But we make these generalized, easy assessments of people every day while knowing that we - individually - are certainly too complex to be summed up so easily. It is only when we are ignorant, or lazy, or angry (as Peter Walsh was) that we label one another. A woman is never just a wife, or a mother, or a hostess human beings cannot be defined in one word.

Dalloway is about a party Clarissa gives. In a sense, Clarissa Dalloway does develop into a perfect hostess and, in a sense, Mrs. This would seem to be the only value of her life. Clarissa's destiny does indeed seem to have been that of a well-bred wife who would give successful parties for her husband. Peter Walsh's chance and angry remark seems to have been most accurate. Dalloway we are left with a literal image of Clarissa Dalloway as The Perfect Hostess. Peter said this impulsively, out of jealous anger, yet when we finish Mrs. Dalloway was a young girl, her beau, Peter Walsh, prophesied that someday Clarissa would be The Perfect Hostess. This is not an easy task because appearances deceive. We must try to see the diversity beneath the surface of this English lady and try to get a sense of her personality. Dalloway has been and what she has become. Our job is to look beyond the plot and realize who Mrs. Dalloway on this particular day in June prepares for and gives a party. Dalloway's present on a single day - a Wednesday in mid-June, 1923. It is a collage, a mosaic portrait it pieces together bits of Mrs. Dalloway is not a conventionally narrated novel at all. Dalloway is not a novel that chronicles the years of the life of Clarissa Dalloway.

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