Katie Roundtree Ms. Blumberg ENGL 202.

04: Introduction to Literary Study 2 April 2014 Elizabeth Dalloway as a Powerful Symbol Virginia Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway follows the day in the life of numerous characters, recording each of their psyches, thus allowing the reader to better understand the characters, their thoughts, their emotions, and what drives them. Although seemingly a minor character, Elizabeth Dalloway plays a more important role as she symbolizes youth and beauty throughout the novel, having a magnetic effect on those around her. One of the unique relationships within this text occurs between Elizabeth and Miss Kilman. The narrator never fully clarifies how Elizabeth feels about this relationship; however, Miss Kilmans thoughts are very clear. Miss Kilman is an aging woman, over forty years old and is not very attractive. She sees Elizabeth as the youth and beauty that she is either losing or has already lost. Because of this, she is strongly attracted to and defensive over Elizabeth. On one occasion when Elizabeth tries to leave, Miss Kilmans mind goes into a frantic mode as she tries to think of any conversation that will convince Elizabeth to stay, even just for a few more minutes. The narrator says, Miss Kilman could not let her go! This youth, that was so beautiful, this girl, whom she genuinely loved! . . . If she could grasp her, if she could clasp her, if she could make her hers absolutely and forever . . . that was all she wanted (131-132). Her desperation to seize onto youth and beauty is so powerful and great that it becomes an obsession. However, there is no stopping time from destroying youth and beauty and Miss Kilman faces this ugly truth as she is unable to stop Elizabeth from leaving her. The narrator writes, She had

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gone. Miss Kilman sat at the marble table among the clairs, stricken once, twice, thrice by shocks of suffering. She had gone. Mrs. Dalloway had triumphed. Elizabeth had gone. Beauty had gone, youth had gone (133). In this instance, Mrs. Dalloway parallels the movement of time, the underlying monster responsible for the destruction of youth and beauty. Elizabeth leaves with the excuse that she needs to get ready for the party her mother is having. Her mother, as the perfect hostess, has a starting time for her party which Elizabeth is expected to abide strictly by. Therefore, it is not really Mrs. Dalloway who had triumphed, but rather it was the passing of time that triumphed in taking away Miss Kilmans source of youth and beauty. Miss Kilman is not the only person who sees Elizabeth as more than a girl of seventeen. Others also understand her to be a symbol and source of beauty and youth. The narrator states as she boards the omnibus amongst strangers, People were beginning to compare her to poplar trees, early dawn, hyacinths, fawns, running water, and garden lilies (134). All of these nature parallels to Elizabeth are picturesque, representing youth and beauty. They have a certain freshness about them, giving the person observing them a rejuvenating sense of new life. The fact that people compare Elizabeth to these things means that they see her in the same light. This is true of Willie Titcomb who the narrator writes was thinking, She was like a poplar, she was like a river, she was like a hyacinth when talking to Elizabeth at the party (188). Hence, Elizabeth is a source of vital youth and beauty even to people she has no real relationship with, but who simply feel her presence in that way. Not only does Woolfs modernist style of writing allow the reader to gain a birds eye view of the life of the characters in Mrs. Dalloway, but it also allows the reader to enter the mind of the characters allowing much more knowledge. By taking this one step farther and finding symbolism within even minor characters, particularly Elizabeth, the reader understands the text

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in a different way and sees the impact that minor characters have on major characters relative to them. Word Count: 660