Woolf uses external events to reveal the inner lives of her characters

Woolf uses external events to reveal the inner lives of her characters

1. Stream of consciousness/ links between characters

   • Going to the window
     • Clarissa goes to the window like Septimus - she is growing old and thinking of death. 
     • "She walked to the window... she felt somehow very like him"
   • Pistol shot
     • Mrs Dalloway is happy with flowers, then the car backfiring reminds her when she is reminded of war. This links on to Septimus, to show his shell shock and how is still trapped in war time.
     • "lifted her up and up when - oh! a pistol shot in the street outside"
   • Aeroplane
     • Everyone's perception of the aeroplane
   • Peter's visit
     • Peter's visit means that she thinks about Bourton, which is such an important time in her past; helps us understand her relationship with Peter, with Richard
     • "to know... any one, one must seek out the people who completed them; even the places"
     • Going to their rooms
       • Clarissa goes up to her attic room to consider her past.  Feels lonely. Peter goes to his hotel room to consider his loneliness and  failed marriages

2. Motifs

   • Big Ben
     • Big Ben symbolises time. Close to where Clarissa lives in Westminster - she is constantly being reminded of how she will grow old
     • "first a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable"
   • Shakespeare
     • By seeing the book in Hatchards' shop window, she is reminded of death throughout the day
     • "fear no more the heat of the sun" "in the middle of my party, here's death"
   • Scissors
     • Clarissa and Rezia are both holding scissors when they are being defensive - against Peter, against Bradshaw

3. Symbols and imagery

   • Old woman opposite
     • Clarissa when she is older
   • Pocket knife
     • Peter's knife, a fallic image, comes out whenever Clarissa is there showing how he really feels about her
   • The party / the PM
     • Hearing the opinions of all the people.   The effect of the PM's entrace on Ellie Henderson shows her eagerness to please and to go up in society
     • "what a thing to tell Edith!" "how ordinary he looked" "this symbol of what they all stood for, English society"