Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Dalloway
Changes I Made:
The first change I made was to add the descriptor “successful” in the description of Richard Dalloway, Clarissa’s husband. I thought this was important because their marriage was one of status. One of the reasons that Clarissa chose Richard over Peter in the end was because he was of higher status and had a stable job as a politician. I was contemplating using a word to describe Peter’s lack of status but I decided not to, as it wasn’t exactly explicit if Peter was poor or just more of a free spirit.
The next change I made was to omit the “citation needed” when Clarissa’s romantic relationship with Sally Seton is mentioned. This was something that to me felt quite obvious and didn’t need a citation to validate it.
The next major addition I made was a deeper description of Peter’s visit to Clarissa’s home. I thought it was incredibly important to mention the feelings that remained between the two. This was a major part of the book in my opinion and explained a lot about both Clarissa and Peter. Her inviting him to her party was incredibly emphasized in the book in my opinion. It stood out to me as she called out to him desperately for him to attend her party, as he was leaving.
Then, I added information about Lucrezia, Septimus’s wife. I found her an incredibly compelling character and wanted to include her more in the plot summary. It felt wrong for her character to be glossed over, and her perspective was unique and interesting, especially in contrast with the point of view of Septimus.
After that, I wanted to dive further into Septimus’s complicated relationships with his doctors. This was another part of the book that to me felt important. Septimus’s comments about his interactions with the pair was super interesting and dove into the complications of having a mental illness in the 1920s. I wanted to make it clear that Septimus was driven to commit suicide, and wasn’t really something that he was planning on.
I made it a point to include in parentheses select names of characters to clarify what the plot summary meant by “people from her past”.
Lastly, I added a sentence to the ending of the plot summary. The sentence explained that Clarissa not only admired Septimus’s suicide, but found herself relating to him. This to me was essential to deeply understand Clarissa as a character.
Expectations:
I expected some sort of response to my edits to the plot summary. There was some concern about omitting the “citation needed” as people in the talk section frequently questioned the queerness of the novel. As a reader, I thought Clarissa’s interest in women was quite clear and enough to make the claim that she shared a relationship with her friend Sally Seton. We also discussed that plot summaries typically would not include citations, as its simply a general description of the novel with very little specifics. I don’t really think that many of my additions are all that controversial. I added details that were necessary to my understanding of the novel, so I understand why some readers might not find much importance in Septimus’s doctors or Peter’s visit.
Nothing has happened since I made my changes live on 4/23. I had multiple revisions to the plot summary, this was mostly due to the fact that the hyperlinks did not copy to my sandbox, so in part the amount of revisions can be partially due to that, as I only realized after publishing.
Photo Citation:
Virginia Woolf Photographed by Gisele Freund, 1935. The Manfred Heiting Collection.
