Body and perception reshaped by influenza pandemic in MRS DALLOWAY

Abstract

In the first sentence of Mrs. Dalloway (1925), Virginia Woolf emphasizes the heroine Clarissa Dalloway said that “she would buy the flowers herself ” (1). Immediately, in the second paragraph consisting of three sentences, a detailed explanation is given that Lucy the maid is engaged otherwise and thereby is not available for the errand. However, closer examination reveals that the third-person narrative seemingly highlighting an objective description of Lucy’s unavailability is subtly questioned by the first-person focalization, and further reinforced by the stream-of-consciousness orientation of the narrative. In this sense, the decision to go to buy banquet flowers is more a willingness on the part of Clarissa Dalloway than a necessity out of Lucy’s unavailability, which is proved by the female protagonist’s hilarity in the follow-up exclamatory sentences: “what a morning—fresh as if issued to children on a beach. What a lark! What a plunge” (1). In consideration of the party as part of the routine for Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class lady in London, we find it necessary to explore more on her above-mentioned ecstasy of going out of the house, her expectation for the party, and the potential psychological mechanism behind it. Why is it exciting for her to see the hustle and bustle in the street? In fact, the continuity of the story shows this is not the only occasion when the heroine insists on doing such chores as buying flowers. When Lucy offers to help mend her dress, she enthusiastically expresses gratitude by using “thank you” at least six times and then firmly declines. What is the intrinsic motivation behind her persistence? Is her profound thankfulness addressed to Lucy only, or to something or somebody else at the same time? More specifically, is it related to Woolf ’s endeavor of creating novels “devoted to influenza” (On Being Ill 4)? Mrs. Dalloway, whose story took place in 1923, is one of the few exceptions to the 1918 influenza pandemic which killed fifty to a hundred million people globally but was “virtually absent from American and British literature of its era” (Jurecic 1). Exploring Woolf ’s personal experience, we find her life was punctured by several bouts of influenza including the 1918 https://doi.org/10.1080/00144940.2023.2243536