Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf is highly regarded as one of the pioneers of the modernist novel. She rejects materialistic forms of writing for a more in-depth look into characters psyche and is more interested in the way people think and react than the superficial front people put on when they are out in the world. She broke new ground with her modernist writing technique called ‘stream of consciousness’ that she displays in her works, such as Mrs. Dalloway and The Mark on the Wall. She believed that realist fiction does not capture what is important so she reduced the idea of plot and created a style of writing focused on interior dialogue. She was innovative with her ideas of time and narration; she did not adhere to concepts of conventional time and she made the narrator hard to locate and define.
Virginia’s life was very complicated and difficult for her. She and her husband, Leonard, were a part of the famous Bloomsbury group, a group of writers and artists that represent the avant-garde style of the early 20th century. They were considered radicals who lived a bohemian life style. Despite her success, Virginia had many mental breakdowns and suffered with depression and bi-polar disorder. She eventually committed suicide by drowning herself in a lake. The theme of suicide comes up in many of her works, as well as, themes of class hierarchy, consequences of war and gender relations. Gender roles are a theme brought up in A Room of One’s Own where she criticizes society’s constraint on women. She believes that women need a place where they can get away from society and their family in order to thrive.

Mrs. Dalloway
One of the main focuses of The Hours, Mrs. Dalloway is a novel published in 1925 by Virginia Woolf. To be very brief, the book is about a woman who busies herself with trivial activities - such as planning a party - and appears to be a very pulled-together, happy, organized woman; on the inside, however, she is confused, lonely, and constantly feels like something is missing in her life. She has to deal with an unhappy marriage, a disappointing life, and is greatly affected by the suicide of one of the sub-characters.

The Hours
Like Woolf’s novel, the film takes place over the course of one day and one night. The film consists of three sub-plots involving the lives of three different women living in three different time periods; all three women are somehow affected by the novel Mrs. Dalloway. All three women are at war with themselves, and all three have to deal with suicide in one way or another.
1) Virginia Woolf, 1923 (Nicole Kidman)
- Woolf is in the middle of writing the actual novel, commiserating with her main character. She suffers from mental illness, depression, and has considered suicide. She often seems disjointed from everything going on around her and appears miserable and preoccupied with death throughout the film. Eventually, Woolf leaves a note for her husband and decides to commit suicide by drowning herself in the river.
2) Laura Brown, 1951 (Julianne Moore)
- Brown is unhappy in her marriage and her life; she is mother to a son (Richie) and is several months pregnant. Laura suffers from depression and thoughts of suicide. She takes comfort in Woolf’s novel, sympathizing with the character of Clarissa Dalloway. Eventually, we learn that Laura stays with her family until her daughter is born, abandons them soon after and moves to Canada.
3) Clarissa Vaughan, 2001 (Meryl Streep)
- Vaughan acts as a sort of parallel to the 1925 novel and actually represents Dalloway. She tries to deal with unhappiness by appearing strong on the outside, pretending to be content, not unlike Clarissa Dalloway in the novel. She has to deal with the suicide of her long-time friend Richard (later revealed to be the son of Laura Brown). Clarissa is forced to accept the death of Richard; she copes with the pain, and moves on.

References
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dalloway/

For information regarding The Hours:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274558/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hours_(film)

Also, the entire film is on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieay8KaRgwY (part 1)