Mrs. Dalloway

At the Dalloway residence, the servants are getting ready for the evening’s event. The Prime Minister will be coming, and “Mr. Dalloway had sent for the tokay, from the Emperor’s cellars, the Imperial Tokay” (155). The guests begin to arrive as the food travels from the kitchen, and as Peter enters, he sees that Clarissa “was at her worst—effusive, insincere” (156) and regrets coming. At the same time, Clarissa fears her party will be “a complete failure” (157), simultaneously thinking to herself “how Peter put her into these states just by coming and standing in a corner” (157). Clarissa observes her guests interact with each other, but “it was too much of an effort” (159) and Clarissa does not enjoy herself.

Suddenly, Sally Seton appears in front of Clarissa, “older, happier, less lovely” (160), and in her joy to see Sally, Clarissa also “saw her rooms full, heard the roar of voices, saw the candlesticks, the blowing curtains, and the roses which Richard had given her” (160-61). Their reunion is interrupted by the arrival of the Prime Minister, and Clarissa escorts him down the room and “felt that intoxication of the moment, that dilation of the nerves of the heart itself till it seemed to quiver, steeped, upright” (163). While Clarissa tends to the Prime Minister and her other guests, including Lady Bruton, who was “a spectral grenadier, draped in black” (168), Peter Walsh and Sally Seton remember the past together. The Bradshaws arrive, “whom [Clarissa] disliked” (170), and apologize for their tardy arrival. Lady Bradshaw explains to Clarissa as Dr. Bradshaw explains to Richard that one of Dr. Bradshaw’s patients had killed himself: “He had been in the army…He had thrown himself from a window” (172). Clarissa resents their mentioning such a topic at her party, but she ruminates on the death of the young stranger, reflecting on her own complex thoughts about life and death and feeling “in the depths of her heart an awful fear” (173). She feels guilty for some reason: “She had schemed. She had pilfered. She was never wholly admirable. She had wanted success” (173). At Bourton, when she was young, was when Clarissa had felt the happiest. As the clock strikes three in the morning, Clarissa hears “people still laughing and shouting in the drawing-room” (174) and does not feel sorry for the young man who killed himself. She goes to find Peter and Sally.

Peter and Sally are sitting together on a sofa. As Sally mentions her five sons, Peter observes in her “[t]he softness of motherhood; its egotism too” (175). Sally notices Peter playing with his pocketknife, just like he did in the old days, and she observes that he is “rather shriveled-looking, but kinder, she felt, and she had a real affection for him, for he was connected with her youth” (175). Sally reflects on her friendship with Clarissa, saying out loud to Peter, “how could Clarissa have done it?—married Richard Dalloway? a sportsman, a man who cared only for dogs” (177). Peter agrees that “it had been a silly thing to do” (178). Sally and Peter discuss Clarissa, her tendency toward snobbery and her way of being “hard on people” (179), as well as “how generous to her friends Clarissa was” (179). Peter confesses to Sally that “[o]ne could not be in love twice” (180), which inspires Sally to assure Peter that “Clarissa had cared for him more than she had ever cared for Richard” (180). As Peter protests, Elizabeth Dalloway crosses the room, and they admire her beauty and the devotion between Elizabeth and her father, with whom Elizabeth is now talking. Clarissa is suddenly visible, and Peter feels “extraordinary excitement” upon seeing her. (182).