Milan, at the end of WWI (96). Septimus is an avid reader, and we can tell that Woolf sympathizes with her. Let’s now see the contrast between Septimus Smith and Renzia and Sir William Bradshaw. 

Two questions to start with: 1. Is there a place for religion in modern societies? 2. Is science the new religion in the Western world? Is Lady Bruton the nemesis of Clarissa? Lady Bruton is a rich woman, like her, but unlike her she is very involved in politics. However, she seems uncapable of writing a letter to a newspaper, and requires Hugh’s help: “After a morning’s battle beginning, tearing up, beginning again, she used to feel the futility of her own womanhood as she felt it on no other occasion, and would turn gratefully to the thought of Hugh Whitbread who possessed — no one could doubt it — the art of writing letters to the Times” (121). Who is Miss Kilman? − She was a history teacher in a high school but was ejected due to anti-German sentiments (she has German ancestry; moreover, she did not publicly express hate towards German during the War). − She is poor – she wears an ugly mackintosh – and despises Clarissa for her elitism and her beauty. She is aggressive towards her. − She became a Christian devotee two years ago. Elizabeth, who is Clarissa’s daughter, seems content with not working, she seems passive even though women do have more opportunities in the 1920s. The ambulance constitutes a symbol of “the triumph of civilization” for Peter. Ironically, is the ambulance carrying the dead body of Septimus Smith, a victim of the War that the UK fought precisely in the name of that civilization. Peter sees the ambulance and the medical system as sign of progress yet Septimus has suffered a kind of inhuman treatment from the doctors.  THE PARTY The Prime Minister attends the party. This is because Richard Dalloway, Clarissa’s husband, is a Member of the Parliament. Note that the Dalloways live very close to the House of Commons, in Westminster, a prime area of London. An unexpected guest arrives: Lady Rosseter. She is Sally Seton, Clarissa’s friend and (platonic?) love from her youth years. Sally is married to a wealthy man and she now brags about her big family, “five enormous boys,” a flamboyant attitude that Clarissa doesn’t appreciate. Clarissa speaks to the Bradshaws and it is through Lady Bradshaw that she learns about Septimus’ suicide. Clarissa identifies with Septimus: “She felt somehow very like him – the young man who had killed himself.” (Clarissa and Septimus have two things in common: they love literature, and they suffer because they can’t communicate with others). It is ironic that one of the hosts of Clarissa’s party is doctor Sir William Bradshaw. Richard reflects on the emptiness of life on his way back home, after meeting Lady Bruton and Hugh. He intends to declare his love to Clarissa, but he can’t do it.Themes THE NATURE OF TIME Time is a central theme in “Mrs Dalloway.” The narrative unfolds over the course of a single day, as the characters’ thoughts and memories interweave with the present. The novel examines the subjective experience of time, the impact of the past on the present, and the fleeting nature of life. INDIVIDUAL CONSCIOUSNESS Woolf employs a stream-of-consciousness narrative technique to delve into the minds of her characters. The novel provides intimate access to the thoughts, memories, and inner lives of characters like Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith. The exploration of consciousness is central to understanding the complexity of human experience. SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS The characters in the novel grapple with societal norms, expectations, and the pressure to conform. Clarissa Dalloway, in particular, feels the weight of societal conventions and the expectations placed on women in the upper-class English society of the time. THE AFTERMATH OF WAR Set in the aftermath of World War I, the novel addresses the profound impact of war on individuals and society. Septimus Warren Smith, a war veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, becomes a symbol of the psychological toll of war. ISOLATION AND ALIENATION Despite the characters’ interactions in social settings, a pervasive sense of isolation and alienation runs through the novel. Characters struggle with feelings of loneliness, disconnectedness, and the inability to communicate their true selves to others. FEMINISM AND WOMEN’S ROLES “Mrs Dalloway” examines women’s roles in early 20th-century England. The protagonist, Clarissa Dalloway, reflects on her life choices, the limitations placed on women, and the challenges of navigating societal expectations. SEXUALITY AND IDENTITY The novel subtly explores issues of sexuality and personal identity. The characters grapple with their own desires, societal expectations related to sexual norms, and the constraints imposed by a conservative society CRITIQUE OF BOURGEOIS SOCIETY Woolf critiques the superficiality and materialism of the bourgeois society depicted in the novel. While characters engage in social rituals and parties, the narrative invites readers to question the authenticity and meaning of their lives.SYMBOLS: The Prime Minister: The prime minister in Mrs. Dalloway embodies England’s old values and hierarchical social system, which are in decline. When Peter Walsh wants to insult Clarissa and suggest she will sell out and become a society hostess, he says she will marry a prime minister. When Lady Bruton, a champion of English tradition, wants to compliment Hugh, she calls him “My Prime Minister.” The prime minister is a figure from the old establishment, which Clarissa and Septimus are struggling against. Mrs. Dalloway takes place after World War I, a time when the English looked desperately for meaning in the old symbols but found the symbols hollow. When the conservative prime minister finally arrives at Clarissa’s party, his appearance is unimpressive. The old pyramidal social system that benefited the very rich before the war is now decaying, and the symbols of its greatness have become pathetic. Peter Walsh’s Pocketknife and Other Weapons: Peter Walsh plays constantly with his pocketknife, and the opening, closing, and fiddling with the knife suggest his flightiness and inability to make decisions. He cannot decide what he feels and doesn’t know whether he abhors English tradition and wants to fight it, or whether he accepts English civilization just as it is. The pocketknife reveals Peter’s defensiveness. He is armed with the knife, in a sense, when he pays an unexpected visit to Clarissa, while she herself is armed with her sewing scissors. Their weapons make them equal competitors. Knives and weapons are also phallic symbols, hinting at sexuality and power. Peter cannot define his own identity, and his constant fidgeting with the knife suggests how uncomfortable he is with his masculinity. Characters fall into two groups: those who are armed and those who are not. Ellie Henderson, for example, is “weaponless,” because she is poor and has not been trained for any career. Her ambiguous relationship with her friend Edith also puts her at a disadvantage in society, leaving her even less able to defend herself. Septimus, psychologically crippled by the literal weapons of war, commits suicide by impaling himself on a metal fence, showing the danger lurking behind man-made boundaries.The Old Woman in the Window:The old woman in the window across from Clarissa’s house represents the privacy of the soul and the loneliness that goes with it, both of which will increase as Clarissa grows older. Clarissa sees the future in the old woman: She herself will grow old and become more and more alone, since that is the nature of life. As Clarissa grows older, she reflects more but communicates less. Instead, she keeps her feelings locked inside the private rooms of her own soul, just as the old woman rattles alone around the rooms of her house. Nevertheless, the old woman also represents serenity and the purity of the soul. Clarissa respects the woman’s private reflections and thinks beauty lies in this act of preserving one’s interior life and independence. Before Septimus jumps out the window, he sees an old man descending the staircase outside, and this old man is a parallel figure to the old woman. Though Clarissa and Septimus ultimately choose to preserve their private lives in opposite ways, their view of loneliness, privacy, and communication resonates within these similar imageS. The Old Woman Singing an Ancient Song: Opposite the Regent’s Park Tube station, an old woman sings an ancient song that celebrates life, endurance, and continuity. She is oblivious to everyone around her as she sings, beyond caring what the world thinks. The narrator explains that no matter what happens in the world, the old woman will still be there, even in “ten million years,” and that the song has soaked “through the knotted roots of infinite ages.” Roots, intertwined and hidden beneath the earth, suggest the deepest parts of people’s souls, and this woman’s song touches everyone who hears it in some way. Peter hears the song first and compares the old woman to a rusty pump. He doesn’t catch her triumphant message and feels only pity for her, giving her a coin before stepping into a taxi. Rezia, however, finds strength in the old woman’s words, and the song makes her feel as though all will be okay in her life. Women in the novel, who have to view patriarchal English society from the outside, are generally more attuned to nature and the messages of voices outside the mainstream. Rezia, therefore, is able to see the old woman for the life force she is, instead of simply a nuisance or a tragic figure to be dealt with, ignored, or pitied