Virginia Woolf and “The Hours”

In our presentation Maria and I, Louise, are going to explore how modernism is portrayed in literature and film, through the writer Virginia Woolf’s work.

The plot of the 2002 movie “The Hours” is based on the 1998 novel “The Hours” by Michael Cunningham. The movie stars: Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf, Julianne Moore as Laura Brown, and Meryl Streep as Clarissa Vaughn. Taking a page from Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway”, “The Hours” looks at one day in each of the three women’s lives: the day that Virginia Woolf starts writing “Mrs. Dalloway” and later kills herself; the day that Laura bakes a cake for her husband’s birthday and considers overdosing on sleeping pills and tranquilizers; the day that Clarissa picks up her flowers for the party, only to have the party cancelled to mourn Richard’s suicide. Each of these woman’s lives are connected by the book “Mrs. Dalloway” and their struggle to find meaning in their lives.

“Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more. It's contrast”. This is the quote that Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf says in the movie “The Hours.” The reactions to death, the struggle to find purpose in one’s life, and the struggle to understand the ending of another’s life seems to be the main theme that “Mrs. Dalloway”, the book “The Hours”, and the movie “The Hours” are dealing with. It is the inevitable event of death, and the questioning of life that connects all people together.

The questioning of life and death became an escape for Woolf, as she was considered insane to even consider what the ending of her life would be like. Her character Mrs. Dalloway struggles with the stifling atmosphere of her life: she lives in a nice house, has a rich husband, but at what price? Mrs. Dalloway’s parties are her only way to show her creativity, but she plays a sacrificial role in catering to the indulgences of others; she considers her thoughts naïve and not worth any notice. Woolf’s own restlessness about her life can be seen in the regrets and resignations of Clarissa Dalloway.

For another opinion on the way that Michael Cunningham’s “The Hours” uses a similar writing style and conventions to Virginia Woolf’s, please check out this website: http://lisa.revues.org/2912 .

We couldn’t find any good clips to attach from youtube.com of the movie “The Hours”, but please do watch it on your own time! It is an awesome movie; very artistic, with beautiful music, and poignant speeches. And very powerful in the fact that; when you watch it you keep waiting for something to happen, without realizing that it is happening, life is happening for these women.

We hope you continue to read Virginia Woolf’s work, and look into “The Hours”.

Sources Used

Pillière, Linda “Michael Cunningham’s The Hours : echoes of Virginia Woolf”, Revue LISA/LISA e-journal [Online] , Vol. II - n°5 | 2004 , Online since 02 November 2009, connection on 27 March 2011. URL : http://lisa.revues.org/2912

The Hours. Dir. Stephen Daldry. Perf. Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, and Ed Harris. Paramount, 2002. Film

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. 1925. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt, Inc, 2005. Print

Woolf, Virginia. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature Concise Edition Vol. B. Ed. Don LePan. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2008.

Images are from google search of ‘Virginia Woolf’

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)