Peter, Sally or Richard?
In Mrs. Dalloway the main character Clarissa Dalloway is married to the politician Richard Dalloway, but throughout the book, we see that Clarissa has had other relationships and emotions for other people. Clarissa came very close to marrying Peter Walsh and on page 32 we get introduced to Sally Seton which changed my view on Clarissa as a character. Should Clarissa have married Richard or should she have chosen another path? Let the battle begin!
The Case for Richard
Richard, of course, is the man that Clarrissa ended up marrying and seems like a very nice guy. We know that Richard is part of the conservative party and Clarissa has to keep up the role of "Mrs. Richard Dalloway". Throughout the book, there are hints that Clarissa does not like taking up that role. When Clarissa was young she was very upset when Peter told her she would become the wife of a prime minister. Peter also believes that Clarissa embraced her role of being the "perfect hostess" after her and Richard's marriage. On the other hand, Clarissa likes the life she has with Richard. She enjoys the personal space, has a maid (Lucy) and has a daughter that she loves. Never in the book do we see Mrs. Dalloway regret her marriage.
The Case for Peter
Peter was Clarissa's love when she was younger, but there were many things that Clarissa did not like. For example, she hated how Peter had to butt into everything. She felt as if she had no space and that Peter had to know exactly what she was doing all the time. There are also the little things that annoy her such as Peter's habit of fiddling with his pocket knife. Although there are many reasons Clarrissa rejects Peter it is obvious that she still cares about him. We know that they continued to write letters to each other (although Clarissa failed to read them all thoroughly) and that Clarissa was happy to see Peter after came back from India. In the book, Peter claims to be in love Daisy but he always goes back to the thought of loving Clarissa which shows that he never really moved on
The Case for Sally
Out of these three people, Sally is the one we know least about. Clarissa always looked up to Sally, because she taught her many things that she didn't know. Clarissa never realized how sheltered she was until she was with Sally Seton. Then came the scene on page 35 where Sally and Clarissa kissed. When Clarissa thought about love the first person that popped into her mind was Sally which is interesting because Sally and Clarissa are both married women now and they had very little to no romantic relations in the past. Despite all of this their short kiss was the "most exquisite moment of Clarissa's life". The possibility of Clarissa being gay and loving Sally opens a whole new set of doors. Is Clarissa gay and just following the rules of society? or was Sally Seton a one-night experiment?
Winner
In my opinion, Richard wins. I do not think there is any evidence that Clarissa would change her past to get married to someone else. Although she gets nostalgic I believe that Clarissa thinks she made the right choice. Although she is not in love with Richard, he is a good partner for Clarissa.
Yeah, I agree with you that Clarissa made the right (as right as things like this can be) choice. While we can deduce that she isn't really in love with Richard in the traditional sense, their marriage seems to be pretty stable (despite how it seems like they're not that close). She obviously still cares about Peter, but like someone mentioned in class, I don't think she'd want to do anything different if she could change the past. Yeah, she can think about what-ifs, but she's not fantasizing about those possibilities because she's unsatisfied with what she has now. I'd hesitate to say that she's exactly happy, but maybe content? And I guess one small thing I'd like to add would be that while comparing all three of these people can give us new insights, it's also important to keep in mind that they're their own unique person who Clarissa felt about in distinct ways (which can make it difficult to really compare them and determine who was really better for her).
ReplyDeleteThis is a cool way to display your idea. I agree with you that Richard was the clear winner. It was not feasible to marry a woman, so really, the choice was between Peter and Richard. I think outside of Clarissa’s feelings, marrying Richard was also better for Clarissa socio-economically. From what I can tell, she comes from a well-off family, and a pretty traditional background. I think her family (which at the time had a lot of significance) would have preferred the established politician Richard to the erratic, knife-twirling Peter.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment on Clarissa's relationships. While in a different world I think she would've been happiest with Sally (from a love standpoint, at least), that was obviously not an option given the time period she lived in. Especially given Clarissa's demonstrated dedication to tradition and unwillingness to go outside of pre-established boundaries, her marriage to Richard makes the most sense. As you state, she doesn't exactly regret her marriage; I see it more as her being somewhat unsatisfied with her life, yet content overall. If you asked modern-day Clarissa, I'm sure she would still choose to marry Richard, given that her thoughts regarding Peter are more idle musings about possibilities mixed in with salt that he moved on, and the idea of an actual relationship with Sally wasn't even on her mind. Still, though, there's room to argue about what would have made Clarissa more satisfied with her life, albeit perhaps at the price of some comfort or contentedness.
ReplyDeleteEthan, this is such a creative blogpost! It's safe to say that Clarissa took the high road and went for the more respectable person. For me, I'm honestly kind of split between Richard and Peter. I personally think that if she married Peter instead of Richard, she would've had less regrets than she has now (not necessarily meaning it was the right move). One reason is that there are more "standing out" qualities in Peter. He does certain things that, well, normal human beings wouldn't do. Even though being overly involved is a bad thing, it could build a more tight bond between two lovers. In her case, it was too overwhelming. Nonetheless, Richard was probably the best option at the time due to his class, occupation, and a more gentlemen-like pose. Great post Ethan! I love it!
ReplyDeleteI thought the way you formatted this blog post was really creative and efficient for laying your points down. I agree with you in the way that you see Richard as her best choice, because he is financially stable and they work fine as a couple, having little to no problems in their relationship. However, her world and his world rarely ever collide, and this can be both a blessing and a curse, as this limits conflicts but also creates a distant relationship. In comparison though, I feel that Peter, just for being relatively not as stable as Richard and having a rather more "bouncy" personality, would be a fun and happy partner for Clarissa until a little while longer into the relationship when conflicts of personality clashes and growing irritations arise. As with Sally, I feel that the possibility of there even being any type of romantic relationship is just not possible with the social class, social standards, and time era that they all live in, though I do believe they would be very happy together.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Richard is the clear winner (at least from what we know). However, I'd say Peter and Sally have more unique personalities, and Clarissa would have a more interesting relationship with both- she says one the favorite things about Richard is that he gives her space and free time. However, there are more obvious factors that make Richard the clear winner versus to the other two options. Firstly, he is a male, and this rules out Sally as marriage between two women was impossible at the time. Secondly, Richard is a politician, and because of that, is clearly financially stable. We don't know this about Peter. While he did have a job in India, Richard's role as a politician is more stable and lucrative. Thirdly, relating to my second point, marrying Richard is the best move for Clarissa reputation wise. Richard is a great example of the ideal 20th century man with his formality, reputation, and power, traits that Peter does not possess.
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