Giacometti

"He looks insane and exalted, both ancient and childish, astride the windowsill like some scarecrow equestrian, a park statue by Giacometti." (196)

Alberto Giacometti was a surrealist sculptor born in 1901. He made statues of people that had elongated limbs and skinny bodies. They look like they are just bones or a shadow of a person. Richards body is compared to Giacometti's statues because he is near death and looks like a skeleton.

~Dillen, Bruno."ALBERTO GIACOMETTI'S- Biography" Art in the Picture. September 29, 2008.

Apology

"She would ask for forgiveness by shying away, by what would be prove to be the day of his death. " (203)

Clarissa apologizes to Richard because she was trying to fit him into her happy life when he was miserable. She invited him to her party, thinking that he is poud of his accomplishments, when he feels like a failure. She plays the same role as Bradshaw and Holmes do in Mrs. Dalloway, because she tries to sculpt his soul into something it is not anymore.

Bird of Paradise

"Laura pays Mrs. Latch, accepts a bird of paradise from her yard. " (191)

Birds of paradise were mentioned in Mrs. Dalloway as describing the curtains. The bird and flower both have vibrant colors and excessive shapes. The plant shows that life is beautiful and little things such as plants can be enough to settle ones mind. It is appropriate for Mrs. Latch to give Laura this plant because Laura is doubting if she is happy with her settled life.

Richie

"Briefly, for a moment, the boy changes shape. briefly he glows, dead white. Laura remains not angry. She remembers to smile. She keeps both hands on the wheel." (193)

Richie is what keeps Laura from going crazy and fleeing. She keeps both hands on the wheel because she is prompted to continue driving carefully through life by her son. He is always watching her like a guardian angel. His dead white glow symbolizes him sustaining life. This white contrasts with the shadow of death that haunts Victoria and tempts Laura.

Queen Victoria's Memorial

"Big Ben strikes the hour, which fall in leaden circles over the partygoers and omnibuses, over stone Queen Victoria seated before the Palace on her shelves of geraniums" (168)

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901. The statue was designed by Aston Webb, who also designed the the facade of Buckingham Palace. It was sculpted by Sir Thomas Brock after she died. The statue is 82 feet high and has angles of truth and justice along side it. Virginia feels the need to be in the city of London because the country gives her too much space to think. She feeds from the bustle of the city, just like her character, Clarissa Dalloway.

~"Queen Victoria Memorial" A View on Cities. September 29, 2008.

Dead Bird

"She's made her arrangement of grass and roses; now she wants to move to dispatch the bird as quickly as possible and go hunting for it's nest." (120)

Now that the bird is dead Angelica forgets it and moves on to try to find the birds eggs. The bird's eggs would be something that it left behind. It extends the birds life in a sense. Virginia comments earlier that she wants to lay down with the bird, but decides that she does not want to die yet. She wants to finish writing her book so her morality will continue in her work and so she will feel as if she has accomplished something.

The Golden Notebook

"Clarissa's copy of the The Golden Notebook lay on the chipped white nightstand of the attic bedroom where they still slept alone" (98)

The Golden Notebook was written by Doris Lessing. It is much like Mrs. Dalloway due to its involute structure and its themes of madness and female sexuality. Mrs. Dalloway and other novels overshadowed The Golden Notebook in brilliance, just like her love for Richard was overshadowed by her love for Sally.

~Scullion, Val. "The Golden Notebook" Literary Encyclopedia. October 10,2003. September 29, 2008.

Cake

"without hesitation, picks up the cake and tips it from its milk-glass platter into the garbage can. It lands with a surprisingly solid sound; a yellow rose is smeared along the can's curved side." (112)

The cake is a symbol of domestication. She wanted to create a cake that was a piece of art like Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Her son made the cake with her and limited her creativity. When she throws the cake away the yellow rose is ruined. Flowers represent life in this novel and yellow is a content color. Laura's obligation to her son and husband are causing her discontent and suppress life.

Hours

"But there are still the hours, aren't there? One and then another, and you get through that one and then, my god, there's another. I'm so sick."

Richard knows that death is approaching him and feels time closing in on him. He is very conscious of his short time left, so he gives up. He does not have the time to write what he thinks he has the potential to write and he considers his life to be over.

Cigarette

"Laura reaches into the pocket of her robe for a cigarette, changes her mind, raises her hand instead to her hair. It is almost perfect, it is almost enough, to be a young mother in a yellow kitchen touching her thick dark hair, pregnant with another child." (44)

This moment can be compared to the prologue. Laura reaches into her pocket for a cigarette which symbolizes relief from an unhappy life. Virginia has a rock in her pocket, which she places there to help her escape life. Laura compares herself later to Virginia, because she hopes that she is observant like Virginia was. The two scenes contrast, because Laura decides she is content and Virginia does not.

Mirror

"the mirror is dangerous; it sometimes shows her the dark manifestation of air that matches her body, takes her form, but stands behind, watching her, with porcine eyes and wet, hushed breathing." (31)

The word porcine means resembling a pig. The image she sees in the mirror represents her illness hoovering over her. The shadow's eyes are piggish because it is greedily devouring her over time. It's breathing is hushed because it is hiding and trying to be silent at the moment.

~"porcine" The American Heritage Science Dictionary. September 29, 2008.

Meryl Streep and Vanessa Redgrave

"It is a women's head, quite a distance away, seen in profile, like the head on a coin, and while Clarissa cannot immediately identify her (Meryl Streep? Vanessa Redgrave?) she knows without question that the women is a movie star." (27)

Meryl Streep has been considered by many people to be the greatest film actress alive. Vanessa Redgrave started acting in the 1960's and has improved greatly as she has aged. The prospect of these actress being outside the flower shop is parallel to the unknown authority figure in the motor car in Mrs. Dalloway. The people in Mrs. Dalloway ran to see the car because they idolized the government. The actresses have control over America's culture just like the English government has. These figures are also admired because the will be remembered, therefore they are in a sense imortal.

~McDonough, Tom. "Biography of Meryle Streep" International Movie Database. September 29,2008.
~O'Connor, Dale. "Biography of Vanessa Redgrave" International Movie Database. September 29, 2008.

T-Cells

" Why doesn't she she feel more somber about Richard's perversely simultaneous good fortune ('an anguished, prophetic voice in American letters') and his decline ('You have no T-cells at all ,none that we can detect')? " (11)

T-cells are a type of white blood cells called WBCs. They protect the body from infection. AIDS effect the T-cells in a body, so Clarissa is saying that Richard had AIDS. Clarissa loves this man but does not feel somber that he sick, because she is distracted by life's beauty.

~Mallick, Indranil. "T-Cells" About.com. August 13, 2007. September 29, 2008.

Isabel Archer and Anna Karenina

"named after a great figure in literature, and while she'd argued for Isabel Archer or Anna Karenina, Richard had insisted that Mrs. Dalloway was the singular and obvious choice." (10)

Isabel Archer is the protagonist in The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James. The character is a headstrong girl who confronts her destiny. Anna Karenina is a work of fiction written by Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina has an affair, because she is dissatisfied with what she has. Clarissa is not rebellious like either of these women. She wonders if she is satisfied with the life she leads, but does nothing to change it like these women did. She is more like Clarissa Dalloway in Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, because she settles with what is comfortable and safe.

~"The Portrait of the Lady" The Literature Network. September29, 2008.
~"Anna Karenina" The Literary Network. September 29, 2008.

Observations

"Her face pressed sideways to the piling, absorbs it all: the truck and the soldiers, the mother and the child. " (8)

Virginia is so observant that she commits suicide. She evaluates everything that she perceives and cannot handle to live through it any more. She sees the imperfections in the world and continues to see them after she has drowned herself. Her vivid perception allows her to be a brilliant writer, but wears her down.