How to analyze Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway from any point of view?

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Focalization in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway

As a modernist novel, Mrs. Dalloway, reflects the heavy use of focalization. Although this novel is written with the third person narration, in so many instances point of view differs and a number of focalizers operate. The change in point of view and focalizers is one of the characteristic stylistic features of Woolf's novel. The present section of this study is an attempt to examine the shifts in point of view and focalization.

The main focalizer in the novel is Clarissa, through whose eyes we see the events and evaluate themes. Nevertheless, other characters are given significant roles as focalizers. In many instances, there are examples of mix where the real focalizer is not easy to pinpoint.

It is difficult, here, to pinpoint the focalizer especially whose thought is represented in the two exclamations that open this quote. Of course, it might be Clarissa that focalizes here or some other entities. This is an instance of free indirect discourse where the speaker is not identified. Who said "What a lark! What a plunge!" Such a technique will make who communicates the narrative overwhelmingly difficult to assign. In other parts of the novel, the focalizer changes as well. The following two quotes give an indication that a number of characters in the narrative undertake the role of focalizing. The narrator in the novel sometimes makes it extremely clear that a character's thoughts pop up:

So, thought Septimus, looking up, they are signalling to me. Not indeed in actual words; that is, he could not read the language yet; but it was plain enough, this beauty, this exquisite beauty, and tears filled his eyes.

In this part, there are two focalizers: Septimus and the narrator. As far as Septimus is concerned, his thought is represented through the free and indirect technique. By using this technique the narrative operates to bring the reader very close to the events or thoughts. This kind of focalization is internal. What's more, there is a shift back to the point of view of the third person narrator but the link between the two focalizers is made by "Not indeed in actual words." Again this shift is not clear as regards whose words or thoughts these are.

2023-01-17

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• 志宇

  Internal and External Focalisation

  Nevertheless, there are sections in the novel where two kinds of focalization are found: internal and external. Clarissa is compared with a virgin nun in a white dress:

  Mrs. Dalloway raised her hand to her eyes, and, as the maid shut the door, she heard the swish of Lucy's skirt, she felt like a nun who has left the world and feels fold round her familiar veils and responses to old devotions.

  The narrator probes into the feelings of the character; the narrator does not only tell what the character is doing but goes deeper into the thoughts and preoccupations of Mrs. Dalloway. The use of the verb 'felt' and 'feels' indicates that this narrator has full knowledge of the interior of the main character.

  Then, as the narrative unfolds, the character of Peter Walsh becomes an internal focalizer. Through his thoughts, Peter says, “ I was more unhappy than I ‘ ve ever been since ” . This shows that he allows his own mind to go to such places. The indirect method is telling that Peter has such thoughts, which is not the case with Clarissa.

  This character, after his love being refused by Clarissa at the party, shows his feelings and thoughts:

  As a cloud crosses the sun, silence falls on London; and falls on the mind. Effort leased. Time flaps on the most. There we stop; there we stand. Where there is nothing,

  Peter Walsh said to himself; feeling hollowed out, utterly empty within. Clarissa refused me, he thought.

  Peter continues to be the focalizer. He dreams and through his dream the reader can see him as a traveler, who is at the end of the path. After being rejected by Clarissa, Peter is the traveler: "The traveler is seen beyond the wood; and there, coming to the door with shaded eyes, possible to look for his return". This dream is a shift from the narrative situation or What Ryan calls Text Actual World into another possible textual world, which is the dream world. The indirect method is used again with Peter which makes him the focalizer " There was always something cold about Clarissa, he thought".

  Septimus, becomes another focalizer when he imagines a dog turning into a man. He succeeds in making readers understand and see what is in his mind particularly men of politics who were soldiers in World War I. The picture of dogs represents those men who cannot turn into men of politics because they were "war dogs". Subsequently, Septimus imagines that he is speaking to the dead, his friend Evans, who died in war.

  Moreover, when his special doctor, Dr. Holmes, comes, Septimus makes readers see how deep his hate for Dr. Holmes is. He compares Dr. Holmes to the evil of human nature:

  Once you fall, Septimus repeated to himself, human nature is on you. Holmes and Bradshaw are on you. They scour the desert. They fly screaming into the wilderness. They rack and the thumbscrew are applied. Human nature is remorseless.

  
  

  
  

  2023-01-17 刪除 喜欢(0)

• 志宇

  Internal and External Focalisation

  Nevertheless, there are sections in the novel where two kinds of focalization are found: internal and external. Clarissa is compared with a virgin nun in a white dress:

  Mrs. Dalloway raised her hand to her eyes, and, as the maid shut the door, she heard the swish of Lucy's skirt, she felt like a nun who has left the world and feels fold round her familiar veils and responses to old devotions.

  The narrator probes into the feelings of the character; the narrator does not only tell what the character is doing but goes deeper into the thoughts and preoccupations of Mrs. Dalloway. The use of the verb 'felt' and 'feels' indicates that this narrator has full knowledge of the interior of the main character.

  Then, as the narrative unfolds, the character of Peter Walsh becomes an internal focalizer. Through his thoughts, Peter says, “ I was more unhappy than I ‘ ve ever been since ” . This shows that he allows his own mind to go to such places. The indirect method is telling that Peter has such thoughts, which is not the case with Clarissa.

  This character, after his love being refused by Clarissa at the party, shows his feelings and thoughts:

  As a cloud crosses the sun, silence falls on London; and falls on the mind. Effort leased. Time flaps on the most. There we stop; there we stand. Where there is nothing,

  Peter Walsh said to himself; feeling hollowed out, utterly empty within. Clarissa refused me, he thought.

  Peter continues to be the focalizer. He dreams and through his dream the reader can see him as a traveler, who is at the end of the path. After being rejected by Clarissa, Peter is the traveler: "The traveler is seen beyond the wood; and there, coming to the door with shaded eyes, possible to look for his return". This dream is a shift from the narrative situation or What Ryan calls Text Actual World into another possible textual world, which is the dream world. The indirect method is used again with Peter which makes him the focalizer " There was always something cold about Clarissa, he thought".

  Septimus, becomes another focalizer when he imagines a dog turning into a man. He succeeds in making readers understand and see what is in his mind particularly men of politics who were soldiers in World War I. The picture of dogs represents those men who cannot turn into men of politics because they were "war dogs". Subsequently, Septimus imagines that he is speaking to the dead, his friend Evans, who died in war.

  Moreover, when his special doctor, Dr. Holmes, comes, Septimus makes readers see how deep his hate for Dr. Holmes is. He compares Dr. Holmes to the evil of human nature:

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