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Unit 30: Virginia Woolf — Mrs. Dalloway: Themes and Characterization

much of their time at Bourton and decides to attend Clarissa’s party even though he hates her Notes
parties. He waits the entire party just to speak with her or be near her.

Lucy

Clarissa’s principal servant, Lucy has the run of the house. She is proud of its ability to effuse
beauty and honor.

Mrs. Walker

Another servant, Mrs. Walker is older and has been handling the dinners at the parties for
many years.

Sally Seton/Lady Rosseter

As a young woman, she was Clarissa’s best friend, staying with Clarissa at Bourton because
she was considerably poorer than Clarissa. Sally enjoyed causing a raucous by making outrageous
claims and acting on a rebellious instinct that led her to smoke cigars, run naked down the
halls, and do other crazy stunts that were not condoned by Clarissa’s relatives. She represents
Clarissa’s true but unfulfilled love. As an older woman, she has surprisingly married a wealthy
man and had a family, though she retains many of her spirited qualities.

Hugh Whitbread

A proper English gentleman, Hugh feels that he makes an important contribution to English
society by writing letters to the London Times, helping different committees, attending parties
at the Palace, and giving to small charities. He has been friends with Clarissa since childhood.
Peter and Richard find him stiff and boring.

Miss. Kilman

The woman whom Richard has hired to tutor Elizabeth in history, she is continually at odds
with Clarissa. She has communist sympathies and feels bitter and repulsed by those of wealth
and privilege such as Clarissa. Clarissa detests the attention she takes from her daughter as
well as her self-sacrificing, condescending demeanor.

Miss. Pym

The woman who works at the florist on Bond Street, she notes that Clarissa was once very
kind. She is polite and apologetic to an extreme.

Septimus Warren Smith

Often considered Clarissa’s doppelganger, Septimus was a successful, intelligent, literary young
man before World War I. During the war, he wins many honors and friends. After a good
friend, Evans, is killed, he realizes that he can no longer feel. Marrying Rezia in an attempt
to move on, Septimus never regains an emotional attachment to the world. The couple moves
back to London and Septimus returns to his good job, but he slowly slips into further depths
of despair and horror. He hears voices, namely of Evans, and becomes extremely sensitive to
color and natural beauty. The doctors compound his problems by ignoring them, and they

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