Richard has realized during this lunch that he wants to come home and tell Clarissa that he loves her. Clarissa was somewhat miffed that Lady Bruton invited only Richard and not her, and sees it as a remark on Clarissa's validity. Meanwhile, Richard Dalloway has been to lunch with Lady Bruton. Lecrezia has made an appointment for Septimus to see a specialist, Sir William Bradshaw, who dismisses the complexity of Septimus's madness and suggests a rest in an asylum to get more perspective.

He doesn't realize the depth of their emotions or how unsteady Septimus is. The couple get into a heated discussion about suicide, and Peter sees them as a young and in love couple quarreling. Peter goes to a park where Septimus and Lecrezia are also walking. Clarissa's 17-year-old daughter Elizabeth enters and Peter ends his visit. Clarissa and Peter talk to each other easily about the present, but both are thinking of their past and the decisions they made to get them to the place they are now. Peter had once told Clarissa disparagingly that one day she would become 'the perfect hostess,' and it becomes more and more clear that his prediction was accurate. The two shared a special bond, bordering on a crush, and Clarissa remembers a kiss they shared.Ĭlarissa begins mending her green silk dress for the evening when she receives an unexpected visit from Peter Walsh, her former suitor. Septimus lost his good friend and commanding officer Evans in the war and continues to carry on conversations with this lost friend.Ĭlarissa has returned home and begins to remember a special friendship she shared in her youth with Sally Seton, a vivacious, slightly scandalous young woman.

A car backfiring paralyzes him, and he reflects on his life. Septimus struggles with the aftereffects of the war, hearing voices and feeling that life has little meaning. Meanwhile, the second storyline begins with Septimus Smith, a shellshocked war veteran, out on the street with his wife, Lucrezia. Throughout the morning, Clarissa reflects on her past, including her decision to marry Richard Dalloway thirty years earlier, rather than her more fiery suitor Peter Walsh. She begins her day running an errand to purchase the flowers for the party.

The novel interweaves two seemingly unconnected storylines during this day.Īt the beginning, Clarissa Dalloway, fiftyish and recently recovering from an illness, is preparing for a party she will host that evening.

Dalloway is a unique novel in that it takes place in a single day - a Wednesday in mid-June 1923.

Mrs dalloway cliff notes