Narrative Technique

Woolf: Mrs Dalloway: Narrative Technique and Marriage

In this course, Dr Sowon Park (Oxford University) explores two key themes in Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. In the first module, we look at the narrative style of the novel - arguing that the narrative style in Mrs Dalloway represents a radical departure from the narrative style of the Victorian novel, and allows Woolf to "record the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which they fall". In the second module, we explore the theme of marriage in the novel, suggesting that while many see the portrayal of marriage in the novel as overwhelmingly negative, many of the characters do speak of marriage in a positive light.

Narrative Technique

In this lecture, we look at Woolf's narrative technique in Mrs Dalloway, noting its radical departure from the narrative style of the Victorian novel. In particular, we explore the idea of free indirect style, which represents a kind a strange blend of the first- and third-person narrators that most of us are used to; the narrator speaks like a third-person narrator, but has access to the inner thoughts and emotions of characters like a first-person narrator. Free indirect style in explored in some detail with a study of one section of the novel, where Peter Walsh walks down the street reflecting on his meeting with Clarissa.