Literary Analysis On Mrs Dalloway

The world of Mrs. Dalloway can be summarized in one word, insane. Everyone is different and no one is who he or she portrays himself or herself to be. Even Mrs. Dalloway herself is a room full of people, all of whom are compressed behind the thin mask that doesn’t hide a thing, at least to the reader. Some people like Peter, are a mess of emotions so jumbled that even as the reader you have no idea what his reaction to a situation will be. Others like Hugh Whitbread have put up a front, that society dictates they have, for so long that we have no idea who they really are. But this dysfunctional society is slowing fading away as it clashes with the changes caused by World War One and gives hope for the new generation to learn from the mistakes …show more content…
Hugh Whitbread and Lady Bruton are also both product of the society. Hugh and Lady Bruton are only what society made them to be. They have no personality of their own. They live behind a mask of what others think the upper class should be and work for different ideas to seem important to make somewhat of an impact with their miserable lives. Lady Bruton’s lack of personality is more blatant in the book then Hugh’s. She is summarized in the book itself by one word, “emigration”. In contrast most common people see Hugh as a charismatic man, but the few who can see past his mask, look at him with utter disgust.
In contrast to Hugh Whitbread and Lady Bruton is Peter. Peter’s lives with his emotions on his sleeve. He is still a product of the society, just the exact opposite of Hugh and Lady Bruton. His personality is incredibly vague and contradicting because his mind is a chaotic mess. He comes back from India with a new wife but as soon as he sees Mrs. Dalloway he breaks down crying. He refuses to believe that he still loves Mrs. Dalloway even thought it is blatantly obvious that he does. Then when he gets back to his hotel he rants about how Mrs. Dalloway has changed and that she is a sellout compared to what she used to be. One minute he is praising Mrs. Dalloway the next he is insulting her and who she is. We don’t know what to make of peter because peter doesn’t know what to make of …show more content…
She is identical to Mrs. Dalloway as she was in the past. Elisabeth is a room full of people and has the same kind of radical friend that Mrs. Dalloway had. She is the hope for the people like Septimus. Mrs. Dalloway can’t help him because she is too caught up in the hierarchy already she is too old to change the order, but Elisabeth isn’t. She is young and has her whole life ahead of her. She can help the change so people that like Septimus can have a chance. She can prevent people from becoming masks and loosing what makes them different like Hugh and Lady Bruton. When the Long rule of the high class is over it will be Elisabeth and people like her create the