In Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, we see Clarissa Dalloway performing “women’s work.” By this I mean Mrs. Dalloway is doing jobs that are traditional to the gender roles assigned to women such as sewing, flower arranging, shopping, and, of course, party planning. The way that Clarissa and Peter react to and view these tasks in the novel is telling of how society views females participating in “women’s work.”
Clarissa herself seems to have little problem with the jobs she is doing, she seems to rather like planning parties. She is fulfilling a traditional and “proper” role as Mrs. Richard Dalloway, a competent wife and mother. But, we still see Clarissa thinking about how Peter would view her so willingly participating in this life. When they were younger, Peter called Clarissa “the perfect hostess”, which was meant as an insult to hurt Clarissa. This is telling of how Peter feels about women who chose to fulfill this traditional role. He sees them as lesser, not living up to their potential. He does not think that it is a good thing to be one of these women, or for Clarissa to become one.
Again, when Peter comes to see Mrs. Dalloway he looks down upon her because he thinks that she has been sitting sewing a dress. Sewing is a traditionally feminine task (“women’s work), and Peter does not see this as much of a valid task as some of its more masculine counterparts. Peter’s thoughts about sewing are not about the inherent nature of the action, sewing a dress is a task that requires a certain amount of skill nor is it a meaningless task, yet Peter does not think highly of Mrs. Dalloway when he sees her sewing because of his own views of traditionally feminine tasks. He thinks that Clarissa is above that kind of work, that she has wasted her potential.
Peter’s negative views of Clarissa’s continued voluntary participation in a traditional role for a woman as she lives her life as Mrs. Richard Dalloway is t indicative of a larger problem in society. While women continue to be liberated from the confines of gender roles, those who choose to stay in them are often scorned for their choices. Often, these women are seen as “not living up to their potential”, like Peter sees Mrs. Dalloway. In more modern discourse, it is often argued that these women are setting back the feminist movement, and people get focused on shooting women such as single mothers or stay-at-home moms down. Many would counter this ideology is very destructive because it continues to perpetuate the idea that femininity is wrong, which clashes with the ability of women to make their own decisions about how they want to live.
In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa fulfills a gender norm for the time and performs a few different traditionally feminine tasks. Peter Walsh looks down on her for these, thinking that she has wasted her potential. But, ultimately, it is most important to look at Clarissa’s decision about what she wants to do and about the “women’s work” she chooses to do.
I really enjoyed your discussion of Clarissa as someone who is totally autonomous of her decisions. Clarissa enjoys things traditionally ascribed to women and so her autonomy is not taken for what it is: her decision. Rather her choosing to host parties and mend dresses is perceived by society to be what she should be doing as a woman, which completely undermines her thoughts and choices. I think she recognizes this and is thus why she remembers, and is subsequently annoyed by, Peter. He belittles her because she isn't making a grandiose statement, isn't a woman shouting , pardon my French, "f*ck you" to society and gender roles, but rather is quietly accepting of the role she was given and using her intellect to mold it into her world. Peter, and many modern readers, would do well to understand that she is not a dormant housewife but is very conscious in how she lives her life and thus is aware how to, and does, make it her own.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point – that traditionally feminine tasks should not be considered lesser or belittled. But I would like to point out that these very strict gender roles definitely restricted a lot of women. Some women of the time were like Clarissa (socioeconomically privileged and have a desire to do most of the things society tells them to do) but some definitely do not fit the mold. What if, for example, a woman is not as rich as Clarissa, and one income of just the husband is not enough to sustain a family, according to the gender roles of the time, a woman should never work, other than within the home. In that case, she is forced to either scramble around for underpaid labor, facing stigma and judgment, or just bear the poverty, and risk much more real issues like malnutrition and homelessness. This isn’t even taking into account that some richer women may have just not wanted to be housewives. Sally for example, seemed to have no interest in following gender roles, and as a result of that, got a lot of judgment. Not to mention that Clarissa herself sometimes expressed the sentiment that she disliked being a housewife (for example, when she became upset that Peter mockingly called her a “perfect hostess”, was it because she was offended or because she didn’t want to be a hostess?). So I think that although these ideas shouldn’t be belittled, Peter might have been onto something when he wasn’t celebrating them, and maybe demanding something else from women other than complacency and housework.
ReplyDeleteI think that Virginia Woolf did a great job showing the life of an ordinary upper class wife. I believe that a lot of things that Clarissa does throughout the book, relates to what other people experienced in that time. That being said,Peter provides a very modern viewpoint on gender roles. As you said Peter sees more in Clarissa than just a wife of an English politician. He believes that Clarissa is smart and can do lots of things independently. Obviously Clarissa could have done more with her life, but she seems very content with she has, and maybe if Clarissa lived in 2017 she would achieve greater success!
ReplyDeleteEthan, I agree that Woolf did a great job of accurately portraying an upper class wife. In addition, Woolf does a great job of elaborating the how "trapped" Clarissa could be. Peter chastises her for being what society considers a "typical upper class British housewife". However, if she wanted to venture out and take her own prominent position in society (like her husband), she would be met with lots of resistance from men at this time given how male dominated most employment fields were. However, Clarissa seems at peace with her life and her decisions, which makes lots of other hypothetical arguments (such as my own) a moot point.
ReplyDelete