Emma v.s. Mrs. Dalloway

What makes a book “good”? Virginia Woolf would argue that a good book begins with a worthy character – one who at first glance may not seem so interesting, but who demands our attention. On the other hand, Jane Austen may argue that a good book describes a complex plot that usually entails topics of love and class differences. But in the end, there is more than this debate that sets Jane Austen’s Emma and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway at two opposite ends of the novel spectrum. We must also take into consideration age differences between the two heroines and the different settings of the novels.

In the novel Mrs. Dalloway, the heroine Clarissa Dalloway, is at first introduced as a life loving, care free, youthful woman. However later on in the novel we discover that she is quite the opposite. We learn that she is a woman in her early fifties, who at times wishes, as most of us do, to begin her life anew. In Jane Austen’s Emma, we learn straight from the beginning that the novel features a young woman in her early twenties at the prime of her life surely preparing to make mistakes similar to those Clarissa Dalloway made in her youth. Seeing as these two heroines are a couple of generations apart, it is natural that they would have two different views of the world. For example when Peter Walsh comes to visit Clarissa, she seemingly is quite at ease with having another man, who is not at all related to her, in her bedroom as she mends a torn dress. Whereas Emma, in order to protect her honor, would find it quite awkward to be alone in a room with a man who is of no relation to her – which we can see when she is left alone with Mr. Elton in the carriage. These to point of views are important to take into consideration when you compare the two novels. Since Emma is quite younger than Clarissa, she will act a more immature and understand the world totally different. Clarissa has had years of experience to teach her what the world can be like.

As well as the age differences between the two characters, we must also take into consideration the setting of the two novels. Mrs. Dalloway is set most likely in the early to late 1920s. In this time period the norms of society have drastically altered in comparison with Emma’s time period. Even though women still do not have the same rights as men, they are given a few more freedoms, such as dress and the right to the same, if not similar, education as men. Women have more options, while marriage is the more comfortable option; it is not the only option for a happy fulfilling life. Emma, on the other hand, lives in a period where women must marry to survive. There are certain standards of dress and women are not necessarily allowed to have an education beyond what is needed to know to run a household.  These are two totally different cultures. One is ruled only by a class order system, where the rich have always been born that way, and the poor will remain that way. However, Clarissa’s culture is not so easily defined as rich or poor. While it still may not be easy to rise to a higher class, in Clarissa’s time period it is not all together impossible, as it was in Emma’s. Not to mention Emma lives in a rather rural city outside of London, whereas Clarissa lives almost in the heart of the city. This by itself is also a major difference. City life is nowhere near similar to life in a medium sized village.

So while these differences are small in comparison to the debate on what makes a good book, they are important to consider when one does compare two iconic books such as Emma and Mrs. Dalloway. 

Katherina Delgado


Austen, Jane. Emma. 2008. Signet Classics. Print
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. 1925. Harcourt Inc. Print.