Poet or Hostess?

"The poet will die--the visionary." This is the line from The Hours that strikes me most. It is Virginia Woolf's reply to her husband's question about who she plans to kill instead of her heroine and why. She has previously explained to him that it's for contrast, and "in order that the rest of us should value life more." As I thought about this conversation between Leonard and Virginia, I began to wonder where Virginia herself fit in with everything. You could say that Clarissa represents Virginia in a way--they are both married to similar men who give them space, love them very much, and take good care of them. Both love their husbands as well and are happy in their marriages (Virginia makes this clear in her suicide note to Leonard). Virginia seems to be connected to Clarissa in a more subtle way as well: both seem to enjoy being hostesses and having social lives. Think about Virginia's visit with her sister, nephews, and niece. She seems to love their company and is extremely sad when they must go. She wishes she could go to London and be invited to her sister's parties and have a more busy life. After her sister and the kids leave, Virginia tries to leave as well, and tells her husband that she will either go to London or choose death, because she is simply not satisfied with her life.

This is where Septimus comes in. Septimus kills himself because life is not enough. This seems to be Virginia's logic as well when she explains to Richard why they must move, and why she is so unhappy. Virginia, like Septimus, must deal with awful mental illness every single day; and although both of them are still able to think clearly and do have happy moments in their lives, ultimately their lives are not enough to cure them. I think Virginia wrote the Clarissa's character seeing her heroine as the person she wished she could be. Virginia wants life to be enough for her. She does appreciate and love life--how could she so accurately portray Clarissa's love for life if she didn't? On the other hand, Virginia also portrays Septimus's logic to end his life very well; how could she do that if she didn't understand him too?

The big question here is whether Virginia Woolf is the poet or the hostess. There is ample evidence pointing to each possibility, but I see her as the poet over the hostess; and I imagine she saw herself as a poet as well. She understands life and death. She understands life to the point where she does love it and can therefore portray Clarissa's immense love and appreciation for it; but she also understands death to the point where she can see it as a rational escape from life and can therefore portray Septimus's logical reasons for suicide.

It seems like Virginia wishes she could be Clarissa and overcome her unhappiness with life and realize that it really is enough for her and that life is worth living; on the other hand, perhaps Virginia wishes she had been like Septimus and simply ended her life before she was put under the care of doctors resembling Holmes at worst. In fact, this would make sense in her decision to end her life: she felt that something worse was coming, something she wouldn't be able to rise out of, and she made the logical choice to simply end it all--to escape. This is exactly what Septimus does, and also what Clarissa realizes she doesn't need to do. Why shouldn't Virginia wish she could be like Clarissa and not have to kill herself? Why should anyone want a logical reason to end their life, unless they need that escape? Virginia did not hate life--she hated the life she was stuck living. She ended it to avoid something worse.

Although it makes sense for Virginia to want to be the "hostess" (she cares for Clarissa, and realizes that Clarissa can't kill herself), she can't help but be the poet (she cares for and understands Septimus as well) because that is simply the course that her life takes.

It is also interesting that in The Hours, before Richard kills himself, he quotes Virginia Woolf's suicide note to Clarissa. It's kind of like drawing a circle--Clarissa understands Septimus's reasons for killing himself, as does Virginia. The Richard in the movie, who reminds me of both Virginia and Septimus understands Virginia's suicide as well as Virginia and Clarissa understand Septimus's. Now that I've mentioned the Richard character from The Hours though, I'm realizing that he's extremely interesting as well. He reminds me of both Virginia and Septimus because of his role as a poet, but he also reminds me of Peter because of his open criticism and love for Clarissa--he did not end up with her, but he still loves her (and she seems to love him as well) and because he loves her, he hurts her. It is Richard that causes Clarissa's breakdown in the kitchen.

All of this demonstrates that nobody is exactly one thing or another. Virginia Woolf has aspects of the hostess and of the poet. Movie-Richard has Peter qualities as well as Septimus-Virginia qualities. Laura Brown is absolutely a sympathetic character (we do feel for her and get a chance to understand her to an extent), but we also find ourselves disliking her a bit (and even being slightly creeped out by her) because of the damage she does to her son.

I loved The Hours. It brought up plenty of thought-provoking questions and made my head hurt, but in a good way. It's hard to understand and interpret the idea that the world isn't black and white. It's difficult to make accurate judgments about people when you consider every side to a story; but this is the point that Mrs Dalloway makes. It is a book about so many different things, and one of those things is that it is impossible to put people into categories. We can't just call Mrs. Dalloway a snob, because she is so much more than that. We can't just call Virginia Woolf the poet, because there is so much competing evidence that can't be ignored.