A Study of Gender...

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.
net/publication/277630712
A Study of Gender in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway
Article · January 2015

DOI: 10.5958/2249-7315.2015.00097.0
CITATIONS READS
0 369
2 authors, including:
Mahboubeh Moslehi
Sedakova Research Institute of Measuring Systems
5 PUBLICATIONS 1 CITATION
SEE PROFILE
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
A Study of Gender in Virginia Woolf’s Selected Novels : Orlando and Mrs. Dalloway View project
All content following this page was uploaded by Mahboubeh Moslehi on 25 August 2018.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Asian Journal
Asian Research Consortium of Research in
Social Sciences
and
Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities
Vol. 5, No. 4, April 2015, pp. 238-248. Humanities
ISSN 2249-7315 www.aijsh.org
A Study of Gender in Virginia Woolf‘s Mrs. Dalloway

Mahboubeh Moslehia, Nozar Niazib
1
MA in English Language and Literature, Lorestan State University, Khorramabad, Iran
2
PhD in English Language and Literature, Lorestan State University, Khorramabad, Iran
DOI NUMBER-10.5958/2249-7315.2015.00097.0
Abstract
The present essay draws attention to Judith Butler‘s theory of gender performativity and the formation of
Downloaded From IP - 117.207.58.239 on dated 29-May-2015
subjectivity through the process of becoming in Virginia Woolf‘s Mrs. Dalloway. By concentrating on
Clarissa‘s androgynous and bisexual gender identity, Woolf not only challenges the penetrating
Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale
www.IndianJournals.com
assumptions about masculine/feminine distinction that institutes the heterosexualization of desire, but also
uproots the fixation of gender identity. Butler believes that Gender as a social construct is produced by
repeated performative acts and in order to renew and reformulate gender it is possible to change the
existing attributes that are now strongly associated with the sexes. Clarissa, the main character in the
novel, both submits to the heterosexual values and challenges this system by representing bisexual and
androgynous traits.
Keywords: VirginiaWoolf,Mrs.Dalloway,androgyny, bisexuality, gender performativity
238
Moslehi & Niazi (2015). Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities,
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 238-248
1. Introduction
In A Room of One ’s Own, Woolf writes, " It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple; one
must be woman-manly or man-womanly." (Woolf, 1977: 112) She suggests that a woman‘s mind cannot
exist creatively without some portion of maleness, and that in turn, a man‘s mind cannot be productive to
its fullest without a certain amount of femaleness inherent. For Woolf, "androgyny is the capacity of a
single person of either sex to embody the full range of human character traits, despite cultural attempts to
render some exclusively feminine and some exclusively masculine." (Wright, 2006: 16) Woolf‘s general
contribution to feminism is her notion that "gender identity is socially constructed and can be challenged
and transformed. "(Selden and Widdowson, 2005: 118) Her major preoccupation in her works is the
conception of the subject constructed through relationships.
Similarly, Butler writes, "the presumption of a binary gender system implicitly retains the belief in a
mimetic relation of gender to sex whereby gender mirrors sex or is otherwise restricted by it". (1999: 10)
But she argues, "If gender is the cultural meanings that the sexed body assumes, then a gender cannot be
said to follow from a sex in any one way"(Ibid). She criticizes the notion that men are always associated
with masculinity and women with femininity, "with the consequence that all distinction between sex and
gender turns out to be no distinction at all." (Butler, 1999: 10-11)

Under the influence of Foucault, Butler believes that the subject does not come into the world with all its
nature and scope encapsulated within itself in embryonic form. As Mansfield puts it, "Subjectivity is
made by the relationships that form the human context […] they are the broad relationships of power and
subordination that are present everywhere in all societies." (2000: 52)
Butler suggests that there are different ways in which the subject can be effected that can sometimes
subvert existing power structure and this idea will prove to be crucial in her theory about gender and sex
as performative. Butler‘s work traces " the processes by which identity is constructed within language
and discourse." (Salih, 2002: 10) As Salih puts it, " The possibility of resistance is crucial to Butler‘s
account of the subject [...] Resistance takes place within discourse or the law. "(2002: 126-27) According
to Butler, the idea that "the subject is not a pre-existing, essential entity and that our identities are
constructed, means that it is possible for identities to be reconstructed in ways that challenge and subvert
existing power structures." (Salih, 2002: 11)
The present essay aims at revealing how Woolf challenges the penetrating assumptions about
masculine/feminine distinction by concentrating on Clarissa‘s ambiguous and multifaceted gender
identity. Clarissa both submits to the heterosexual values and challenges this system by representing
bisexual expositions and androgynous features.
239
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 238-248
2. Discussion
2.1. Clarissa’s Body and her Androgyny as Tools of Resistance

To Clarissa one fixed identity is not true, "She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably
aged. She sliced like a knife through everything."(Mrs. Dalloway, 1963: 10) The phrase ―sliced like a
knife‖ indicates that Clarissa occupies a position in between through the process of becoming. As Scott
remarks," She [Clarissa] imagines herself as simultaneously ‗young‘ and ‗unspeakably aged‘, internal and
external, public and private". (Scott, 2013: 131)
She feels very young despite her age," How fresh, how calm, stiller than this of course, the air was in the
early morning; like the flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave. " (Mrs. Dalloway: 5) The early morning is a
symbol of Clarissa‘s youth and the trees and flowers represent her aspirations towards a fresh life. Despite
her oldness, Clarissa reminds the passion of her heart for Peter, which is represented through the images
of the early morning.
The knife allows her a sharp clarity about her sense of unity and connectedness with what is around her.
The narrator remarks, “to know her[Clarissa], or any one, one must seek out the people who completed
them; even the places […] even trees, or barns." (Mrs. Dalloway: 168) The image of a knife is followed
by a self realization in which Clarissa struggles to find her identity removed from her surrounding, but
she is absorbed by them. As Garcia suggests, "this passage illustrates how Clarissa views her selfhood not
as a non-transferable, inherent essence, but as a ubiquitous relation between her and immediate places,
objects and animate beings." (Garcia, 2010: 18)
Clarissa is not gratified by her small face, "she had a narrow pea-stick figure; a ridiculous little face,
beaked like a bird‘s. That she held herself well was true; and had nice hands and feet." (Mrs. Dalloway:
13) Her hands and feet are nice, but she is not happy with her physical appearance. She does not find her
little face and smooth skin attractive. Clarissa compares herself with Lady Bexborough and thinks about
her physical appearance, and she envies lady Bexborough for having a large body and beautiful eyes that
she has always desired. Clarissa thought, "She[Clarissa]would have been […] with a skin of crumpled
leather and beautiful eyes. She would have been, like Lady Bexborough, slow and stately; rather large."
(Mrs. Dalloway :13)
Clarissa‘s ridiculous little face and weak body does not permit her to perform an ideal feminine gender.
She thinks that her illness and oldness has turned her face more white, "she was over fifty, and grown
very white since her illness [...] her heart, is affectted, they said, by influenza." (Mrs. Dalloway: 6) She
looked into the glass, "collecting the whole of her at one point [...] seeing the delicate pink face of the
woman. "(Mrs. Dalloway: 42) She is not sexually attractive as a woman, " Not that she was striking;
not beautiful at all; there was nothing picturesque about her."(Mrs. Dalloway: 85) She needs to perform
her gender to please others, but she feels threatened when she thinks about the negative aspects of her
body. As Marshal observes," an internalized sense of failure stemming from her inability to reconcile her
ideal of femininity with the body that she inhabits. (Marshal, 2009: 323)
240
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 238-248
According to Butler, the body is moulded by the heterosexual matrix. As Salih puts it, "a matrix can be
defined as either a mould in which something is cast or shaped, or as a womb, or as a grid-like array of
interconnected circuit elements. "(Salih, 2002: 51) Butler therefore claims that gender is like a structure
or a mould which shapes the subject. She claims that gender is unnatural and there is no relation between
one body and gender. Being aware of the negative stereotyping of her body, Clarissa struggles to interpret
her gender identity in a different way. She must appear as a masculine female to survive in the patriarchal
society.
Clarissa is mostly represented through the mind of other characters, and her subjectivity is constructed
through her relationship with people around her. As Edmondson remarks, "Clarissa [...] exists as much in
the minds of others, especially Peter‘s, as she does in her own, ―private‖ existence." (Edmondson, 2012:
21-2) Peter Walsh has been Clarissa‘s close friend, and desperately in love with her. Clarissa has rejected
his marriage proposal and he has moved to India. Peter‘s opinions have also been very important to her.
When they were young, "she wanted his good opinion so much, perhaps. She owed him words:
―sentimental,‖ ―civilised‖."(Mrs. Dalloway: 41) Peter has been an emotional man. He, for instance said,
"A book was sentimental; an attitude to life sentimental. "(Mrs. Dalloway: 41)
Lynne indicates, "the feminine increasingly being associated with physical weakness and emotionality,
the masculine was identified with physical strength and self-reliance." (Lynne, 1997:104-114) But
Clarissa bears too much contradictions and inconsistencies in her so that it makes it challenging to
associate her with a definite gender identity. She loves London, life, and ―this moment of June‖, and Peter
praises her some feminine traits and also regards her as a sentimental woman. Somewhere else when he is
talking to Sally regarding the people who are invited to Clarissa‘s party, Peter says that Clarissa is
generous to her friends, "she [Clarissa] put that friendship first […] she was pure-hearted; that was it
"(Mrs. Dalloway: 210) Here she is represented as a woman with both feminine and masculine
characteristics. Peter thinks that one must say simply what he feels, and Clarissa does the same,
expressing exactly what she feels.
Clarissa enjoys reading poetry, but Richard rejects it and criticizes her for that. ―How could she swallow
all that stuff about poetry? How could she let him hold forth about Shakespeare? "(Mrs. Dalloway: 84)
The effeminacy of reading poetry is a reference to a social discourse, and Clarissa likes reading poetry,
which represents her feminine characteristic and sentimentality.
But when Peter remembers the time when she had rejected him as a spouse, he calls her, "cold, heartless,
prude"(Mrs. Dalloway: 10). Here she is represented by Peter as a woman with masculine traits, cold and
heartless. When Peter and Clarissa are happily walking down to the lake and are getting into the boat,
Peter thinks that "She will marry that man [Richard Dalloway] without any resentment. "(Mrs. Dalloway:
70) He thinks that she is only amusing him and she will marry Richard, whom she does not love. He
thinks she would say, "I am only amusing myself with you; I‘ve an understanding with Richard
Dalloway". (Mrs. Dalloway: 71)
Peter asked her passionately, ―Tell me the truth‖ [...] He felt as if his forehead would burst […] he
felt that he was grinding against something physically hard; she was unyielding. She was like iron, like
241
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 238-248
flint, rigid up the backbone. " (Mrs. Dalloway: 72) Here Peter, as a man, is presented with extremely
emotional passions, but clarissa as a woman is compared to the iron and flint, which is cold, hard, and
passionless. Despite loving Peter, she marries Richard. It seems indispensable to consider Clarissa‘s
ambiguous and androgynous gender identity.
When Peter comes back from India ,Elizabeth, Clarissa‘s daughter, enters the room. Clarissa introduces
her in the following words: ―Here is my Elizabeth!" (Mrs. Dalloway: 55) The use of ―my‖ before the
name of her daughter annoys Peter, and Peter thinks that she could say," Here is Elizabeth [...] It was
insincere". (Mrs. Dalloway: 55) He thinks that, "There was always something cold in Clarissa [...] She
had always, even as a girl, a sort of timidity, which in middle age becomes conventionality. "(Mrs.
Dalloway: 55) Peter thinks that Clarissa does not express ―my Elizabeth‖ emotionally, he feels some
coldness in her behavior that in middle age it seems more conventional.
Peter criticizes Clarissa‘s behaviour toward people at her party. When she says , "How delightful to see
you "(Mrs. Dalloway: 184), He thinks that she is at her worst. It seems that it is the first time she meets
these people, and She behaves coldly toward them. When Clarissa is escorting Prime Minister at her
party, Peter is thinking of her coldness and woodenness," There was a breath of tenderness; her severity,
her prudery, her woodenness were all warmed through now". (Mrs. Dalloway: 191)
Despite Clarissa‘s masculine traits, ―cold, heartless, prude‖, she is sentimental and has a weak body. Seen
from Butler‘s lens, Clarissa‘s gender and sex are incompatible and she represents both masculine and
feminine traits together. Woolf engages her protagonist in a way that problematizes the binaristic system
of thought, the social construction of femaleness and maleness/feminity and masculinity, and searches for
a different gender identity. This representation confirms Butler‘s claim that "to choose a gender is to
interpret received gender norms in a way that organizes them anew. " (Salih, 2002: 46) Clarissa cannot
assume a single identity because she feels herself, " everywhere; not here, here, here‘ […] but
everywhere." (Mrs. Dalloway: 168)
2. 2. Clarissa’s Bisexuality as a Tool of Resistance

The opening sentence of the novel is important to consider when Clarissa says, "she would buy the
flowers herself." (Mrs. Dalloway: 5) It is crucial to note how the novel opens with Clarissa who is going
to buy the flowers. Flowers play an important role during the most sexual scenes that would be discussed
in more detail later.
Judith Butler argues that "the cultural matrix through which gender identity has become intelligible
requires that certain kinds of identities cannot exist, that is those in which gender does not follow from
sex and those in which the practices of desire do not follow from either sex or gender." (1999: 23-4)
Clarissa challenges the presumed heterosexual desire by being responsive to both sexes. Clarissa marries
Richard, but she is also excited by the charm of women. Remembering the night in Bourton, Clarissa
describes it as:
242
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 238-248
the most exquisite moment of her whole life, passing a stone urn with flo-
wers in it. Sally stopped; picked a flower; kissed her on the lips [... ]there she
was alone with Sally And she felt that she had been given a present […] a
diamond, something infinitely precious, wrapped up, which, as they walked
(up and down, up and down)[…] when. Peter faced them. (Mrs. Dalloway:40)
It is significant that this important moment in Clarissa‘s life happened in the presence of flowers. The
flower that Sally picked signifies Clarissa‘s own passion, nature, and desires. Clarissa thought, "she could
not take her eyes off Sally. It was an extraordinary beauty of the kind she most admired, dark, large-eyed,
with that quality."(Mrs. Dalloway: 37) Clarissa gazes into Sally‘s eyes and praises them. When Clarissa
is with Sally, her passions and feelings are so strong that she can not do anything other than gazing into
Sally‘s eyes and kissing her. Clarissa performs as the opposite sex, and she feels what men feel for
women. She does not accomplish normative feminity, which exhibits her bisexuality.
Because of flower‘s aesthetic value, flower imagery is used to describe Clarissa and Sally‘s passionate
love. Butler remarks, "bisexuality and homosexuality are taken to be primary libidinal dispositions, and
heterosexuality is the laborious construction based upon their gradual repression."(1999: 98) She means
that heterosexuality is culturally constructed. When Sally and Clarissa are together the semiotic language
(poetic and rhythmic) is used. By placing the act of kissing in the garden, Woolf is suggesting that
Clarissa and Sally‘s feelings are natural.

Clarissa perceives the negative symbol of masculinity when Peter as an irritating intruder interrupts their
kiss by his appearance. The moment of exclusive female connection is shattered by masculine unwelcome
intrusion. Clarissa thought, "that was one of the bonds between Sally and himself. There was a garden
where they used to walk, a walled-in place, with rose-bushes and giant cauliflowers." (Mrs. Dalloway:
84) Woolf intentionally uses the reflexive pronoun (himself) instead of herself to emphasize the
uncertainty of Clarissa‘s gender identity and her androgyny.
When Sally enters Clarissa‘s party without invitation, she says, "I thrust myself in — without an
invitation." (Mrs. Dalloway: 188) Sally‘s use of the phrase ―thrust myself in‖ suggests her sexual
attraction toward Clarissa. Clarissa too, out of sexual excitement, kisses her. She praises Sally‘s egotism
and cries, "I can't believe it!‖ […] kindling all over with pleasure at the thought of the past." (Mrs.
Dalloway: 189) Sally‘s entrance once again arouses all Clarissa‘s emotion, and she can not stop thinking
of the garden and flowers again. Sally also felt, "she still saw Clarissa all in white going about the house
with her hands full of flowers."(Mrs. Dalloway: 207) When Clarissa and Sally are together, they use
flower language to express their sexual passions for each other.
Clarissa and Sally‘s friendship is not merely sexual. Both of them are intelligent and have their own
opinions. They enjoy spending time together and they also hold talks about high intellectual and political
topics regarding the possibility for young people to change the world: " There they sat, hour after hour,
talking in her bedroom at the top of the house, talking about life, how they were to reform the
world. They meant to found a society to abolish private property. "(Mrs. Dalloway: 84) Woolf shows
through Clarissa and Sally‘s discussions that women are capable of embarking on serious and logical
243
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 238-248
discussions as any man. Woolf obscures the boundary between sanity and insanity through representing
intelligent women characters.
Garcia infers that "the homoerotic desire between young Clarissa and Sally is replicated in the
relationship between Elizabeth and Miss Kilman." (2010: 25) Miss Kilman‘s presence highlights
Clarissa‘s failed relationship with Elizabeth, another manifestation of her failed femininity, "Elizabeth‘s
fondness for Miss Kilman as mother figure reminds Clarissa of Elizabeth‘s indifference to her as real
mother and this leads Clarissa to revile Miss Kilman about her femininity." (Marshal, 2009: 334)
Clarissa‘s struggle with the complexity of her sexuality and desires verifies Butler‘s constructionist view
on gender as a constantly changing subject. As Salih puts it, "since the subject is always involved in the
endless process of becoming, it is possible to reassume or repeat subjecthood in different ways." (Salih,
2002: 2) Clarissa‘s gender identity is subject to shifting and slippage.
2.3. Clarissa’s Other Resistances

Clarissa, being a female protagonist, epitomises feminism‘s feminine resistance. In the words of Garcia
"Mrs. Dalloway conveys […] a resistance that is highly political in the sense that it expresses the social
creation and imposition of identity on a consciousness that is fluid". (Garcia, 2010: 16) Clarissa‘s first act
of resistance can be seen in her rejection of Peter Walsh, Clarissa‘s teenage sweetheart. By rejecting
Peter‘s marriage proposal, Clarissa is actually struggling to escape from Peter‘s ideal of stereotyping of
women as angles of the house, and She is never able to perform the ideal of femininity.
Carey writes on Clarissa and Peter‘s opinions about marriage, " Peter would have demanded that
Clarissa release all her hopes and fears and joys to him and he would reciprocate. She chose security and
safety in Richard Dalloway. "(Carey, 1969: 16) Marrying Peter would have cost Clarissa all private
thoughts and feelings, and she does not like to share her feminine privacy with her husband.
Clarissa has chosen Richard over Peter as her spouse to protect her spiritual independence. As she
thinks, "A little independence there must be between people living together […] But with Peter
everything had to be shared; everything gone into. And it was intolerable." (Mrs. Dalloway: 10) Richard
grants her spiritual independence, but Peter does not.
Peter says to himself that Clarissa had always been socially ambitious: "she was worldly; cared too much
for rank and society and getting on in the world. "(Mrs. Dalloway: 85). But for Clarissa, virginity of soul
needs privacy and autonomy, as do the individuals in a marriage:" there is a dignity in people; a solitude;
even between husband and wife."(Mrs. Dalloway: 132) Clarissa chooses Richard, a member of
Parliament in the Conservative government, as her spouse not only to embrace her social position as an
MP‘s wife but also to protect her spiritual independency. As was mentioned before Clarissa does not like
to share her feminine privacy and solitude with her husband.
Throwing parties is Clarissa‘s second act of resistance in encountering the forces of patriarchal
society. Despite her marriage to Richard, she escapes from the solitude of her narrow room by throwing
244
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 238-248
parties. Lee writes,"The party, the drawing together and harmonizing of people expresses Clarissa‘s love
of participation, as she felt it in her emotions for Sally and Peter." (1977: 101)
Clarissa‘s parties are her creative acts although both her husband and Peter have "criticised her very
unfairly, laughed at her very unjustly, for her parties. " (Mrs. Dalloway: 133) She comes to her own
realization about the purpose of her gatherings, "how was she going to defend herself? Now that she knew
what it was, she felt perfectly happy. They thought, or Peter [...] she enjoyed imposing herself. "(Mrs.
Dalloway: 133-34) She organizes her parties in order to create memories for herself and for others, and
ultimately hopes to achieve immortality as she lives on through other people as a figure they hold
fondly in their memories. She feels as if she is giving something to the people whom she gathers together
at her parties.
It is this public, definite self, this being Mrs. Richard Dalloway "which stands at the top of the staircase
being the perfect hostess [...] warning that people should look pleased as she came in. "(Mrs. Dalloway:
12) Woolf here illustrates that Clarissa‘s self identity has been absorbed into that of her husband, reflected
in a name change that obscures everything about her except her relation to a man, but she is searching for
an identity different from what society has determined for her through her active role "as a social artist "
(Ronchetti, 2004: 51), the task that is not defined for women: " She had a sense of comedy that was
really exquisite, but she needed people, always people, to bring it out […] lunching, dining, giving
these incessant parties of hers, talking nonsense. (Mrs. Dalloway: 87) Clarissa enjoys and at the same
time takes pride in getting people together, as a skilled hostess. It seems that Clarissa‘s art and skill, as
Ronchetti ( 2004: 55) also points out, lies in human relations, which she uses as a medium for self-
expression and social power.Clarissa is concerned so much with the success of her party and receiving the
admiration of people because her subjectivity is constructed through these relationships.
Clarissa‘s third act of resistance against the heterosexual rules can be noticed in her androgynous
connection with the young man, Septimus. At the party Sir William tells Mr. Dalloway, "A young man
[…] has killed himself. He had been in the army. "(Mrs. Dalloway: 201) Clarissa, immediately after
hearing about Septimus‘s suicide, empathizes with him, but does not pity him. Lee writes, "Peter Walsh,
who has spent much of the day criticizing Clarissa, is forced yet again into a moment of intense emotion
for her." (Lee, 1977: 98)
Clarissa‘s feeling is described as follows:
The clock began striking. The young man had killed himself; but she did
not pity him; With the clock striking the hour, one, two, three, she did not
pity him, with all this going on. There! [...] with the clock striking the hour,
one, two, three, she did not pity him, with all this going on. (Mrs. Dalloway:
204)
Clarissa never even glimpsed Septimus, whom Woolf has called her double, and he plays a central role in her
day. Clarissa goes into the little room where the Prime Minister had gone with Lady Bruton. The accep-
245
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 238-248
tance of the sublimity of death through identification with Septimus can be the evidence of Clarissa‘s
ultimate resistance in relation to phallocentric and androcentric assumptions. Garcia writes, " Clarissa‘s
cathartic identification with Septimus when she hears of his suicide highlights her sheer renewal through
his death." (Garcia, 2010: 21)
The song from Shakespeare‘s Cymbeline(1611) connects Clarissa with Septimus:" Fear no more the heat
of the sun/Nor the furious winter‘s rages. "(Mrs. Dalloway: 204) The first two lines of the song are
recurrent in Septimus‘s and Clarissa‘s mind throughout the novel. The contrast between ―heat of the sun‖
and ―winter‘s rages‖ echoes life/death in the novel. She suddenly feels " glad that he had done it; thrown
it away. "(Mrs. Dalloway: 204) His death reaffirms her life. This ineffable fact is affirmed by Bigben‘s
striking, "The clock was striking. The leaden circles dissolved in the air." (Mrs. Dalloway: 204-205)
For Clarissa, in questionable health, the thought of Septimus‘s act sparks a momentary sense of relief and
liberation. As for Septimus, in choosing to take his own life, "he defies the prevailing order and asserts
his autonomy, reclaiming control over his life in the act of ending it, something that his culture has
prevented him from doing for quite some time." (Ronchetti, 2004: 59)
In Discipline and Punish, Foucault (1979) investigates ‗the soul‘ as the instrument in the hand of power
for shaping the prisoner‘s body. He remarks, "It would be wrong to say that the soul is an illusion, or an
ideological effect. On the contrary, it exists, it has a reality, it is produced permanently around, on,
within, the body by the functioning of a power that is exercised on those that are punished. " (qtd in
Butler 1999: 172) Although in Christian doctrine the body is said to be the prison of the soul, Foucault
will argue that "the soul is the prison of the body" (ibid). Clarissa feels that her own body is forced to
comply with the dictates of the patriarchal drumbeat. That is why she can empathize with Septimus
Smith.
Kukil hints at Septimus‘s death, "he dies resisting the medicalization of the soul enforced by Drs. Holmes
and Bradshaw, symbolically redressing the soul murder of Evelyn Whitbread effected through the
medicalization of her female body."(Kukil, 2003: 80) Clarissa and Septimus are united throughout the
novel by their struggle to protect their body from the prison of their soul which is the presentation of
power over their body.
3. Conclusions
By rejecting Peter as her spouse, throwing parties, sexual attraction toward Sally, and androgynous
connection to Septimus, Clarissa escapes from fix and definitive gender identity. She occupies a position
in the middle through the process of becoming. Through unfixed gender identity of Clarissa, the novelist
wants to show that gender is constructed by compulsory social discourse and people around her.
The invention of Septimus, the feminine man who lacks a stable identity, is a defensive way for Clarissa
whose most dangerous impulses are projected into another figure that can die for her as the scapegoat.
Divided by sex, age, class, and experience, Clarissa and Septimus are united throughout the novel by their
246
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 238-248
struggle to protect their body from the prison of their soul which is the presentation of power over their
body.
References
Beauvoir, S. D. The Second Sex. (H.M. Parshley,Trans.).London: Everyman, (Original work published
1949). 1993.
Butler, J. The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
______. Gender Trouble. New York and London: Routledge, 1999.
Carey, G.M.A. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. United States: Hungry Minds, 1969.
Edmondson, Annalee. ―Narrativizing Characters in Mrs. Dalloway‖. Journal of Modern Literature, 36
(1), p.17-36. 2012.

Garcia, C. D. ―Decentring Discourse, Self-Centred Politics: Radicalism and the Self in Virginia
Woolf‘s Mrs Dalloway‖. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo- American Studies,
32(1), p.15–28. 2010.
Kukil, K. V. Woolf in the Real World. Clemson University: Digital Press, 2003.
Mansfield, N. Subjectivity: Theories of the Self from Freud to Haraway. Australia:Allen&Unwin, 2000.
Marshall, N. ―Refusing Butler's Binary: Bisexuality and Performative Melancholia in Mrs.Dalloway‖.
Journal of Bisexuality,9, p. 317–41, doi:10.1080/15299710903316612, 2009.
Ronchetti, A. The Artist, Society & Sexuality In Virginia Woolf’s Novels. New York & London:
Routledge, 2004.
Salih, S. Judith Butler. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
Scott, L. ―Petrified Mermaids: transcendence and female subjectivity in the aesthetics of Virginia Woolf's
Mrs Dalloway and André Breton's Nadja‖. Textual Practice, 28(1), p.121-140. doi:10.1080/0950
236X. 2013.835749, Routledge: Taylor& Francis Group, 2013.
Segal, L. Slow Motion. Changing Masculinities. Changing Men. London: Virago, 1997.
247
Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 238-248
Selden, R., Widdowson, P., & Brooker, P. A Readers Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. Pearson:
Longman, 2005.
Woolf, V . Mrs. Dalloway. London: The Hogarth Press, 1963.
_______ . A Room of One 's Own. Grafton: Harper Collins, 1977.
Wright, E. ―Re-evauluating Woolf‘s Androgynous Mind‖. A Journal and Forum for postgraduates ,
14, p.1-20. English(UK): University of St.Andrews, 2006.

248
View publication stats

A Study of Gender...

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Study of Gender...

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

A Study of Gender in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway

Article · January 2015

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

A Study of Gender in Virginia Woolf‘s Mrs. Dalloway

Keywords: VirginiaWoolf,Mrs.Dalloway,androgyny, bisexuality, gender performativity

gender turns out to be no distinction at all." (Butler, 1999: 10-11)

2.1. Clarissa’s Body and her Androgyny as Tools of Resistance

2. 2. Clarissa’s Bisexuality as a Tool of Resistance

Clarissa and Sally‘s feelings are natural.

2.3. Clarissa’s Other Resistances

Clarissa‘s feeling is described as follows:

______. Gender Trouble. New York and London: Routledge, 1999.

Edmondson, Annalee. ―Narrativizing Characters in Mrs. Dalloway‖. Journal of Modern Literature, 36

(1), p.17-36. 2012.

32(1), p.15–28. 2010.

Marshall, N. ―Refusing Butler's Binary: Bisexuality and Performative Melancholia in Mrs.Dalloway‖.

Journal of Bisexuality,9, p. 317–41, doi:10.1080/15299710903316612, 2009.

Salih, S. Judith Butler. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.

236X. 2013.835749, Routledge: Taylor& Francis Group, 2013.

Woolf, V . Mrs. Dalloway. London: The Hogarth Press, 1963.

_______ . A Room of One 's Own. Grafton: Harper Collins, 1977.

14, p.1-20. English(UK): University of St.Andrews, 2006.

View publication stats

You might also like