Social Oppression Virginia Woolf
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The physical and social setting in “Mrs. Dalloway” sets the mood for the novel’s principal theme: the theme of social oppression. Social oppression was shown in two ways: the oppression of women as English society returned to its traditional norms and customs after the war, and the oppression of the hard realities of life, “concealing” these realities with the elegance of English society. This paper discusses the purpose of the city in mirroring the theme of social oppression, focusing on issues of gender oppression, particularly against women, and the oppression of poverty and class discrimination between London’s peasants and the elite class.
The theme of oppression against women in Clarissa Dalloway’s society is very common among English literary texts set in the 20th century ( ). However, more than just an illustration of oppression against women, “Mrs. Dalloway” also highlights how oppression is deeply embedded in the English psyche that it became an acceptable and expected behavior among the English people.
In the novel, oppression has become a way of life for Clarissa. After the War, she has intentionally chosen to live her life as a wife of a member of the government, and gracious hostess to her friends and elite English society. Her choice of lifestyle is also a sign of her choice to marry Richard Dalloway instead of her former boyfriend Peter Walsh. Clarissa’s choice demonstrates how deeply-rooted her awareness is to her English society: “…what she loved was this, here, now, in front of her; the fat lady in the cab. 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? but that somehow in the streets of London, on the ebb and flow of things, here, there, she survived, Peter survived, lived in each other, she being part, she was positive, of the trees at home; of the house there, ugly, rambling all to bits and pieces as it was; part of people she had never met; being laid out like a mist between the people she knew best, who lifted her on their branches as she had seen the trees lift the mist, but it spread ever so far, her life, herself. (Woolfe, 124)”.
This passage illustrates Clarissa’s decision to lead her life as expected of her as a woman in English society (Kostkowska, 190). The line of thought, “did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely…did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely?” shows her self-reflection, wanting to justify her deliberate choice to become part of the English society, to blend in it, and to fit the “stereotype” of what people expected her to be. Clarissa’s uncertainty uncovers the oppression she feels, despite the fact that she belongs to the privileged class of her society. Just as she had stated, it is “inevitable” that she be subjected to specific forms of prejudice or discrimination simply because of the fact that she is a woman (Woolf 116). Clarissa’s acceptance of her fate as the wife of a respected English man is haunted by the fact that she herself does not have an individual identity, and has not a way to express her feelings and frustrations in life, not just as a woman, but as a human individual.
It is also significant that in her thoughts, Peter Walsh surfaces as a major figure. In the same manner that she questions her chosen life as a married woman, she also wonders whether she made the right decision when she married Richard instead of Peter. The difference between Richard and Peter demonstrates what Clarissa willingly chose: Richard as the embodiment of English society, and Peter as the individual who despised Clarissa’s classy parties and remained detached to English society. It is then in the city that Clarissa found the comfort that she needed in order to justify her decision to marry Richard and remain a member in the English society. In the process, Clarissa consciously allowed herself to be subjected to English society’s conservative attitude and behavior, accepting its culture, while at the same time, continuously questioning the occurrences in her life (which later became one of the events that lead her to commit suicide).
Throughout “Mrs. Dalloway”, London was embodied by the elite class of the English society. London was described with excitement and heroism despite all the occurring tragedies and hardships. Clarissa’s life in the city is illustrated as a “normal” one, but another side shown in the novel is the persistence of poverty, which remained and intensified in the society during the post-war years. The wide margin between the privileged