Throughout Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf gives us glimpses into the minds of her characters while at the same time showing their outward communication with other people. This framework leads to a complex series of relations, and her characters deal with the privacy, loneliness, and communication of these relationships in different ways. Peter Walsh is notably introverted, and gets swept up in his personal fantasies. Even Clarissa, who loves parties, deeply experiences her own incommunicable thoughts and the independence of her existence. She enjoys mingling with other people, but thinks that the true heart of life lies in the fact that the old woman across the way has her own room, and Clarissa has hers.
The inherent privacy of the soul is not always positive, though, and it often appears as loneliness. Septimus is the greatest example of this. No one understands his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and inner turmoil. Woolf shows the loneliness of the soul in nearly every interaction between characters, as she contrasts people's rich inner dialogues with their often mundane, failed attempts at communication with each other. Richard tries to say "I love you" to Clarissa, but is unable to do so and gives her flowers instead. Clarissa even sees Septimus's suicide as an act of communication, but by its very nature Septimus can receive no response from the world. The important reunion pointed to by the entire book – the meeting between Clarissa, Peter, and Sally – only takes place beyond the page, just after the novel ends. With all this privacy, loneliness, and failed communication Woolf shows how difficult it is to make meaningful connections in the modern world. Something as seemingly-frivolous as Clarissa's party then takes on a deeper, more important meaning, as it as an effort by Clarissa to try to draw people together.
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Privacy, Loneliness, and Communication appears in each section of Mrs Dalloway. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
Below you will find the important quotes in Mrs Dalloway related to the theme of Privacy, Loneliness, and Communication.
Cosby, Matt. "Mrs Dalloway Themes: Privacy, Loneliness, and Communication." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 11 Aug 2014. Web. 19 Apr 2019.
Cosby, Matt. "Mrs Dalloway Themes: Privacy, Loneliness, and Communication." LitCharts LLC, August 11, 2014. Retrieved April 19, 2019. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/mrs-dalloway/themes/privacy-loneliness-and-communication.