Author: chazz

pride in beauty

She had a sylph-like form, not thin but full-bodied within the
limits of her graceful frame, well rounded on the hips, with an
arched narrow waist from which descended the folds of her
trousers and above which were her full, round, globular breasts,
jerking slightly, for lack of a bodice, under her transparent
muslin shirt. Bakha observed her as she walked along swaying.
She was beautiful. He was proud of her with a pride not
altogether that of a brother for a sister. (15)

 

What is Bakha’s pride for his sister if it is not altogether brotherly?

sexuality

“She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid.”

Hurston employs extremely euphemistic language to demonstrate Jamie’s sexual awakening.

tensions in setting

“The block of new, perfect and expensive flats in which Lord Peter dwelt upon the second floor, stood directly opposite the Green Park, in a spot for many years occupied by the skeleton of a frustrate commercial enterprise.(9)”

Before knowing who lord Peter is, aswell as before learning anything about the story, we know that he lives in a perfect and expensive flat, that was anything but perfect and expensive until just recently

Multiple streams of conscious

“And Lucy stopped at the drawing – room door , holding the cushion , and said , very shyly , turning a little pink , Couldn’t she help to mend that dress ?

But , said Mrs. Dalloway , she had enough on her hands already , quite enough of her own to do with . out that .”

Stream of consciousness, at least as it is utilized in Mrs. Dalloway, doesn’t include isolated ramblings. The thoughts of Mrs. Dalloway and Lucy are both exhibited in a stream of consciousness method.

Mrs. Dalloways memories

“But this question of love ( she thought , putting her coat away ) , this falling in love with women . Take Sally Seton ; her relation in the old days with Sally Seton . Had not that , after all , been love ?(Woolf, 46)”

Woolf seamlessly weaves memories of the past into the present narrative to explore Mrs. Dalloway’s feelings on the things happening around her. In this quote, Mrs. Dalloway sinks into a memory while dwelling on the nature of love after her husband leaves to attend a party without her.

death of the author

“Dencombe had told him what he ‘tried for;’ with all his intelligence, on a first perusal, Doctor Hugh had failed to guess it. The baffled celebrity wondered then who in the world would guess it: He was amused once more at the fine, full way with which an intention could be missed.”

– Henry James, “The Middle Years“, page 349

Dencombe conteplates the death of the author phenomenon while approaching his deathbed himself.  Missed intentions are found throughout the work, most notably Dencombe missing what Doctor Hughes seems to be “trying for” in regards to their relationship.