Clarissa Dalloway's Infatuation for Sally Seton
In reading Virginia
Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, I found myself
completely tangled up in questions while reading about Clarissa Dalloway’s
relationship with Sally Seton. Even though Clarissa (through the narrator)
mentions other characters, such as Peter or Richard, I feel that it is never as
in depth, as vivid, or as positive as the description of Sally Seton. There are
many quirky, abnormal things that Sally Seton did that are mentioned in said
description, including:
i. sitting on the floor of a party
smoking cigars
ii. running naked through the house
(with workers) when she has no soap
iii. cuts off stems of flowers and
places heads of flowers in water bowl as décor
iv. reading books together with
Clarissa.
As I was
analyzing the section of this novel where this description of Sally appears, I
realized that Sally was a very solid contrary of the upper-class female stereotype that Clarissa has
probably never seen before. In this novel, Clarissa is a member of the high
society in London. Therefore, it is quite safe to assume that she has grown to
the traditions of upper-class people, surrounding herself with others who enjoy
parties and sophisticated political arguments. In this society, there isn’t
much room for dilly-dallying and definitely no time for going against the flow
of societal standards. Clarissa is married to Richard Dalloway, an English
politician with high regards for the traditions of the English high society.
Therefore, she often finds herself having to prove to him that she is able to
be genteel to complement his formal personality. With being so used to the
people around her being prim, proper, and conventional Londoners, Clarissa sees
Sally Seton create such a stark contrast from her environment that easily makes
her unique. Sally is so intriguing to her that Clarissa becomes extremely
enthusiastic describing Sally (through the narrator), eager to compliment her
personality and her “beautiful voice”.
To me, and very possibly to many
others, this situation between Clarissa and Sally brings up a compelling question: What is Clarissa’s sexuality? Of course, we could ask about Sally as
well, but none of this description was in her POV talking about her outlook on
Clarissa. The most we are able to do is break down Clarissa’s depiction of
Sally from her eyes and work from there. Now, of course, Clarissa also has the
Richard versus Peter situation happening in her life, often stepping back and
wondering what her life would be like if she married Peter. With her
undoubting love and infatuation for Sally, this adds to her sense of existential wonder. Through
the narrator, Clarissa even proclaims her love for Sally Seton. With this, there comes a possibility for this question - is she homosexual? Though this question is obviously very hard to answer - in fact, impossible - we know
from reading and analyses that Clarissa’s world simply does not see homosexuality
as an option for her. There is no way that she would be able to live the rest of her life with Sally,
because it is practically second nature, by societal standards, to marry a male figure. However, Clarissa’s
feelings for Sally Seton are undeniable, and she has no good explanation for
them occurring other than the fact that she is beautiful and different (in a
wonderful way) in Clarissa’s eyes. Though the question of her sexuality can
never be answered for sure (unless Woolf resurrected from the dead and decided
to tell us), we do know these feelings for Sally add to Clarissa’s preexisting
fumbles with her decision between Richard and Peter, and Sally Seton is forever
engrained into this confusing “love fork” of Clarissa’s.
I definitely think there is the very real possibility that Clarissa was sexually attracted to Sally. However, like you said, because of societal expectations, she likely dismissed it as an infatuation more than anything else. I don't think Clarissa would have understood what a homosexual relationship even was. Perhaps if this novel was set at a later time, Clarissa might have explored her relationship with Sally more. After all, she did call it the "most exquisite moment of her life".
ReplyDeleteIts interesting to see how attraction works when you have very defined expectations placed on you. I like the point you made about how she liked Sally because she was new. I think that Clarissa expected life to fall into place and fall into a particular routine - one that didn't challenge who she was as a person. Sally probably relieved a lot of that allowing Clarissa's curiosities to reach a new level. I like you and Lindsay do not deny the connection - it is quite obvious and not very masked (at least to the reader). I think that this question of sexuality is an undertone to the book that we must discuss because like other things adds to the notion that this was an autobiographical outlook for Woolf.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the way that Clarissa attempts to explain her emotions toward Sally is fascinating. The way that she seems to understand it as love but without feeling as though it is the proper description. I like how you continually reiterate that it is not possible to know for sure but you still have a strong stance. I agree with you that it seems very possible that Clarissa has homosexual feelings for Sally based upon the way she describes her as well as how she has felt towards men and how that doesn't compare in the slightest.
ReplyDeleteI also thought Sally was presented as the only really likable character in the novel. I think it's possible that this is because we don't get to see inside her head. For all the other characters, we get a view of them both externally and internally and almost always those two perspectives are in conflict (e.g. Clarissa seeing herself negatively but is held in pretty high regard by her acquaintances). With Sally, we don't really get a second opinion and this makes her all the more interesting. As far as Clarissa's sexuality is concerned, the book doesn't have the vocabulary available to describe anything besides conventional relationships, so we can't put a stamp on Slarissa (Clally?); and yet it's kind of hard to imagine they would have kissed if they weren't feeling, in the moment, attracted to one another physically. Does that mean they were in love? That brings up a whole slew of possibilities about sexual vs romantic attraction as they pertain to Clarissa's life.
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