Personally, and although I may be one of few, I actually have come to realize how much I appreciate this book. The indirect tone shifts make it a challenging read, that you really have to get into, in order to understand fully. I really like how the reader is able to get inside the characters minds and I feel like Virginia Woolf does a really good job of realistically portraying a person’s thoughts. Woolf elaborates on how we all can view the same things, but it is our initial reactions and personal revelations that make the thought process so unique. We as the reader have the opportunity to experience the elasticity of time, and the characters reveal the past, present, and future are all inside their heads.
Woolf also distinguishes certain objects/things throughout the novel. The relationship with god and nature is continuously contemplated; Big Ben demonstrates a time change, flowers, waves and the color green are repeatedly brought up in different contexts during the story; as well as the direct correlation between Septimus and Clarissa.
The overall theme of the book that I really focused on was the “connectiveness”. There was the connection between people mind, the deliberate attempt of Clarissa to connect to people with her parties and the ultimate connection that Septimus had with nature. I think that this could be a possible center for my essay. I want to go off of the “most exquisite moment of her whole life” with Sally’s kiss and describe how this scene “sheds light” for the entire novel about the modernist perception of how other relate to each other and themselves. Modernists are dedicated to the individual mind, but at the same the same time there is a desire to connect with others. Clarissa is described as the “perfect hostess” because she is always wanting to relive her past “exquisite moment” and relate to people on that separate level. Septimus is on this level that Clarissa longs and searches for, but is portrayed as “mad.” The entirety of the novel is in this strange tone changing perception that further invokes images of connecting things from that initial reaction to your own life. Each experience is unique, but we all relate to it differently based on our own past experiences. It is the connection to each other that binds us, but are realization of individual perception that separates us too.
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I think that this idea of "connections" (what hinders them, what fosters them) could provide a really good focus for your essay (and allow you to speculate more broadly on Modernism itself). What we need to do now is come up with a specific scene to 'anchor' your discussion. I'm wondering if Peter's speculation on "Clarissa's theory" (page 152) might work. Clearly, you'll want to range about the entire novel, but thee device of presenting and discussion this 'theory' might be helpful from a structural/organizational standpoint. Let me know what you think.
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