The Love of Brett and Jake

So far into the book, we established that the relationship between Brett and Jake is fairly intimate. There are several moments scattered throughout the book that shines a light on just how close the pair is. One of the biggest things is that Brett is one of the few people who knows about Jake’s war wound; and she is the only one who knows what his injury actually is — not just the "accident" he tells everyone.  Despite this injury being a cruel misfortune, Jake is actually (more or less) willing to openly “talk” or “joke” around about his injury with Brett. And this is where the conflict between the two rests. It has already been established by their declaration of love on page 34, I feel that Brett isn’t as in love with Jake as she claims to be. For instance, the conversation between Brett and Jake which states —

“When I think of the hell I’ve put chaps through. I’m paying for it for it all now.”

“Don’t talk like a fool” I said.

“Besides, what happened to me is supposed to be funny. I never think about it.”(34)

“It’s funny,” I said. “It’s very funny. And it it’s lots of fun, too, to be in love.”

“Do you think so?” her eyes looked flat again.

“I don’t mean fun in that ways. In a way it’s an enjoyable feeling.”

"No, " she said. “ I think its hell on earth.” (35)

 Reading this part of the book, I seems to me that Brett feels as if Jake’s injury is like a punishment from god. That she has finally found a man that she genuinely cares for, but can’t do anything sexual with him (which seems to be important to her). And she feels like all the wrong she had done to men before has come back to bite her in the butt. Following this, when Jake says that being in love is fun, she clearly doesn’t agree. There is evidence in Jake’s statement that she was thinking about sexual relations when he mentioned it because he quickly corrects himself by saying, “I don’t mean fun in that ways. In a way it’s an enjoyable feeling.” And her negative reaction to it hints to it that she’s not really interested in having a relationship with Jake because of his injury; which supports that Brett isn’t as “jelly-melting” for Jake as she claims to be. 

The Thriving Characters of Mrs. Dalloway

Jumping into the book Mrs. Dalloway, I wasn’t really sure what to expect because I’ve never read one of Virginia Woolf’s works before and also because reading books from the twentieth century didn’t really appeal to me until now. I thought the book would just have a mundane plot line about the life of this Mrs. Dalloway. I thought we’d be focused solely on her, her hopes, dreams, regrets, insecurities etc.  But I was happily surprised to see that the focus didn't remain on her but that the narration shifts from character to character; whose stories end up being intertwined in some way.

On a normal occurrence, books with multiple character narrations don’t really appeal to me. From my own experience, I find that these types of narrations simply add a bit of messiness and confusion to the book. But for some weird, unexplainable reason, I actually really like the way that Woolf veers between characters and especially the transitions she used to do.

One of my favorite character transitions in the book is the first deviation we see from Clarissa, to strangers in the street, to Septimus. I love the way she brought everyone together and used their focus on the fancy car and modernistic sky writer to switch perspectives from character to character. While reading this specific part of the book, I imagine seeing a cloud of smoke (or something, I don’t really know) flowing in and out of the characters. Moving down the line, gathering different point of views until it finally settles into Septimus, in which it remains for a while before flowing away once more. But there are times when you don’t know for sure whose head you’re in, or if it’s the narrator simple telling you how this character feels, which is another aspect of Woolf’s writing style that I really appreciate. How she puts so much reflection, detail and effort into her characters.

In class, we read the article Woolf wrote in which she expresses that characters are the most important part of book. She states that to make the book more enjoyable and intriguing, the characters need to be more realistically human and have to be thoroughly focused on. Their thoughts and emotions have to be expressed deeply so that the reader is able to connect with them. And I feel this is exactly what Woolf has done in Mrs. Dalloway. 

I don’t really think of myself as a 52 year old woman or as a traumatized war veteran, but the way she constructs both Clarissa and Septimus thoughts and feelings sort of resonate with my own.  I’m not really sure that I feel or perceive the world as intensely as Septimus does. Maybe a mini breakdown over a math test or something. But at points, I’m mostly like Clarissa; wondering if I made the right choice in a certain situation. Like what would my day or life look like if I choose C instead of A on that physics quiz. Would the change be so drastic? Sometimes we all can’t help but wonder “what if”, even if we are completely satisfied with the life we are living. At this point in her life, she has been Mrs. Dalloway for so long, that she has sort of forgotten what it feels like to be Clarissa. In Mrs. Dalloway’s case, she lost the fun-loving and carefree spirit she once had when she younger. She had to adjust, “improve” herself to take on the name Dalloway. She had to change things about herself in order to secure others’ opinions about her and her husband. Clarissa recognizes this change but it may be a little too late to act upon it now. You spend a large amount (basically your whole life) being influenced by other’s opinions and thoughts, which intertwine with your own; and this path either helps you discover your true self or turns you into someone else. There are points where we all feel like Clarissa does at some point; you ask yourself the question, who is the real me? But does anyone really know?