Time is Out of Joint: the Retrospection of Mrs. Dalloway

What’s clear to me about this text is that time is absolutely out of joint. From the motif of the Big Ben clock, noted by Woolf several times in the text, to the constant “flashbacks” and general sense of nostalgia from beginning to end, it is eminent for us as astute readers to acknowledge the omnipresence and role of time in the text and how we can apply that to the reality we live in.

It seems that every character mentioned, from Clarissa to Septimus to Sally and even Peter is preoccupied with events that have already happened, and it’s noteworthy to say that while we’re reading Mrs. Dalloway, we actually get more of each characters “past” and what they “used to do” or where they used to go, than we get anything of their personality or current life. What Woolf is implying here by doing this in her work is that no matter how apparent or unapparent it is, our past does not only haunt us, but shapes our personalities and the way we view the world from then on. That fact is so dramatized here (or is it, as we don’t truly know how frequently other people ponder the past) by Woolf is her way of getting this message across. Every character, whether physically or emotionally, reacts to what has shaped them in a different way.

There are several subtle moments in the text that indicate that there’s more to time, more that effects humans, than just past time, present time, and future time. For example, the theme of death alludes to the stopping of time. Death is treated interestingly in the text, actually, for the biggest instance within which the characters interact with it is through Septimus. While in Mrs. Dalloway, the other characters besides Septimus see death as something uncontrollable, Septimus killing himself is a blatant attempt on his part to control time—he chooses when he dies, not time. A more “simple” symbol would be the ticking of the Big Ben clock, which in my opinion represents the constancy or even redundancy of time, because that clock will tick at the same time, every day and night, for as long as we’re alive. Additionally, the way in which the streets of London are described by Mrs. Dalloway in the beginning of the text leads us to feel a sort of “perpetual motion” about them—another indication of the constancy of time, the flow. Finally, what struck me most as far as characters acknowledging time was when Mrs. Dalloway imagines having the opportunity to live her life over—a reversal of time that perhaps is most relatable to her audience.

What I believe this says about the human condition and just life in general is that it’s impossible for us to ignore what has happened, even if it was traumatic. It’s necessary for us to acknowledge what has happened to us, and allow it to shape us. We can let terrors of the past destroy us completely, like Septimus, or we can take control and, like Clarissa, trudge on with these memories we have in our heads.