Integration of Life and Death in Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours

Integration of Life and Death in Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours

Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours show that life and death are dependent on

each other. It is a person's life experiences that define their

thoughts and feelings on death and death can define their life

experiences. Cunningham, the author of The Hours, explains it best:

We live our lives, do whatever we do and then we sleep - its as simple

and ordinary as that. A few jump out of windows or drown themselves or

take pills; more die by accident; and most of us, the vast majority,

are slowly devoured by some disease or, if we're very fortunate, by

time itself. There's just this for consolation: and hour here or there

when our lives seem against all odds and expectations, to burst open

and give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but

children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be

followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish

the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more.

(Cunningham 225)

Both authors use different characters' perspectives to show different

vantage points of life and death and how one affects the other. Woolf

uses Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith, from Mrs. Dalloway, to

illustrate her view on life and death. Clarissa is initially scared of

life, thinking that every day is dangerous. Septimus loves life and

fully embraces it, until he becomes ill. When Clarissa hears of

Septimus' suicide, she reevaluates her will to live. Cunningham's

characters from The Hours, Laura Brown and her son Richard Brown,

present a different perspective of life and death from what is seen in

Mrs. Dalloway. ...

... middle of paper ...

...use their suicides as

a form of preservation to their life. So, even in death, their life is

upheld. Their suicides then tie back into Clarissa and Laura who use

them as an awakening to how they have been living their lives. Life

and death are integrated so tightly throughout these novels that the

reader understands the significance of both. Life dictates death and

death affects how life is lived. A line from Shakespeare's Cymbeline,

"Fear no more the heat o' the sun / Nor the furious winter rages,"

sums up the message conveyed by Virginia Woolf and Michael Cunningham.

Since life and death are so closely related, death is not something to

fear and life should be lived to the fullest.

Works Cited

Cunningham, Michael. The Hours. New York: Picador, 1998.

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Florida: Harcourt, 1925.