“Clarissa was really shocked. This a Christian — this woman! This woman had taken her daughter from her! She in touch with invisible presences! Heavy, ugly, commonplace, without kindness or grace, she know the meaning of life!”
“You are taking Elizabeth to the stores?” Mrs. Dalloway said.
Woolf, Virginia, Mrs.Dalloway, 122.
The scene between Ms. Kilman and Mrs. Dalloway is an example of the problem of connection between two people in the novel. Woolf focalizes on both Mrs. Dalloway and Ms. Kilman in this scene and the reader is able to read the thoughts of both women, which are very different than how they act in front of each other. In the quote above, Clarissa is disgusted by Ms. Kilman’s presence, claiming she stole her daughter from her. And yet, to Ms. Kilman, Mrs. Dalloway asks a simple question. This also applies to Ms. Kilman. Ms. Kilman “glares” and “glowers” at Mrs. Dalloway on the landing but, in reality, she inwardly describes Clarissa as “small” and “delicate” with “her air of freshness and fashion”. Mrs. Dalloway hates Ms. Kilman but acts fair, whilst Ms. Kilman admires Mrs. Dalloway and looks at her in anger.