Question

Mrs.

Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf (excerpt)
She's looking at me, he thought, a sudden embarrassment coming over him, though he had kissed her hands. Putting his hand into his pocket, he took out a large pocket-
knife and half opened the blade.
Exactly the same, thought Clarissa: the same queer look; the same check suit; a little out of the straight his face is, a little thinner, dryer, perhaps, but he looks awfully well,
and just the same.
"How heavenly it is to see you again!" she exclaimed. He had his knife out. That's so like him, she thought.
He had only reached town last night, he said; would have to go down into the country at once; and how was everything, how was everybody - Richard? Elizabeth?
"And what's all this?" he said, tilting his pen-knife towards her green dress.
He's very well dressed, thought Clarissa; yet he always criticises ME.
Here she is mending her dress; mending her dress as usual, he thought; here she's been sitting all the time I've been in India; mending her dress; playing about going to
parties; running to the House and back and all that, he thought, growing more and more irritated, more and more agitated, for there's nothing in the world so bad for some
women as marriage, he thought, and politics, and having a Conservative husband, like the admirable Richard. So it is, so it is, he thought, shutting his knife with a snap.
"Richard's very well. Richard's at a Committee," said Clarissa.
And she opened her scissors, and said, did he mind her just finishing what she was doing to her dress, for they had a party that night?
This excerpt from Mrs. Dalloway describes Clarissa Dalloway's meeting with Peter Walsh, whose proposal for marriage she turned down years ago. Peter's fidgeting with his
pen-knife and Clarissa's use of her scissors during the conversation symbolize
The description of Peter's thoughts suggests that he
Clarissa's lifestyle.

Answer 1

The excerpt from Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs. Dalloway' uses the symbolism of a pen-knife and scissors to convey the psychological depth of Clarissa and Peter's reunion, revealing unspoken aspects

Step-by-step explanation:

The given excerpt from Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is a portrayal of the complex emotional undercurrents between two characters, Clarissa Dalloway and Peter Walsh. Peter's actions with his pocket-knife and Clarissa's with her scissors during their conversation are symbolic, communicating more than just their spoken words.

These symbols reveal their internal states and the nuanced dynamics of their past relationship.

In this encounter, Peter reflects on Clarissa's life since he last saw her, interpreting her dress mending as emblematic of her lifestyle—domestic, social, and perhaps unfulfilled in his eyes.

Contrasting with their physical choreography of mending and fidgeting, their thoughts provide insight into their characters and their unresolved feelings for each other, suggesting the persistent complexities of human emotions and relationships.