"There is true art in it, this command of tea and dinner tables; this animating correctness. Men may congratulate themselves for writing truly and passionately about the movements of nations; they may consider war and the search for God to be great literature's only subjects; but if men's standing in the world could be toppled by an ill-advised choice of hat, English literature would be dramatically changed" (The Hours, pp. 83-84). To what extent is Mrs. Dalloway a comment on wider social and political issues?
"People[...] must do something, be something" (p. 84): Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway is set in an era of vast social and political upheaval. Five years after the end of the First World War, the economic impacts had crippled Britain's ability to maintain an Empire, and as the Empire was collapsing, socialist thought was paving the way for the first Labour government. The spread of socialist and more liberal views was also changing the way people acted and were seen: less sexually restrained, more open to political change, and well on the way to considering women equal to men. The novel reflects all of these changes through the thoughts, memories and actions of its characters: Sally Setton's socialism and sexual liberalism; Peter Walsh's anti-imperialism; Mrs. Bruton's battle for equality and social conscience. Whilst Woolf is often viewed as more of an artist, a protagonist of a new wave of literature that values construction over content, I would argue that Mrs. Dalloway is as much social comment as it is an exploration of how best to describe human consciousness, and specifically an indictment of the contemporary political and social situation.
In Mrs. Dalloway's London, the rise of socialism is well underway. Even as early in the book as Clarissa's first descriptions of her time spent with Sally Setton, there are mentions of William Morris and Sally's socialist views. Woolf contrasts the two archetypes of young people's political and social awareness: Clarissa on the one hand "knew nothing about sex - nothing about social problems" (p. 36); Sally was a "Radical"(p. 169). The youthful extremes of idealism and apathy are themselves pitted against the realism of Richard Dalloway and Millicent Bruton. These two characters show the practical side of politics - they seek to remedy social problems through Parliament and Whitehall. However, Woolf leaves the reader a certain ambiguity within these characters. Richard's tirade against "our detestable social system" (p. 127) may seem shrewd, even valiant, and yet Peter Walsh discounts him as a sheep following the flock ("as if one couldn't know to a tittle what Richard though by reading the Morning Post" (p. 84)); Mrs. Bruton, for all her apparent power and idealism still defers to "her toadies, minor officials" to word her ideas and arguments for her. Woolf's use of this ambiguity demonstrates the vastly differing opinions of the various classes and generations at this time, and the lack of a coherent political direction or social conscience. Mrs. Bruton and Mrs. Dalloway, for example, whilst both of the same position within society, could hardly hold different views. Mrs. Bruton is "more interested in politics than people" (p. 116), using her position to influence politicians to do what she thinks they ought to, to publicise her views. Clarissa "cared much more for her roses than for the Armenians" (p. 132), demonstrating an alarming political apathy. What is common to both women, however, is that neither seems to have much of a social conscience.
In his essay 'Mrs. Dalloway and the Social System', Alex Zwerdling posits that:
"Mrs. Dalloway is in large measure an examination of a single class and its control over English society[...]The very use of internal monologue is a form of sympathy, if not exoneration".
Whilst the first statement seems correct, I cannot agree with the second. To claim that Woolf 'exonerates' her characters strikes me as naive. There are points, to be sure, at which the reader will sympathise with the characters, but there are others at which the characters may seem unpleasant, even cruel. When Woolf writes that "Sir William[...] forbade childbirth, penalised despair, made it impossible for the unfit to propagate their views until they, too, shared his sense of proportion" (p. 109), it seems odd to believe that the reader should sympathise with this point of view, or that by revealing his motives his actions are exonerated. By revealing the thoughts of her characters Woolf helps the reader to understand them. If anything, the multiple voices of the stream of consciousness style of narrative offers the reader differing opinions of a character, and allows the reader to decide for himself whether or not a character's actions are excusable or not. To me, Woolf's criticism of certain members of this "governing-class" (p. 84) seems damning.
As Zwerdling states, it is not only the "governing-class" itself that Woolf is concerned with, but "its control over English society". A reading in this light emphasises the importance of the few characters in the novel that are not of this ruling class (Septimus, Rezia, Miss Kilman and the servants at the party). These characters have a complex relationship with the upper class that is portrayed through the Dalloways and their friends. Whilst their lives are obviously deeply affected by the upper class as their employers, doctors, rulers, they are also shown as being largely unaffected by politics:
"one Prime Minister more or less made not a scrap of difference to Mrs. Walker" (p. 181)
And indeed, judging by Richard Dalloway's description of what he sees on his way home from Mrs. Bruton's (p. 127), the political dealings of a government preoccupied with retaining its failing empire has little effect on the majority of English people.
Woolf's portrayal of artistry throughout the novel also seems to betray a difference between the upper and lower classes. Septimus' poetic visions, whilst they could be dismissed as insanity, are some of the most beautiful passages of the novel, and he espouses the central values of love and peace that epitomise a paradise. However, he is driven eventually to suicide partly by his depression, but also in part due to his treatment by the upper class doctors. In their world, the colourful visions of Septimus are denied, replaced by conformity and , even materialism as symbolised by Bradshaw's "motor car[...] grey" with "grey furs, silver grey rugs" (p. 103). There is an urge on the part of the upper classes, as represented by Holmes and Bradshaw, to suppress this beauty, which is viewed as "unsocial impulses, bred more than anything by the lack of good blood" (p. 111) for "the good of society" (p. 111). The artists and 'cultured' people within the upper class are portrayed as inferior, labeled indeed "the most worthless of classes - the rich, with a smattering of culture" (p. 135). Even the supposed artists of the upper class look down on the likes of Clarissa:
"Hutton (a very bad poet) always felt that[...] About music, she [Mrs. Dalloway] was purely impersonal. She was rather a prig"
(p. 193)
Throughout the description of the party there are further examples of Woolf creating the impression that all the supposed artists within her social set are of poor standard: "A fine old fellow who had produced more bad pictures[...]" (p. 192). This condemnation of bourgeois art suggests a criticism of the stifling nature of contemporary upper-class social and political conventions.
Millicent Bruton plays a peculiar role in the political world of Mrs. Dalloway. As a woman of her generation she is effectively excluded from partaking in politics, and yet she uses her position of influence and respectability to effect political change and pass comment on current affairs, albeit through "her toadies, minor officials". She is an obvious demonstration of an increasing political awareness and influence that was becoming available to women at the time. In fact, for the younger generation, portrayed in the novel by Elizabeth, "every profession is open" (p. 149). Woolf demonstrates through various characters the possibilities of the politicisation of women: Sally the young, radical idealist; Mrs. Bruton the shrewd political animator; but she also shows a pair of respected and relatively powerful women who show no interest in politics: Mrs. Dalloway who "cared much more for her roses" (p. 132) and her daughter Elizabeth who "had never thought about the poor" (p. 143). Furthermore the former two women, who offer the possibility of political progress and change, are soon tainted. Sally is married to a mill owner in Manchester with five children, all political aspirations and idealism long behind her, and Mrs. Bruton concentrates her efforts not on reform, but on the old ways "the thought of empire always at hand" (p. 198).
Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway may initially appear to be largely an exercise in description of human consciousness; a brilliant display of artistry through language that breathes life into the old genre of the novel, and opens new possibilities for narrative and story-telling. But it also offers a sharply critical view of English upper-middle class society in the 1920s, and the effect that this very small social set had upon the lives of millions of Englishmen who in a time of economic turmoil and personal distress were not best served by imperialism and a stiff upper lip. Like her own character Septimus, Woolf is discovering, through her art, "profound truths which needed[...] an immense effort to speak out"; through the various voices and innovations of Mrs. Dalloway, the reader is not only invited into the minds of the characters, but forced to make his own decisions on political and social issues, choosing one or none of the many opinions offered up in the text.
Bibliography
Zwerdling, Alex, 'Mrs. Dalloway and the Social System', PMLA, Vol. 92, No. 1. (Jan., 1977), pp 69-82.
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One Comment
Some very good points noted, however I would avoid embellishments of intentional fallacy (unless you were to include a phenomenology vs. deconstruction argument, before making such points). Nonetheless, I admire your poignant arguments and shall be taking some notes.