Flowers and the Need for Perfection
"There are still the flowers to buy." (9)- Clarissa Vaughan (Dalloway)
"Mrs. Dalloway said something (what?), and got the flowers herself." (29)- Virginia Woolf
"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." (37)- Laura Brown
In each of the three stories, there is imagery of flowers which represent what Clarissa, Laura, and Virginia think they must do to keep a normal life.
- Even though Clarissa Vaughan is hurting inside from the mountain of regrets she has and the worry for her old lover and friend, Richard, she buys flowers for her party to seem like she is happy. The flowers hold her together, like a metaphorical glue, acting as something she can lean on to make people around her think she has control of her life, when in actuality, she is spiraling downward.
- Laura Brown comes downstairs on her husbands birthday to find that he has bought her white roses. While she feels more drained than grateful, she says, "oh, Dan. Roses. On your birthday. You're too much, really," (44). Later in the day she twice tries to make a birthday cake for Dan. Though the second one was near perfection, she finds flaws in every detail. The roses were lopsided and on of the letters was not perfect. The flowers on the cake represents Laura's attitude towards everything in her life. She finds small flaws in everyone and everything around her, including her husband and son.
- Virginia picks flowers for a bed her niece and nephews are making for a dying bird. She almost argues with her niece over how the roses should be placed around the bird. Since she has been contemplating death a lot lately, she wants it to look perfect for the bird. She is fascinated by what death holds so she lays down and pretends to be the bird. Virginia's connection of flowers to death is a sign that she is near the act of taking her own life because she writes about flowers constantly parallel to death in Mrs. Dalloway.
Pressure from Society
It's a fine cake, perfect in its way, and yet Laura is still disappointed in it." (143)
"She has failed." (144)- Laura Brown
Clarissa, Laura, and Virginia all have expectations from society based on their time period, but some never change.
- Clarissa Vaughan has the most freedom out of the three women because of the time period she lives in. She is able to be independent and not have to have a husband or a father for her child. However, her relationship with Sally is not yet completely accepted and she is still expected to have her life under control. By throwing a party, like Clarissa Dalloway, she is showing society that she is confident and happy with her life and herself. Her running around, buying flowers, sending invitations, and cooking food busies herself so for a while she cannot think about all that is wrong in her life. However, this is not completely successful, and her worries slip in every once in a while.
- Laura Brown is expected to be the perfect housewife for her perfect, handsome, war-hero husband. Since her husband could have picked anyone he wanted and chose her, she has even bigger shoes to fill to prove to everyone that she is worthy as his wife and mother of his children. This is never the life that Laura wanted, as a shy bookworm, to whom no one ever payed special attention. On Dan's birthday she bakes a cake for a party because that is what is expected of her. The pressure to be perfect weighs down on her, making her pick out every flaw in the cake she has created. The imagery of the careful way she prepares both cakes shows how determined but exhausted she is by trying to be perfect, the same way Clarissa Dalloway mends her own dress over and over to keep a confident outward appearance.
- The fact that it is known that Virginia Woolf has a mental illness makes society's pressure even greater on her. She is expected to live in seclusion in the country, follow doctors orders, and either get better or snap and be sent somewhere else. While the people around her (her husband, sister, and maids) are waiting to see which path she will take, Virginia is secretly trying to find a way to surprise everyone. Unfortunately, her decision is to end her own life. As a mentally ill woman, Virginia has virtually no freedom except through her writing. Her attitude and shy but firm interactions with others which Cunningham portrays, shows her strong will to rise above society's pressures and live her own life.