(Mrs. Dalloway) Clarissa & Birds
Clarissa & Birds
In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf consistently alludes to birds during narration involving Clarissa. Let's explore a couple of scenes to analyze Woolf's purpose of describing Clarissa using this bird-related language.
As Clarissa heads to the flower shop, we enter the perspective of an observer named Scrope Purvis, a long-time neighbor of the Dalloways. Watching Clarissa approach the flower shop, Mr. Purvis describes her appearance:
A charming woman, Scrope Purvis thought her (knowing her as one does know people who live next door to one in Westminster); a touch of the bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, light, vivacious, though she was over fifty, and grown very white since her illness. There she perched, never seeing him, waiting to cross, very upright. (Woolf 4)
In this quote, Scrope Purvis describes Clarissa's appearance as similar to a bird's, mentioning that she has "a touch of the bird about her, of the jay, blue-green, vivacious." First, he clearly states that Clarissa exhibits bird-like qualities. Then, he specifies the "blue-green, vivacious" characteristics they share. Purvis seems to appreciate the energetic and "charming" beauty of Clarissa and birds, but his later sentence seems to contradict this liveliness. Describing her actions with bird-related language, Purvis uses the verb "perched" that convey stillness before saying "never seeing him, waiting to cross, very upright." With these words, Purvis describes Clarissa as dignified and aloof/oblivious, "never" noticing his presence while maintaining an "upright" posture. Perhaps Purvis (and Woolf) also feels this way about birds; noble creatures that act friendly and energetic with their own kind but are cold/unaware with different-class beings.
Later, Clarissa, wishing to be like Lady Bexborough, even describes herself as having "a narrow pea-stick figure; a ridiculous little face, beaked like a bird's." (Woolf 10). Presenting her insecurity about her face by describing it as being "beaked like a bird's," Clarissa alludes the ugliness of bird beaks, suggesting that Purvis's appreciation of the appearance of birds probably does not apply to Clarissa or Woolf. However, Clarissa later states, "She had the oddest sense of being herself invisible, unseen; unknown; [...] not even Clarissa anymore; this being Mrs. Richard Dalloway." (10). Clarissa's sense of "being herself invisible" may result from her focus on only the attention of her own kind (those with similar prominence to the Dalloways) and her obliviousness of the attention she receives from different-class beings. Like a bird when excluded from the flock, Clarissa felt abandoned and excluded when she was not invited to Lady Bruton's luncheon, but she was unaware of Purvis's attention when heading to the flower shop; she also thought coldly of and waged mental war against Peter Walsh during their first meeting after he returned from India. Thus, using bird-like language, Woolf may be attempting to convey the identity/qualities of the noble Mrs. Richard Dalloway, the wife of a Parliament official who mingles with the higher class.
Woolf seems to use birds to criticize the vanity and callousness of nobility, a trait absent from the original Clarissa Parry but present in the new Mrs. Richard Dalloway. This trait seems to marginalize the identity Clarissa Parry, tying Clarissa to her noble Mrs. Dalloway identity and her perfect hostess role so she can satisfy and gain recognition from those of similar prominence. Perhaps this quality and the Mrs. Richard Dalloway identity first sprouted at Bourton, persuading her to choose Richard over Peter (who seemed to be the less distinguished of the two even back then) as a romantic partner.
More instances of Clarissa and Woolf's bird-like language need to be examined; however, this is my current view on Clarissa and birds in Mrs. Dalloway.
- Max Bolton
Great blog Max! I never really thought about the way that Clarissa was portrayed in regards to birds. I'm glad to say that this makes a lot of sense and I find it surprising that we never really talked about this in class. I think it is pretty cool that some of the actions that Clarissa takes throughout the story can be interpreted as characteristics of birds. Keep up the great work Max!
ReplyDeleteGood job. The Idea of Birds relating to Clarissa as a member of the elites is quite an interesting detail I never noticed.
ReplyDeleteI've never thought about it in quite this way before, but Scrope Purvis (I love to see my boy Scrope getting some play on the blogosphere!) and his observations about Clarissa's "bird-like" qualities are quite in tune with how she herself is feeling on this beautiful June morning--whose weather immediately sends her back via memory to Bourton. She has been ill, bedridden, confined at home, but now on this late-spring/early-summer morning, she is indeed feeling "vivacious" and intensely alive. We associate the beauty and optimism of a spring morning with the chirpings of birds and their relentless activity, nest-building and worm-gathering. And indeed, for the first time in a while, Clarissa Dalloway is going to "fly from the nest" and procure some necessities for the home and the party she is hosting that night. So while Scrope acknowledges that we can still see some signs of Clarissa's illness ("grown quite pale"), we also see her in recovery, reemerging, like a robin on a spring morning.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting connection! It's interesting how you went further than just describing examples of when Clarissa was related to birds, but what that connection reveals about her as a character. I think you can view it as a transition, from the past where she was more free (before choosing to marry Peter or Richard) to the present where she is less free and described as a bird. Great post
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting to see birdlike attributes as something that a person "gains" in hand with nobility. The idea of vanity manifesting into physical traits is really interesting, and I could totally see a connection to that in Mrs. Dalloway. An interesting contradiction is the role of gender. For birds, males are usually brightly colored in order to impress potential partners. But in the upper-class society of London in the early 1900s, it's the women with the colorful dresses and accessories.
ReplyDeleteI would be really interested in why Virginia Woolf specifically chose to compare her characters to birds. She uses the metaphor so often that the meaning changes depending on the instance. I like how you interpreted Scrope Purvis' comparison of Clarissa to a bird: that she's friendly with those her own kind but rather standoffish to others. I also like how you identified that Clarissa often feels othered and different within her sector of society, and she observes others using very similar language as Scope. Overall, great post!
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to hear what you think about Clarissa's hatred of Ms. Kilman and how it fits into the "bird" narrative. Kilman, being of a low social standing, would undoubtedly fall into the category of people who Clarissa views as beneath her and unworthy of consideration or notice. Yet, Clarissa dedicates much intense, emotionally charged thought to Kilman. While this does fit well within the theme of critiquing nobility and the upper class, it does so in a slightly different manner.
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