In which town is Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway set?

Mrs Dalloway, written by Virginia Woolf and published in 1925, is set in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. Set in a single day, June 1923, it follows the character of Clarissa Dalloway, a woman of London’s high society, as she hosts a reception at her home.

In Mrs Dalloway, London is not just a geographical setting, it’s almost a character in its own right. The city, lively and multifaceted, reflects the moods of the protagonists and the upheavals of the times.

Clarissa Dalloway strolls the streets of Westminster, walks in St James’s Park, passes Big Ben, shops in Bond Street. These iconic London landmarks are spatial landmarks that anchor the narrative in a reality familiar to British readers, while providing a framework for inner reflection.

The very structure of the novel, marked by the stream-of-consciousness technique, embraces the movement of the urban stroll. Thoughts emerge, intertwine and pass from one character to another, revealing the intimate life of each in a London that is at once majestic, noisy and hectic.

Mrs Dalloway’s London is deeply marked by the aftermath of the First World War, which ended five years earlier. This collective wound is embodied by Septimus Warren Smith, a traumatized former soldier haunted by the war and the death of his friend.

His wanderings through the streets of London, like Clarissa’s, reveal a city under reconstruction, physically intact but emotionally fractured. The contrast between the apparent tranquility of the gardens and the inner turmoil of the characters illustrates this clash between social appearances and psychic torments.

Big Ben, which regularly strikes the hour in the novel, becomes a symbol of the passage of time, of the implacable regularity of society, but also of the ephemeral nature of life. It punctuates Clarissa’s day, marking narrative transitions and accentuating the ephemeral nature of emotions.

In describing London, Virginia Woolf also offers a social critique. Clarissa Dalloway, though privileged, feels trapped in her social role. She wonders what her life would have been like had she made other choices.

The city becomes a mirror of the British social hierarchy, where the boundaries between classes are visible in the places frequented, the means of transport used and the relationships between the characters. Clarissa meets servants, beggars and soldiers, but remains at a distance, enclosed in her aristocratic world.

Mrs Dalloway takes place in the city of London, which is much more than a mere setting: it is a living space, charged with history, social tensions and emotions. Virginia Woolf depicts an ordinary day in a capital marked by war and modernity, where the streets, parks and buildings reflect the inner complexity of her characters.

Through this plunge into urban intimacy, Mrs Dalloway offers a subtle and profound vision of London, where each place participates in the exploration of memory, time and identity.

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