Clarissa and Peter are Foils
I really want to talk about the unique relationship between Clarissa and Peter and how it frames Mrs. Dalloway. The tension between Clarissa Dalloway and Peter Walsh (nearly) starts and ends this novel. On the first page, Clarissa remembers opening the windows one day at Bourton when she was 18, taking in the beautiful day, until, “Feeling as she did, standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to happen… standing and looking until Peter Walsh said, ‘Musing among the vegetables?’” (Woolf 3). The fact that Virginia Woolf introduces their dynamic in memory right at the beginning of the book highlights its importance both in Clarissa’s present consciousness and in shaping her as a person. Peter Walsh is irrevocably tied to the period of her life that Clarissa often reflects upon and so she can’t really shake the presence of him from her life. Additionally, this memory of Peter is kind of a negative one. It strikes me how charged and judgmental their dynamic is.
Through their judgments of each other, Clarissa and Peter delineate pieces of their character, which proves especially crucial in a book all about characters. In another memory of Bourton, Peter recalls “They always had this queer power of communicating without words. She knew directly he criticised her”(Woolf 59). Reading this passage reminded me of the term foil, defined as a character that contrasts with another to highlight some attribute. Peter is a foil for Clarissa and Clarissa is a foil for Peter. They both highlight important aspects of each other’s character. Through their criticisms of each other, we better grasp their insecurities, and how their inner psyche varies from how others perceive them. For example, through Peter, we grasp the class-colored elements of Clarissa's personality and her snootiness. Through Clarissa, we learn about Peter's knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. No other character gives us as much insight into Clarissa (aside from herself) as Peter and vice verse. Because the two argue so much, they’re constantly trying to make sense of each other.
This relationship is so critical to the novel that it ends the book. As the party is ending and Sally (Lady Rosseter) stands to leave, “‘I will come,’ said Peter, but he sat on for a moment. What is this terror? what is this ecstasy? he thought to himself. What is it that fills me with extraordinary excitement? It is Clarissa, he said. For there she was” (Woolf 190). I’m not quite sure how to interpret Virginia Woolf ending the novel from Peter's perspective, but it feels really important. Maybe the party embodies Clarissa, and as he watches the party come to an end, he’s surprised at how it affected him. In the interconnected web that Woolf has woven, the relationship between Clarissa and Peter contributes to something bigger than themselves and provides this novel with a much richer depiction of life and the threads that tie everyone together.
This is a really interesting post. I never heard of a foil so it's neat to learn something new. Having someone you contrast with really does highlight your values and personality. My interpretation of the ending is very similar to yours. I thought that the party made Peter feel very overwhelmed and out of place since it represents Clarissa, who he contrasts with so much. It's like getting thrown in with a bunch of dogs if you're a cat person.
ReplyDeleteReally cool interpretation of Peter and Clarissa's relationship that I definitely agree with. Peter's attitude is sort hostile to the way Clarissa lives her life because he tends to dumb down things she values in her life to cheap jokes or judgemental comments. Also looking at how different their minds are in the book sort of makes me wonder how they almost married when they were younger, seeing as how they are so different.
ReplyDeleteI almost feel like Clarissa and Peter are very similar in a way, which makes them clash even more. Their different paths in life has changed them on the surface significantly, but later at the party, they reconnect. Also, I interpreted Peter's criticism as possibly a result of jealousy? He seems to deeply desire some sort of love that he cannot reach, and seeing Clarissa in a stable(ish) lifestyle might have caused bitterness.
ReplyDeletePeter and Clarissa are certainly foils, and when I contemplate their interactions, I am struck by how they both seem to completely GET one another AND how they seem to completely misconstrue certain things about each other. But in the end, they are strikingly on point about what each other are likely thinking--at the party, Clarissa is fully aware that Peter is watching her and keeping a running commentary in his head about everything that annoys him about her, or confirms that he was right in his prediction; and indeed Peter is right that she cares very much about making the proper impression on her guests at the party, and that she genuinely enjoys these frivolous and superficial interactions. And while he seems to still carry a flame for Clarissa (which she seems to know), she is also oddly disappointed when he confesses he is "in love" . . . with someone else. Everything they do seems "typical" of each other (there he goes with that damn *pocket-knife* again; there she is, greeting everyone at the top of the stairs like a phony), and yet they know each other pretty well to be able to see this stuff as typical.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, for all his criticism, it's also clear that Peter really respects Clarissa and views her as a deep and complex person with ideas--even on this day in London in 1923, he is thinking of things like her "transcendental theory" of human interconnectedness that she shared with him one day when they were young and talking endlessly about big ideas and why we never really know each other. He is the one who remembers and considers the effects of her childhood trauma around seeing her sister killed--she presumably has shared this very intimate detail with him. They have talked at very deep levels with one another, and there is definitely a kind of love between them--but it is very complicated, more of a sibling-type of love perhaps, where it is critical and sometimes judgmental and sometimes egotistical, and yet still grounded in deep knowledge and experience of the other person.
And when it really comes down to it, Peter agrees that Clarissa was better off marrying Richard. He's such a fine fellow! Old Richard!
I really liked reading Clarissa and Peter's thoughts of each other. I agree that they do seem like foils of each other; I often thought while reading that they matched up really well, almost like a sibling dynamic.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you! As I was reading this post, I also thought about how Clarissa and Peter were together at one point in their lives, and I think that the reason behind that might even be that they had such similar personalities that could complement each other. Even as time passed, their personalities and respect for each other still stay the same.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a really good analysis of the dynamic between Peter and Clarissa! I definitely agree with your point about Peter holding importance in Clarissa's mind because he's so connected to this critical period of time at Bourton. There's this sense that every time she's made a decision since her ultimate choice to marry Richard instead of Peter, she's imagined him silently judging her, disapproving of the life path she's set herself on. And I think that this critical nature, and Clarissa's need to defend herself against it, are the main reason why Peter takes up so much real estate in her mind, even compared to people she's been just as close to, like Sally Seton.
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