Page 370 - DENG404_FICTION

Fiction

Notes Peter is suddenly filled with a sense of ecstasy. He had been looking for Clarissa for a long
time and suddenly she was there. Woolf writes in a simple structure, reminiscent of the short
sentences that begin the novel and permeate its body, “It is Clarissa, he said. For there she
was.” The reader is filled with an “extraordinary excitement” as she becomes increasingly
involved in the discovery of Clarissa’s being throughout the novel. As critic Lucio P. Ruotolo
analyzes, “During her parties it was not what she did or said that one remembered but rather
the extraordinary sense of her being there, There she was.” The conclusion of the novel is as
much an end as a beginning.

29.3 Summary

• The writing reflects the sea and rippling wave imagery broadcast through the character’s
intuitions.
• Clarissa asked about his life. There was too much to tell her, but he mentioned that he
was in love with a girl in India who was still married to a Major in the Indian Army.
• The bells of St. Margaret’s echoed across London, and Peter associated St. Margaret’s
graceful entrance with Clarissa as the hostess.
• Septimus was one of the first volunteers for the army in World War I. He went to protect
Shakespeare and Isabel.
• The archetype of the feminine maternal is represented by the woman seen by the solitary
traveler and now, the vagrant woman singing in the subway.
• The theme of the sea as symbolic of life is invoked as Richard returns from the luncheon
with flowers for Clarissa.

29.4 Keywords

Airy : spacious and well ventilated.

Ripple : a small wave or series of waves.
Ecstasy : an emotional or religious fernzy or trance like state.
Fawn : a young deer in its first year.

29.5 Review Questions

1. What does Clarissa hand to Lucy?
2. What are the boys in uniform carrying?
3. What does Lucrezia say has grown so thin?
4. Why had septimus left home as a mere boy?
5. What kind of flower in Elizabeth compare to?

6. What was the doom that septimus had sensed in Milan?

Answers: Self Assessment

1. (b) Flowers 2. (d) A pocketknife

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