The Role of Time In Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway Essay

The Role of Time In Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway - Essay Example it, may be stretched to fifty or a hundred times its clock length; on the other hand, an hour may be accurately represented by the timepiece of the mind by one second. In the novel, we see a contrast between the clock time and the psychological time. There are several characteristics in the novel that illustrate a preoccupation with time. Initially the novel was titled The Hours, which indicate that time is an important theme of the novel. Moreover the narrated time of Mrs. Dalloway is just a single day, which indicates that the narration does not give importance to the chronological presentation of events. The main focus of the novel is on the consciousness of the characters as not much happens during the day in June that is mentioned in Mrs. Dalloway. Another interesting characteristic of the novel is that it is not divided into chapters. It is viewed as a one large chapter entitled Mrs. Dalloway. The Big Ben striking the hours serves the purpose of dividing the narrative into units. The clock time serves the purpose of dividing the narrative into different units. The lack of chapters also serves the purpose of allowing the continuous flow of ps ychological time. The clock time also provides a transition from one character to another, from the present to the past and to suggest the fact that the characters are bound together by time. As the clock strikes the transition takes place. The psychological time plays an important role to make the readers aware of the past of the characters. The past does not appear in chronological order. Instead it appears with relevance to the present. Clarissa opens the door and the â€Å"squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now† takes her thirty years back to a morning at Bourton. It is for this reason that the psychological time lasts longer than the clock time. The psychological time also serves the role of introducing the characters as Clarissa begin to think about others. One such character introduced in this manner is