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Symbols
The first line of the book is Clarissa Dalloway saying she will “buy the flowers herself,” and she soon enters a flower shop and marvels at the variety. Flowers are a traditional symbol of love and femininity, but for Clarissa they also represent the joy and beauty that can be found in everyday life. Woolf also uses the symbol in a more satirical sense as well, as Elizabeth is compared to a flower by would-be suitors and Richard brings Clarissa roses instead of saying “I love you.” Sally, the most rebellious female figure of the book (when she was young), cut the heads off of flowers instead of cutting their stems, and Aunt Helena found this “wicked.” This shows how Sally deals differently with femininity (flowers) than is traditional to the older generation (Aunt Helena). In her very act of kissing Clarissa, one could say that Sally picks a flower.
Flowers Quotes in Mrs Dalloway
The Mrs Dalloway quotes below all refer to the symbol of Flowers. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Section 3 Quotes
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! The others disappeared; there she was alone with Sally.
Related Characters:
Clarissa Dalloway, Sally Seton
Related Symbols:
Flowers
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
35
Explanation and Analysis:
As she pursues her set tasks through the streets of London, where she remains largely anonymous and alone, Mrs. Dalloway returns in her thoughts to moments in her past at which she sensed true communion and connection to another. One of those moments is described, here, in the memory of her kiss with Sally. "Alone" she may have been, but in this case, paradoxically, solitude and the disappearance of others only enabled greater connection between the two women.
The novel also uses this passage to explore the strange workings of time: a moment can fill up more space than many empty hours, and can evenbe as powerful as years. The way time passes - or the way it seems to pass - can depend more on an individual's perception than on time as measured by clocks, and that one can return to past moments in memory reinforces a suggestion of perceived time as cyclical rather than linear.
Section 7 Quotes
All the same, that one day should follow another; Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; that one should wake up in the morning; see the sky; walk in the park; meet Hugh Whitbread; then suddenly in came Peter; then these roses; it was enough. After that, how unbelievable death was! – that it must end; and no one in the whole world would know how she had loved it all…
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Flowers Symbol Timeline in Mrs Dalloway
The timeline below shows where the symbol Flowers appears in Mrs Dalloway. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Section 1
Clarissa goes into the flower shop and is comforted by all the beautiful flowers. She has done a favor in...
(full context)
Section 3
...Helena found Sally shocking and improper, even her habit of cutting the heads off of flowers and floating them in water.
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...another friend were out walking. Clarissa and Sally fell behind, and “Sally stopped; picked a flower; kissed her on the lips.” Clarissa feels that this was the “most exquisite moment of...
(full context)
Section 7
...his way to have lunch at Lady Bruton’s with Richard Dalloway. Hugh brings Lady Bruton carnations, as he has on every visit for the last twenty years.
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...cooked the dishes, or paid for it all. Richard Dalloway watches Lady Bruton holding Hugh’s carnations and thinks of how she looks just like her ancestor, the great general in the...
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...he knows how to appeal to editors. Richard thinks that Hugh’s letter is nonsensical and flowery, but Lady Bruton loves it. She puts Hugh’s carnations in the front of her dress...
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...because of his thoughts of Peter Walsh. He buys a bouquet of red and white roses to bring to her, and plans to say “I love you” to her, which he...
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...on the ground, looking as if “rid of all ties.” Richard approaches her “bearing his flowers like a weapon,” and the woman laughs at him. He smiles and walks on, considering...
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...praying. Big Ben strikes three and at that moment Richard enters. He gives her the roses but is unable to say “I love you,” though he feels she understands.
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...simplicity.” She recognizes that she cares more for parties than for politics, “more for her roses than for the Armenians,” but she grows suddenly unhappy because Richard and Peter criticize and...
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...makes an effort to be kind to Miss Kilman. Once Clarissa had offered Miss Kilman flowers from Bourton, and Miss Kilman had squashed them in a bunch.
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...the invitations to parties and the streams of compliments boring – men comparing her to flowers, trees, and other clichéd poetic images.
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...as she gathers the papers and ties them up Septimus thinks of her as a “flowering tree,” a fearless sanctuary, a “miracle” to triumph over Holmes and Bradshaw. Rezia goes to...
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Section 8
...way to the movies and admires their fashion. He remembers Clarissa’s Aunt Helena, who pressed flowers, had a glass eye, and seemed to belong to a different era.
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Section 9
...then Clarissa’s old Aunt Helena, who is over eighty now. She talks about Burma and orchids, and Clarissa sends Peter to talk to her.
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