Virginia Woolf 
Mrs. Dalloway 

First published in 1925, “Mrs. Dalloway” is a modern novel by Virginia Woolf focused on the characters characteristics and not on the plot. Actually, ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ is essentially plotless; what action there is takes place mainly in the characters’ consciousness. Virginia Woolf was concentrated on showing us the mental states her characters found themselves in.



The novel examines one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class Londoner married to a member of Parliament. The novel addresses the nature of time in personal experience through two interwoven stories, that of Mrs. Dalloway, preparing for a party, and that of the mentally damaged war veteran Septimus Warren Smith.



While never abandoning her omniscient third-person voice, Woolf enters the consciousness of seemingly unconnected characters and brings their feelings to the surface. The characters are connected, and the narrative shifts from one to another, by means of shared public experiences, such as an exhibition of skywriting.