Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Hours, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Passage of Time
Suicide and Mental Health
Marriage, Relationships, and Personal Fulfillment
Reading and Writing
Summary
Analysis
In New York City, in June near the end of the 20th century, Clarissa Vaughan is on an errand to buy flowers for a party she’s hosting. She is 52 and in good health. Her friend Richard, whom she’s known since college, always calls her Mrs. Dalloway, after the titular character from the Virginia Woolf novel, because he feels that Clarissa deserves a great literary name and that Mrs. Dalloway makes the most sense, since that character’s first name is also Clarissa.
The first main chapter of the book has several connections to Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. That novel also starts with a woman named Clarissa thinking about buying flowers in a city in June, and it also features a man named Richard (although in Woolf’s novel, Richard Dalloway is the name of Clarissa Dalloway’s husband, not friend). The fact that this story takes place almost a century after Mrs. Dalloway suggests that the ideas of that book endure, while also perhaps suggesting that this novel will explore how society has changed since the original publication of Mrs. Dalloway.
Themes
Richard is a well-known writer who has been declining in health lately, with a low T-cell count (suggesting his HIV has progressed to AIDS). Richard is most famous for his poetry but also has written one long novel. He used to be in a relationship with Louis, but eventually Richard left Louis. Tonight, Clarissa wants to impress Richard at her party. She walks across Manhattan, passing street vendors and a statue of George Washington.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a disease that weakens a person’s immune system, and without treatment it can progress to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). From the early 80s until the development of effective treatments in the mid-1990s, HIV/AIDS was a major epidemic that particularly affected communities of gay men and intravenous drug users. Despite the work of activists, people infected with the disease often carried a stigma—which is reflected in the way this passage only mentions “T-cells” without explicitly stating that Richard has AIDS.
Themes
As Clarissa crosses a plaza, she runs into Walter Hardy, who is muscular and wearing a tank top. Walter tries to kiss Clarissa on the lips, and she initially turns to give her cheek, then starts turning back, eventually meeting his lips partway. Clarissa wishes she could be more decisive about kissing a friend on the mouth and feels that this is one of the reasons why her daughter (Julia) resents her.
The act of kissing comes up several times in this novel, with characters often wishing they could kiss someone on the lips but failing to be able to do it for some reason. Kissing on the lips suggests intimacy, and the fact that so many characters choose not to do it indicates that they are afraid of such intimacy.
Themes
Clarissa asks Walter about his plans for the evening and wonders if he and his partner Evan would like to come to a party she’s holding in the evening for Richard, who has recently won a literary honor called the Carrouthers Prize. Walter says he’ll come. Clarissa notices Walter has a strange reaction to her mention of the party and wonders if he’s jealous of Richard’s award—Walter is also a writer, although his works are more romantic and sentimental than Richard’s. Clarissa warns him to be on time—they have to hold the party before the ceremony since Richard doesn’t do late nights.
Characters in Clarissa’s New York City can be open about their sexuality, contrasting sharply with other sections of this novel that depict less open earlier periods of history. Walter and Richard’s differing careers raise questions about the value of different types of literature. Walter seems to reach a wider audience, but Richard gets more critical acclaim and establishment support. Despite each of their success, the novel seems to suggest that they each of them fall short of the ideal of Virginia Woolf, whose work has brilliance and also speaks to everyday people like Laura.
Themes
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Clarissa parts ways with Walter and thinks about Richard. Before Richard’s decline in health, he and Clarissa used to have long debates on various topics. Richard has always disapproved of Clarissa’s long-term partnership with Sally, believing their relationship makes Clarissa too much like a suburban housewife. Clarissa resents this, because Sally is an intelligent woman who works as a public television producer, and Clarissa herself works in publishing, printing some pulpy books to make money but also some very unprofitable literary books.
Clarissa and Richard each represent a different side in the debate of what a queer relationship should look like. Richard believes that there is fundamentally something wrong with the traditional idea of a monogamous, heterosexual relationship, seeming to think that a queer relationship should therefore take a different form. Clarissa, who resists Richard’s idea that she is a “housewife,” nevertheless puts more faith in the ideal of a monogamous, long-term relationship.
Themes
As Clarissa crosses Houston Street, she considers picking up a gift to celebrate Evan’s returning health. She passes some shops in SoHo and considers buying a dress for Julia, but Julia doesn’t wear dresses and prefers masculine clothes. Clarissa then passes a bookstore and is dismayed to see only one book from her publishing house in the window.
Clarissa wishes that her daughter could be more feminine, even as Clarissa herself refuses to conform to some of society’s traditional ideas about femininity. This shows yet again how, even in the relatively free and open-minded context of New York City, people have complicated feelings about gender and sexuality.
Themes
Clarissa remembers being three or four and growing up in Wisconsin. One time a branch tapped against her window and then music started to play—this memory remains important to her since it is one of her first memories and seems to represent all the possibilities of life. Clarissa still wishes she could buy a gift for Evan or a dress for Julia. She gets annoyed with Mary Krull, the queer theorist who has been influencing Julia’s recent fashion sense.
Although the branch doesn’t literally cause the music to play, the young Clarissa associates the two events in her mind, awakening her to the possibility of beauty in nature. Clarissa continues to hold on to these ideas about the beauty of nature even decades later, as she now goes around the city in search of flowers.
Themes
Clarissa finally makes it to the florist, Barbara. Clarissa makes small talk about how she needs flowers for Richard’s party. Barbara originally came to New York to sing opera. As they’re looking at flower options, there’s a crash outside. Barbara says it’s probably just the film crew that’s been there all morning. When Clarissa leaves the florist, she thinks she sees a famous person’s head looking out of a trailer, possibly Meryl Streep or Vanessa Redgrave. The famous woman pulls her head back, but her presence seems to linger in the air.
This passage sets up a contrast between “ordinary” people like Barbara who make compromises on their dreams (in her case, opera singing) versus the rare people like the celebrity whose head appears at the end of this chapter. In many ways, this is the divide between Clarissa and Richard (who has achieved fame and acclaim in the literary world). The next chapter will challenge this divide, however, showing how even someone who has achieved the height of literary fame might nevertheless live an “ordinary” life much of the time.
Themes
