Mrs Dalloway: Section 9 Summary & Analysis

The Prime Minister is an important symbol of order and hierarchy for many English people, but he has no real affect on working-class people like the cook. The first details of Clarissa’s party seem especially indulgent after Septimus’s suicide.

It is also disturbing that the party is a gathering place for the bubble of the English upper class, those who oppress the likes of Septimus. Clarissa has given meaning to her party as an “offering” and an attempt to bring people together, but for now she is acting just as shallowly as Peter feared.

Clarissa has a similar sentiment to Septimus (though to a different degree), as her party is her idea of defying human nature and “burning up” by doing something glorious. The party is Clarissa’s offering, but Peter has no offerings of his own to put forth and risk criticism.

We briefly see the point of view of Ellie Henderson, Clarissa’s cousin whom she tried not to invite. Ellie stands off by herself without talking. Her relationship with Edith is never explained, but they are perhaps romantic partners.

The flapping curtains at Bourton were Clarissa’s first memory introduced in the book, and they again connect to the idea of windows as borders between private souls. The guest beating back the curtain then shows that he is engaged in true communication, and willing to push past the windows between himself and the other person.

We have only seen Sally in Clarissa’s memory before now, and that past Sally seems more real somehow than this conventional lady. Clarissa is like Peter, still haunted by the passion and romance of the past, and now she is disappointed by the presence of the real Sally.

People had talked about the Prime Minister in the royal car, and he has appeared as a symbol of tradition and conventionality in Peter’s insult to Clarissa, but when he finally appears in the flesh he is painfully ordinary. He tries to act as the figurehead he is, as everyone in England is desperate for symbols of order, but he still appears absurd.

Peter stands apart just like Ellie Henderson, but he feels himself superior to the other guests instead of watching them in awe. Clarissa still has the gift of a special kind of reality for Peter, something that cuts through his doubts and fantasies.

Clarissa is pleased that her party is a success, but she is almost looking at it through Peter’s eyes now, and it seems less than sincere. Her hatred for Miss Kilman is a negative emotion, but it is at least real and pure, like her old love for Sally.

Aunt Helena still survives as a relic of the past. The flower symbol continues here, as Helena was a former botanist and spent much of her life pressing orchids to preserve them. Such drying and preservation shows another version of “felling” the spontaneous beauty and joy of the soul.

Lady Bruton and Clarissa are two different kinds of strong women, but they have hardly anything in common. Lady Bruton is innovative as a female “general,” but traditional and conservative in her love of the Empire.

With Sally and Peter’s appearance the party is now a gathering place for memories of Bourton. Just as Richard couldn’t tell Clarissa he loved her, so Clarissa seems to put off the moment of real, intimate communication that should occur between her and her oldest friends. She still has to deal with her image of the old Sally and how much she has changed.

The appearance of Sir William at the party is especially sinister, as we have seen how he is partially responsible for Septimus’s death. As in her first memory from Bourton, Clarissa again finds death in the midst of joy and optimism. She is a social person, but still must retreat to a “room of her own” to deal with this news.

Clarissa’s revelations here are the climax of the novel and the condensation of Woolf’s themes. Clarissa recognizes that she has obscured the purity of her soul with conventionality and shallowness, and sees how Septimus – her double, though they never met – has preserved that purity through his death. Clarissa did not die at the peak of her happiness at Bourton, but (like Othello, who lived on to jealously murder his wife) has instead lived and faded like Ellie Henderson.

Clarissa feels that Septimus’s death is her “disgrace” because she lacked his bravery, instead settling for a life of upper-class comfort and conformity with Richard. She thinks again of the window at Bourton, the place of great joy and the premonition of death, a time of pure communication – just like the window Septimus threw himself from. She then sees the old woman behind her closed windows, and sees how difficult communication has grown as she has gotten older.

Clarissa has this moment of enlightenment and pure communion with Septimus, even though he is dead. As in Clarissa’s old theory, Septimus lives on in his effect on others. Clarissa sees his death as a positive act of communication and defiance, and it gives her a clarity and gratitude regarding her own life. She is now ready to experience intimate communication again, and to reunite with Peter and Sally.

We no longer see the world from Clarissa’s point of view after this revelation of hers. In this brief denouement, Sally and Peter start to catch up and prepare for their reunion with Clarissa. Sally is disappointed with Clarissa just as Clarissa is disappointed with Sally.

Despite her conventional life situation, Sally shows that she still has her headstrong, passionate personality. Bourton starts to return even more strongly in the presence of these two characters. The clock has struck three in the morning, marking the forward march of time, but the past is still circling back to affect the present.

Peter and Sally start to engage in some real communication now, as Sally decides to express her true sentiments Peter follows along, finally speaking his mind about Clarissa. The final reunion that has been pointed to throughout the book – the meeting between Peter, Sally, and Clarissa – takes place off the page, in the only place where true communion can exist. This offstage scene—which can’t be depicted—begins with the sublime aspect of Clarissa’s reality, as Peter is again struck by her simple existence. She has changed since her revelation about Septimus, and now is ready for an intimate, pure reunion with her old friends.