“Mrs. Dalloway” W. Wolfe in summary
The novel takes place in London, in the midst of the English aristocracy, in 1923, and takes only one day. Along with real events, the reader also gets to know the past of the heroes, thanks to the “stream of consciousness”.
Clarissa Dalloway, a fifty-year-old socialite, the wife of Richard Dalloway, a member of parliament, is preparing from the very beginning for the reception in the evening in her home for a reception to which all the cream of the English high society are expected to attend. She leaves the house and heads to the flower shop, enjoying the freshness of the June morning. On the way she meets Hugh Whitbred, who was familiar to her since childhood, who now occupies a high economic post in the royal palace. Her, as always, strikes his too elegant and well-groomed appearance. Hugh always suppressed it a little; next to him, she feels like a schoolgirl. In the memory of Clarissa Dalloway, the events of her distant youth come to life as she lived in Borton,
She enters the flower shop and picks up a bouquet. On the street you can hear a sound like a shot. It crashed into the sidewalk machine of one of the “extraordinarily” persons of the kingdom – the Prince of Wales, the queen, perhaps the Prime Minister. In this scene there is Septimus Warren-Smith, a young man of about thirty, pale, in a worn out coat and with such anxiety in his brown eyes that anyone who looks at him immediately worries. He walks with his wife Lucretia, whom he brought back from Italy five years ago. Shortly before that, he told her that he would commit suicide. She is afraid that people would hear his words and try to get him out of the pavement as quickly as possible. With him often there are nervous attacks, he has
Mrs. Dalloway enters the house with the flowers, where the servants have been bustling for a long time, preparing him for the evening reception. Near the phone, she sees a note from which it appears that Lady Brutn was calling and wondered if Mr. Dalloway was going to have breakfast with her today. Lady Brutn, this influential high-society lady, her, Clarissa, did not invite. Clarissa, whose head is full of sad thoughts about her husband and her own life, rises to her bedroom. She remembers her youth: Borton, where she lived with her father, her friend Sally Seton, a beautiful, lively and direct girl, Peter Walsh. She takes out a green evening dress from the closet, which she is going to wear in the evening and which has to be repaired, because it burst at the seam. Clarissa takes up sewing.
Suddenly a bell rings from the street, at the door. Peter Walsh, now a fifty-two-year-old man who has just returned from India to England, where he was not five years old, flies up the stairs to Mrs. Dalloway. He asks his old friend about her life, about the family, and tells herself that she came to London because of her divorce, because she is again in love and wants to marry again. He has a habit of talking with his old knife with a horn handle, which he is currently clenching in his fist. From this Clarissa, as before, feels with him a frivolous, empty balabalkoy. And suddenly Peter, struck by elusive forces, strikes tears. Clarissa reassures him, kisses his hand, rubs his knee. She is surprisingly good and easy with him. And in the head flashes the thought that if she married him, this joy could always be with her. Before Peter leaves the room, her daughter Elizabeth enters the room, a dark-haired girl of seventeen. Clarissa invites Peter to his reception.
Peter walks through London and is surprised how quickly the city and its inhabitants changed while he was away in England. In the park on the bench, he falls asleep, and he dreams of Borton, the way that Dalloway took care of Clarissa and she refused to marry Peter, how he suffered after that. Waking up, Peter goes further and sees Septimus and Lucretia Smith, whom her husband brings to despair with his eternal bouts. They are sent for examination to the famous doctor Sir William Bradshaw. The nervous breakdown that developed into a disease first appeared in Septimus in Italy, when, at the end of the war, to which he volunteered, Evans, his comrade in arms and friend died.
Dr. Bradshaw declares the need to place Septimus in a hospital for the mentally ill, according to the law, for a young man threatened to commit suicide. Lucretia is in despair.
At breakfast, Lady Brutn, among other things, tells Richard Dalloway and Hugh Whitbred, whom she invited to her in an important matter that Peter Walsh recently returned to London. In this regard, Richard Dalloway on the way home embracing the desire to buy Clarisse something very beautiful. He was thrilled by the memory of Peter, about youth. He buys a beautiful bouquet of red and white roses and wants, as soon as he enters the house, to tell his wife that he loves her. However, he does not have the courage to decide this. But Clarissa is already so happy. The bouquet speaks for itself, and even Peter visited her. What more could you want?
At this time, her daughter Elizabeth in her room is engaged in history with her teacher, who has long been her friend, extremely unsympathetic and envious Miss Kilman. Clarissa hates this person because she takes her daughter from her. It seems that this heavy, ugly, vulgar woman, without kindness and mercy, knows the meaning of life. After classes, Elizabeth and Miss Kilman go to the store, where the teacher buys some unimaginable skirt, eats at Elizabeth’s expense with cakes and, as always, complains about her bitter fate, what no one needs. Elizabeth barely escapes from the stuffy atmosphere of the store and the obsessive Miss Kilman society.
At this time, Lucretia Smith sits in his apartment with Septimus and makes a hat for one of his acquaintances. Her husband, again becoming for a little the same as he was at the time of falling in love, helps her with advice. The hat comes out funny. They are having fun. They laugh carelessly. The doorbell rings. This is Dr. Dome. Lucretia goes downstairs to talk to him and not let him go to Septimus, who is afraid of the doctor. Dome tries to push the girl away from the door and go upstairs. Septimus is in a panic; It is overwhelmed with horror, it is thrown out of a window and is broken to death.
To Dallowayam, guests, respectable gentlemen and ladies begin to drive up. Clarissa meets them, standing on top of the stairs. She perfectly knows how to organize receptions and stay in public. The hall is quickly filled with people. A short time even the prime minister calls in. But Clarissa is too worried, she feels old; reception, the guests no longer give her the same joy. When she watches the departing Prime Minister, she reminds herself of Kilmansh, Kilmansh, the enemy. She hates her. She loves her. A person needs enemies, not friends. Friends will find her when they want. She is at their service.
A couple of Bradshaw couple arrive late. The doctor talks about Smith’s suicide. In him, in the doctor, there is something unkind. Clarissa feels that she would not want to see him in misfortune.
Comes Peter and a friend of youth Clarissa Sally, who is now married to a wealthy manufacturer and has five grown sons. She did not see Clarissa nearly from her youth, and stopped by her only by chance in London.
Peter sits for a long time, waiting for Clarissa to take a moment and come up to him. He feels in himself fear and bliss. He can not understand what puts him in such turmoil. This is Clarissa, he decides to himself.
And he sees her.
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