The use of Stream of Vera Vicente

4th A IPA
Consciousness in 26th June, 2014.
“Mrs Dalloway”

The use of “Stream of Consciousness” in Mrs Dalloway.

The aim of this essay is to describe the 20th Century narrative device called “stream of consciousness” very
well depicted in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway. First, there will be an approach to the definition of the
concept, from the psychological and literary perspective. This will be followed by the examination of the
features while making reference to specific characters in the novel: both protagonists (Clarissa and
Septimus), as well as two very close people to them (Peter and Rezia).

It is surprising to find that Buddhists talked about the stream of consciousness back in the 5 th Century BC.
Their accounts of the substrate consciousness all refer to an individual stream of consciousness, or
“viññāna-sota”, that carries on from one lifetime to the next.

Much later in history, William James coined the term “stream of consciousness” in his book “The Principles
of Psychology” (1890): The attempt at introspective analysis in these cases is in fact like seizing a spinning
top to catch its motion, or trying to turn up the gas quickly enough to see how the darkness looks. Through
this metaphor, we can define the phenomenon as the continuous and contiguous flow of sensations,
impressions, images, memories and thoughts which are experienced at all levels of consciousness, and
generally associated with the person’s subjectivity or sense of self.

In an attempt to connect the psychological concept with the literary field, psychological novels were
developed in the 20th Century. Writers such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, tried to capture the total
flow of their characters’ consciousness, rather than limit themselves to rational thoughts. This narrative
technique, was employed so as to portray an individual's point of view by given the written equivalent of
the character’s thought processes.

This is evidenced all through Mrs Dalloway (1928). “By featuring their internal feelings, Woolf allows her
characters’ thoughts to travel back and forth in time, reflecting and refracting their emotional
experiences .“ This characteristic is illustrated right from the beginning of the novel.

Clarissa Dalloway aged 50 suffers a flashback from the time when she was 18, which was caused by the
sound of the hinges: (...) with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open
the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air. How fresh, how calm, stiller than this of
course, the air was in the early morning; like the flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave; chill and sharp and yet
(for a girl of eighteen as she then was) solemn, feeling as she did, standing there at the open window (...). In
this way, we can see how Clarissa’s thoughts were incited by an outside sensory stimulus.

Something similar happens when she is mending the dress for her party, as just the movement of the
needle makes Clarissa’s deepest emotions arise: ...drawing the silk smoothly to its gentle pause, collected
the green fold together and attached them, very lightly, to the belt. So on a summer’s day waves collect,
overbalance, and fall; collect and fall; and the whole world seems to be saying ‘that is all’ more and more
ponderously, until even the heart in the body which lies in the sun on the beach says too, That is all. Fear no
more, says the heart.
Looking at Clarissa’s summers in Bourton, Peter Walsh was one of her dearest friends, and most
importantly,her old suitor. He arrives in London from India, and goes right away to see Clarissa. After so
long, it is impossible to deny the feelings that their chat is able to evoke. Focusing on Peter, despite having
married with an Indian woman, he still has feelings for Clarissa and remembers when she rejected him: ...it
almost broke my heart too, he thought; and was overcome with his own grief, which rose like a moon
looked at from a terrace, ghastly beautiful with light from the sunken day. I was more unhappy than I’ve
ever been since, he thought. And as if in truth he were sitting there on the terrace he edged a little towards
Clarissa; put his hand out; raised it; let it fall. There above them it hung, that moon. She too seemed to be
sitting with him on the terrace, in the moonlight.

On the other side of the coin, Septimus Warren Smith was a World War I solider. He is also very attuned to
life’s deep meaning and has intense reactions, like those triggered by the noise from the tyres, expressed by
means of interior monologue: And there the motor car stood, with drawn blinds, and upon them a curious
pattern like a tree, Septimus thought, and this gradual drawing together of everything to one centre before
his eyes, as if some horrow had come almost to the surface and was about to burst into fames, terrified him
(...) It is I who am blocking the way, he thought. Was he not being looked at and pointed at; was he not
weighted there rooted to the pavement, for a purpose? But for what purpose?

Septimus’s wife tremendously suffered his husband mental illness and suicide attempt. “To love makes one
solitary, she thought.” Yet, Rezia could not speak her mind, and that is the reason why we get to know her
by jumping into her mind: For she could stand it no longer. Dr Holmes might say there was nothing the
matter (...) She could not sit beside him when he stared so and did not see her and made everything
terrible, sky and tree, children playing, dragging carts, blowing whistles, falling down; all were terrible. And
he would not kill himself; and she could tell no one (...) Look! Her wedding ring slipped – she had grown so
thin. It was she who suffered – but she had nobody to tell.

On the whole, the analysis of these characters has allowed us to identify Woolf’s use of stream of
consciousness. The writer represents the full richness, speed, and subtlety of the mind at work. She once
said: “I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It
expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.”

Bibliography:

 “Mrs Dalloway” (Virginia Woolf- 1928)

 “Principles of Psychology” (William James – 1890)
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness_%28psychology%29
 https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6765.Virginia_Woolf
 http://www.alanwallace.org/Vacuum%20States%20Essay.pdf
 http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/changlang/writtenword/woolf/dalloway.html
 http://narrative.georgetown.edu/wiki/index.php/Stream_of_consciousness
 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/133295/stream-of-consciousness