Katya's Biweekly Reflections

    In Mrs. Dalloway , Clarissa is stuck in a weird love triangle/square, and I would like to analyze this situation because it says a lot about the way women and marriage were viewed at the time of this novel. First, let’s start with Clarissa’s relationship with her husband, Richard Dalloway. Honestly, I don’t think she loves him. She seems to respect him and is grateful for all the lifestyle he provides her with, but respect and love are not the same thing. There are two main reasons I don’t believe Mrs. Dalloway loves Richard. She rarely thinks about him and when she does, she focuses on the negatives. We are introduced to what Clarissa thinks of Peter Walsh on the first page and Hugh Whitbread on the third page; Mr. Dalloway had to wait until the fourth page to be introduced, and in that case, he was described as being driven mad by Hugh. I believe first impressions matter, and I find it interesting that Woolf chose to introduce Richard in a situation where he was ann...

This reminded me of Howie's comment about handrails (page 100). This cartoon even mentions the slippage!   What makes The Mezzanine interesting? Is it even a novel? These are two questions that came up throughout our discussions of The Mezzanine that I would like to discuss. First of all, let’s address the question of interest. The Mezzanine is set apart from other books by the observant narrator, Howie. Although it looks like he’s just like any other person from the outside, the book lets us see what Howie is like inside, and it shows us all the strange reflections Howie thinks about throughout the day, similar to how a stream of consciousness works (although not quite). This over-analyzation of simple things that most people don’t think twice about seems to be one of the main reasons why people read this book. It inspires them to look closer at things and wonder. In a way, Howie is almost like a child because he constantly asks “How does this work?”. Also, people might...