100 Years of 'Mrs Dalloway': Virginia Woolf's Timeless Exploration of Society and Mental Health
October 16, 2025
Woolf's personal struggles with mental illness and her nuanced view of mental health treatment, especially her awareness of institutions like Wandsworth asylum, deeply inform her portrayal of mental states in her novel.
Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs Dalloway' intricately explores social critique, mental health, and the human condition through characters like Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith, reflecting her engagement with contemporary issues such as war and societal norms.
Originally drafted as 'Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street,' Woolf's editing process aimed to preserve her initial structure and intentions, emphasizing the novel's carefully crafted design.
Woolf's admiration for Jane Austen's depiction of fleeting moments influences her narrative style, highlighting internal perception and the importance of observing life with unconditional attention.
Scholarly editions, such as Mendelson's, emphasize Woolf's intent to reanimate mythic themes of sacrifice and redemption, especially through Septimus Warren Smith's tragic story, reflecting her complex literary design.
Leonard Woolf praised Virginia Woolf's talent for elevating ordinary moments into profound insights, linking her fiction to everyday practices like conversation and diary-keeping.
Celebrating the centenary of 'Mrs Dalloway,' ongoing scholarly editions highlight Woolf's mastery across genres and her enduring literary significance.
Ultimately, 'Mrs Dalloway' serves as a meditation on life, death, societal critique, and perception, with characters embodying Woolf's philosophical and political concerns.
Woolf's childhood memories and her experiences of 'leaving the ground' symbolize moments of unconditional perception, foundational to her aesthetic and narrative approach.
The novel's structure reflects Woolf's interest in spatial and psychological movement, contrasting Clarissa's internal journey with Septimus's descent into madness, symbolizing broader themes of sanity and societal failure.
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London Review of Books • Oct 15, 2025
David Trotter · Unconditional Looking: Mrs Dalloway’s Demons