Stylistic Differences

After finishing reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and Emma by Jane Austen, I noticed a few major differences between the novels.  First and foremost among these differences was the style of the two authors: Austen was more direct, while Woolf left more up to the reader.  A second difference was what I expected from the novel as reader; Emma read quite easily, whereas Mrs. Dalloway more difficult and less predictable.
    The style that Emma was written was incredibly straightforward.  Physical descriptions of the characters were given to the reader the first time a character was introduced, describing as much as was necessary to envision the character.  The novel opens with, “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with…” telling the reader exactly what they need to know.  Character’s personalities are described similarly, often shortly within describing their physical attributes.  Emma’s cleverness, her most distinguishing personality trait, is given in the opening sentence.  This direct style lays out every thing the reader needs to know about the characters  and leaves very little to the imagination.  Compare this to Mrs. Dalloway, where very little information regarding the character’s attributes is given up front, if at all.  When the information is given to the reader, it is given a small piece at a time, forcing the reader to gradually draw conclusions about the characters.  Rather than define the characters immediately, Woolf allows the reader to draw their own conclusions about the characters as more and more information is given.  This difference in styles is huge and also contributes to the way the novels are read and what can be expected from them.
    Much like the direct writing style Emma was written with, reading it is straightforward as well.  The novel goes through events chronologically and also describes the significance of the events.  When attending a trip to Box Hill, Emma accidentally offends one of her friends.  Mr. Knightley, a prominent figure, scolds Emma for doing so and tells her the extent of her offense.  Once again, this leaves very little up to the reader to discern for themselves.  Furthermore, this directness leads the novel into predictable paths.  After Mr. Knightley scolds Emma, he tells her to try to apologize for her comment.  Because the reader knows Emma respects Mr. Knightley, she will take his advice.  A few pages later, her apology is happening in the novel, just as expected.  Mrs. Dalloway, on the other hand, has a far more complex story line.  The novel often shifts perspectives, where neighboring paragraphs have a different point of view.  This results in forcing the reader to keep track of a multitude of characters and perspectives.  Also due to this shift in perspective, the reader has less of an idea of what to expect.  Nearly anything, within reason, could happen next in the novel.  Not knowing who was going to be the next focus, and sometimes having multiple views of the same situation, led to a much more complex and intellectually stimulating read.
    The directness of Emma makes it a simple, yet enjoyable read.  Mrs. Dalloway was far more difficult, but forced the reader to think more.  While both are enjoyable, it comes down to whether or not you enjoy the style.

Eric Carl

Conventions in Emma and Mrs. Dalloway

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a convention as “usage or custom especially
in social matters or a rule of conduct or behavior.” In Jane Austen’s Emma and Virginia
Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, conventions have numerous uses. Conventions suppressed
personal desires, allowed people to communicate without conflict, kept lives running
smoothly, and governed social affairs.

Conventions suppressed personal feelings. As Clarissa Dalloway greeted the people
who came to her party at her own personal space, she said “how delightful to see you!”
(Woolf 163) to each person. Clarissa didn’t articulate how she actually felt about each
person who came to her party; however, she was “effusive” and “insincere” (Woolf 163)
just to conform to the conventions of the era. Clarissa Dalloway utilized conventions and
suppressed her own feelings simply to keep her guests comfortable at her party.

Conventions kept life running smoothly. Although Clarissa Dalloway, in Mrs. Dalloway,
was in love with Peter Walsh as a young adult, she married Richard Dalloway just
to conform to the conventions and expectations of her peers. Clarissa Dalloway was
expected to marry a person similar to Richard Dalloway, and she couldn’t fulfill her
relationship with Peter Walsh because of conventions. Conventions caused Clarissa
Dalloway to chose social status over love, and those conventions virtually changed her
entire life.

Conventions governed social affairs in the 1800’s and in the 1900’s. In Emma, Emma
Woodhouse threw a party for Mr. Elton’s new wife. The party continued according to
the social conventions of the 1800’s; the party began with a dinner, and concluded with
the men and women parting to separate rooms. Since social conventions were followed
almost to a tee, the party ran smoothly. Additionally, in Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa’s party
began with the “ladies… going up one by one.” (Woolf 161) Since the party started off
following the social conventions of the time, conflicts were avoided at the beginning of
the gathering. The people who lived in both these generations relied on conventions to
have successful parties.

Conventions were so important in the 19th and 20th centuries because when a person
disregarded conventions and expressed their real feelings, conflicts were created. In
Emma, Emma Woodhouse breached conventions and expressed how she really felt
toward Miss. Bates, saying “Ah! ma’am, but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me, but
you will be limited as to number—only three at once.” (Austen 301) Emma insulted
Miss Bates, and disrupted the informal social gathering she was participating in. This
passage in Emma illustrated how important conventions were to the people in this
time period. Likewise, when conventions were disregarded, conflict between people
occurred. There were certain safe topics that people could talk about in conversations.
At Clarissa Dalloway’s party, the majority of her guests adhered to the conventions,
except for two men who quarreled. These two men didn’t use the conventions, and it
lead to a conflict at the party. The proper use of conventions generally kept conflicts
away.

The character’s actions in Emma and Mrs. Dalloway demonstrated how necessary
conventions were in the time periods the novels were set in. Without the conventions,
conflicts occurred; however, when characters used the conventions, life ran in a way
that the characters were accustomed to and expected.

Andrew Corbitt


Austen, Jane. Emma. New York: Penguin. 1815. Woolf, Virginia.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc. 1925.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Web.

Conventions dealing with Space in Emma and Mrs. Dalloway

As a woman, there are only a few spaces that I cannot enter – the men’s bathroom, for example. As a twenty year old, the only spaces I am not ‘legally’ allowed to occupy are the ones where a person must be twenty-one or older – a liquor store, for example. Otherwise the world is an endless source of opportunity, waiting for me to explore all of its diverse spaces. However, it has not always been this way – especially for women. There was a time, not too long ago, where spaces were regulated. These regulations did not necessarily derive from a government act. A majority of them were conventions developed over time in a particular society/culture. In Jane Austen’s Emma and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, we catch a brief glimpse of how these conventions regulated society and influenced the people in that society.

It is perfectly normal in today’s modern world for a woman to come and go as she pleases. However for the women in Jane Austen’s novels, there were different societal rules a woman of class had to follow. At one incident in the novel after the party at Mr. and Mrs. Weston’s, Emma finds herself in a somewhat “awkward” situation. It has just begun to snow, and Mr. Woodhouse is quite impatient to get home before the snow worsens. In all the hustle and bustle, Emma and Mr. Elton are forced to share a carriage. Austen describes how the door is “lawfully” shut. The use of the world “lawfully” seems to indicate that Emma is totally aware of the precarious situation she is in. No one had noticed that she was alone in the carriage with a man she is not related to (also without a female chaperon). So if she were to make a fuss about it now, then that would draw unnecessary attention to the situation. Mr. Elton and Emma have just broken a cardinal rule! A woman and a man, who are not married, are never allowed to be together alone. It would ruin Emma’s reputation.

Another example we can draw from Emma is when she goes to drop off Harriet at the Martin’s farm. As well as having conventions that regulate interactions between the opposite sexes, there are also certain conventions that apply to the mixing/socializing of the social classes. We can see this particularly well as Emma attempts to convince Harriet that marrying Martin would not be beneficial, “It would have grieved me to lose your [Harriet’s] acquaintance, which must have been the consequence of your marrying Mr. Martin.”  Martin comes from the working class, and Emma would find it improper to have associations with anyone even acquainted with the Martin family.

On the other hand in novels such as Mrs. Dalloway the conventions that ruled Emma’s social life have been altered or totally forgotten all together. The first encounter we have with Mrs. Dalloway is of her walking by herself to a flower shop. At the very beginning of the novel one of the most important rules of Emma’s society has already been broken. Another example of the differences between Emma and Mrs. Dalloway is that when Peter Walsh comes to visit Clarissa, he rushes up to her bedroom and talks with her as she mends her dress! This event alone describes how flexible the social conventions of Mrs. Dalloway’s time period have become. There seems to be almost no space that is off limits. At the same time Clarissa lives in Westminster. This is an area near London that is generally reserved for the upper middle class, upper class, and royalty. Even though spaces no longer restrict communication between men and women, they certainly do restrict the interaction between social classes.

Even though the above comparisons between the modern world and two variations of older generations are really only applicable to western society, they are still relevant and accurate descriptions of how our society has changed over time. It is interesting to reflect on how much society and its conventions about space have altered. 

-Katherina Delgado

Austen, Jane. Emma. 2009. Public Domain Books. Ebook. 

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. 1925. Mariner Books. Print. 

Online Learning

Technology has allowed people to communicate effectively over great distances.  First there was the telegraph, and then the telephone, and now the internet helps fill that role.  With new innovations in the internet, such as voice and video chats and instant messaging, events such as conferences can take place online, even when the parties are separated by countries.  This allows for these events to take place in an online environment, which gives them a distinct feel that does not happen when they occur in person.  However, they still have merit for the advantages they provide in time saving, while the only disadvantages are usability which will affect everyone differently.
The advantages that online communication provide are quite extensive.  Being able to still have English class even though the professor was not at the school is one of those advantages.  It should be noted that this class period was held in a chat room, so it was a large group instant messaging, rather than a video conference.  Instead of losing the class period, it allowed us to go over some housekeeping things.  While this was not necessarily the best use of that time, the discussion we had in class was necessary and made it so that time was not wasted entirely.  One incredibly useful aspect of the online class was that we were able to break into small groups much more effectively.  Rather than being given a portion of the room, each group was given an entire “room” that only they were in.  This was much more effective than a divided room for the simple fact that there were no people to distract us.  However, the online class room was no substitute for the real thing.
While the online class did allow us to make use of an otherwise useless time period, it still had a fair share of problems.  Typing to chat is not nearly as fast or efficient as speaking, and tone is far more difficult to interpret.  Furthermore, I did not feel as attentive in the online class as a real classroom.  While this could be for any number of reasons, the most likely one is that it was not done via video.  The reason why I feel this way is because I didn’t have an image to accompany the text.  In other words, even though we were being “talked” to, it was not nearly as effective as having a person to talk to because many of the things that accompany speech, such as tone or facial expressions, are unable to be expressed without video.  While this was not very problematic for the class I was in, it did make the class period boring.
All in all, an online classroom experience seems to have a lot of potential.  It would allow people to participate from nearly anywhere while having basically the same experience.  Unfortunately, for many online learning programs, that potential has not been fully realized.  Making the experience textual rather than verbal prevents it from being as fluid as a normal class room, and even then it may still not be perfect.  Working out these kinks would allow for a classroom experience, without the classroom.

Eric Carl

Mrs. Dalloway: Cubism in Words

When Virginia Woolf first published her renowned novel, Mrs. Dalloway, in 1925, Cubism was slowly fading out and a new cultural movement was being ushered in. Even with Cubism’s slow fade out, it is still clear to see the strong impact it had on writers such as Woolf. Mrs. Dalloway is a prime example of how writers of the early 20^th century attempted to translate artistic movements into their literary pieces.

 When one observes a Picasso cubism painting, such as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, the feeling that his art first evokes may be confusion. However after careful observation and study, one is only filled with awe and amazement at how Picasso could have drawn something so unique! These same feelings are observed after reading Mrs. Dalloway. Woolf’s novel expertly executes a perfect translation of Cubism from the canvas to the page. Cubism was a literary movement that gained popularity before the First World War and continued in popularity until the early 1920s. The Cubist cultural movement focused on depicting objects from more than one viewpoint, as seen in Picasso’s paintings. In the painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, you can see how Picasso has depicted each woman a little differently, as if he has drawn parts of them from different angels and in different lightings.  

Mrs. Dalloway also demonstrates this technique of depicting different angles during the display of the plane writing letters in the sky. As the plane soars through the sky, attempting to spell a word with smoke in the air, the whole city of London looks on with fascination and curiosity. They look up and attempt to decipher the message being written out. This event is described to the reader through the many eyes of a crowded London street, “The aeroplane…began writing a K, an E, a Y perhaps?” The uncertainty of the lettering is just a small example of how Woolf incorporates different point of views in her novel.

Cubism also attempts to display how relative space is by intermixing different planes of an object. This can also be seen in Mrs. Dalloway whenever Woolf quickly and without warning switches the point of view of the novel. An example of this is when the reader meets Maisie Johnson for the first time.  It is a very fast transition from Rezia, another character in the novel who is described before the sudden encounter with Maisie. It is difficult to describe this particular event without citing entire paragraphs. It is best described as if all of a sudden the point of view of the story has changed from that of Rezia to Maisie. Instead of “Rezia exclaimed”, phrases such as “Maisie thought” are being used to describe Maisie’s point of view. If the reader is not paying close attention, then it is easy to get somewhat lost and they may need to backtrack to once again figure out where they are. Another example appears directly before Maisie’s appearance. The two characters Rezia and Septimus, who are married, are sitting in the park. Their appearance begins with a brief introduction of Rezia and goes on to shortly describe why they are in the park. Then it suddenly switches to Septimus’s mad ramblings, which at the same time include Rezia’s sane observations and worries about being seen in public with a mad man. It is as if they are one person, “’Look,’ she repeated. Look the unseen bade him.” The dialogue is all said by Rezia, however in the inner dialogue/observations are described through Septimus.

One would think that a written form of cubism may be easier to interpret and understand. However Mrs. Dalloway proves to as difficult, if not more so, than Picasso’s paintings, it is clear to see what influence Cubism had on early 20^th century artists. 


-Katherina Delgado

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. 1925. Harcourt Inc. Print
Wikipedia. Cubism. 2011. Wikipedia. Web. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism. 

Perception in Mrs. Dalloway

Our perception of people is often influenced by the situation and environment in which we experience them.  I have found this to be the case both in novels I have read and from my own personal experiences.  Characters in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway represent how perception is influenced by description and appearance.  In my own experience, I have found that first impressions can be very misleading, much like perception.

Woolf's description of Peter Walsh throughout the novel often influences the readers' perception of Peter.  When the reader is first introduced to Peter, he appears to be old.  Clarissa is over fifty and since Peter loved her when they were young,  he must be a similar age.   At the park, Peter falls asleep on a bench, an action characteristic of the elderly.  However, Peter is also characterized as a gentleman who lives in India and desires to marry a young woman he met there.  As a reader, I felt as though if he felt comfortable enough to start anew in a foreign country, he must be fairly youthful and adventurous.  While Peter is at Clarissa's house, he runs up the stairs to Clarissa's room.  Running is certainly not an action an old person would partake in.   While we clearly know Peter is in his fifties, his action seem much more associated with a young person. Virginia Woolf uses environment and description to paint Peter as both an old and young man.

Woolf allows for readers to see how Clarissa Dalloway's outward appearance is significantly different than the introspective qualities of her inner self.  The novel is told through the eyes of Clarissa, and as such, readers are given access to all of her thoughts.  Outwardly, Clarissa appears composed, respectable, and happy.  She leads a successful life, is married to a government official, and lives in an affluent, upper class society.  She lives a life of leisure both attending and hosting parties.  Despite all this, the reader understands Clarissa's actual feelings through her thoughts.  Inwardly, she is concerned with her age, is reflective on her past decisions, and seeks a deeper meaning in life.  Clarissa's anxiety about her appearance is displayed by her reaction to her grey hair. While she seems confident to others in her appearance, she is inwardly concerned that her newly grey hair, due to her vague  illness, reflects her age.  Upon meeting Peter, the reader is made aware of their past relationship. She often reminisces on the choice she made to marry Richard instead of Peter.   While her outward world consists of high class parties and other social events, inwardly she contemplates her family, life, and purpose.  While her peers judge her based on her public appearance and actions,  the readers are given a much deeper perception of Clarissa Dalloway through her private thoughts.

I have experienced how perception is influenced by situations.  Upon my arrival at Georgia Tech last semester, I met my roommate for the first time.  Immediately I made judgments about his character and personality based solely on his outward appearance.  After rooming with him for the past seven months, I have found we have a great deal in common.  Despite the fact that we look different, we enjoy similar activities and get along well.   This experience has taught me, like the inferences I made while reading Mrs. Dalloway, that one's perception is easily affected and manipulated by surroundings.

Andrew Corbitt

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc. 1925. Print.

Uniqueness of Mrs. Dalloway

One of the first things that I noticed when I started reading Mrs. Dalloway was the difficulty in ascertaining exactly what was happening in the novel.  The novel relies on unconventional, and occasionally unique, styles to present the events of a day to the reader.  However, that is what sets it apart from other novels and makes it an interesting read.  While it can be difficult to read, this leads to a more entertaining read and leaves the novel open to more interpretation.

The style of the novel explores the various thoughts and ideas that the individual characters have.  What makes reading this style so difficult is that the character’s thoughts often flash back to an episode in their past, while the story continues in the present.  This leads to a muddying of the “current” events since the novel flows so freely between memories and the present.  Given the plot of the novel so far, the confusion that this creates actually makes the novel more interesting to read.  The novel maintains an air of mystery and tension that a straight forward writing lacks.  This tension, rather than being resolved quickly by the narrator, is allowed to incubate in the characters.  Furthermore, the novel presents multiple viewpoints of the same situation.  It will switch between views of the different characters in the same situation, furthering this tension by allowing the reader to see all angles and why the tension exists.  An approach that had a more static narrator would not present this tension as effectively because it would only present a portion of the tension rather than the whole situation.  Not only does this approach and style bring more in the way of tension, it also allows for more interpretation.

Due to presenting multiple viewpoints, the novel does not obviously side with any character in particular.  This leaves the majority of the decision making concerning character’s actions and personalities up to the reader.    While the novel certainly leads the reader to believe in qualities of characters, it does not pass judgment on characters and allows the reader to make the final judgment.  Since different people will react to the same situation differently, this means that there is no definite or static interpretation to the events that transpire.  These differing interpretations allow for different people to enjoy the novel, as it does not present only one perspective.  This allows more people to see it in a favorable light and not quickly dismiss it because the plot is not to their liking.

The greatest advantage of Mrs. Dalloway is that it presents the reader with a variety of viewpoints and allows the reader to interpret the story in many different ways.  The novel is the events of one day, and a more or less regular one at that.  However, with its strengths, it creates tension and drives the plot forward, while leaving interpretation of all but the facts open to the reader.  This allows what would otherwise be a bland plot with straightforward writing to be an interesting, albeit difficult, read to the average person.


Eric Carl