Lesbianism in _Mrs. Dalloway_

And to prove that I'll keep in better touch, here's a prospectus on a paper I wrote recently on why I don't think that the novel _Mrs. Dalloway_ is about repressed lesbianism. I think that lesbianism is a significant aspect of the project Woolf undertook in the work, but, I think many queer critics have overcompensated by claiming that the entire novel is one big instance of repressed lesbianism. This undercuts, I think, the true lesbian desire that *is* apparent in the novel.

Voila. Tell me what you think.

Component Lesbianism in Mrs. Dalloway

Clarissa Dalloway’s onetime love for Sally Seton in Mrs. Dalloway is one of the novel’s most resonant instances of a larger theme that pervades the work: wistfulness over unexplored or imperfect intimacy. Mrs. Dalloway reminisces of her kiss with Sally Seton:

Then came the most exquisite moment of her whole life passing a stone
urn with flowers in it. Sally stopped; picked a flower; kissed her on the
lips. The whole world might have turned upside down! (MD, 35)

Yet in reference to this, the most exhilarating romantic connection of Clarissa Dalloway’s life, we are also told of her current feeling: “She could not even get an echo of her old emotion.” (MD, 34) Clarissa Dalloway is never able to feel truly close to another person. She most successfully operates in the world by collecting partial intimacies from those presently or formerly connected to her – most notably Sally Seton, Peter Walsh, her husband, Richard – and holding these in her mind as a montage of affections.

It is my thesis that Clarissa Dalloway’s wistfulness is not a direct correlate of repressed homosexuality, as has often been argued; rather, it is an inability, or an unwillingness, to engage completely with any person. It does, however, seem eminently possible that were Mrs. Dalloway existing in a context in which homosexuality was fully sanctioned, she would live her life as a lesbian; that is, her fear of societal reprimand for her love of women is great, and stands in the way of any earnest pursuit of lesbianism. (The same can be said of the author herself.) I argue, however, that even in such a scenario, Clarissa Dalloway would remain the emotionally detached protagonist that she is. Mrs. Dalloway as a lesbian would as likely refrain from exploring love for an unforgettable boy of her youth as would the heterosexual (or asexual) woman of an unconsummated marriage refrain from pursuing the only expression of romantic love that she can imagine. Our heroine is most comfortable in a world frequented by loved ones who remain at arm’s length.

In my paper, I look at previous analysis of lesbianism in the novel, and offer an alternative to the common claim that Clarissa Dalloway’s characteristic wistfulness, melancholia, is due to unexpressed lesbian desire. I consider other sources for her longing and consternation: Peter’s compelling yet smothering nature; Richard’s trustworthiness and dependability, but, perhaps, his inability to measure up to an ideal notion of a husband; the jealousy she feels for her daughter’s attachment to a woman she both loathes and oddly admires; the irksomeness of this woman, Miss Kilman, for her showy humility, her devotion to an unimaginative religiosity, her piety to unhappiness; the blandness of people like Ellie Henderson, and their thorough inability to add vitality to her parties. All these people, all these factors impress themselves on Mrs. Dalloway, shape her experience of the world she presents to us. Finally, I discuss Virginia Woolf’s relationship with Vita Sackville-West, for further insight into the nature of lesbianism in the novel.

My project, then, is to show that lesbian desire is one component of many from which the consciousness of Clarissa Dalloway is fashioned. Mrs. Dalloway manages intimacy carefully, never advancing close enough to be squandered, nor straying so far that she cannot feel its peripheral comforts. This, if anything, is Clarissa Dalloway’s signature trait. And it is for this that she is a beautiful compendium of love, anguish, fear, joy, detachment, and transcendence.

Work Cited/Sources

Jensen, Emily, Clarissa Dalloway’s Respectable Suicide in Virginia Woolf: A Feminist Slant, Ed., Jane Marcus, (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1983).

Lee, Hermione, Virginia Woolf, (New York: Vintage Books, 1996).

Raitt, Suzanne, Vita and Virginia: The Work and Friendship of V. Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993).

Smith, Patricia Juliana, Lesbian Panic: Homoeroticism in Modern British Women’s Fiction, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).

Woolf, Virginia, Mrs. Dalloway, (London: Harcourt, Inc., 1925).