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Ciccotti, Kuperschmidt, Melbourne, & Tannenbaum

May 2, 2014
Literary Modernisms
Group Paper
Isolation and the Modern City: Exploring Alienation in Quicksand and Mrs Dalloway
In modernist literature, feelings of loneliness are frequently associated with city dwellers.
Confronted with the overwhelming crowds and ubiquitous movement of the modern metropolis,
an individual can experience burdensome isolation. It might be implied that every human feels
utterly alone in the city, despite his or her physical position in the urban community. On the
other hand, there exists the possibility that the city has less significance in its inhabitants
seclusion. Both Clarissa in Mrs. Dalloway and Helga in Quicksand face alienation in urban
settings, and each strives to alleviate her sense of isolation with varying degrees of success. In
these two portrayals of city life, the inevitability and cause of isolation remains questionable.
Discovering the magnitude of the citys role in the isolation of these two characters has been the
focus of this groups work. While the group disagrees on specific interpretations of the texts,
one general understanding remains universal: isolation is fundamentally a human condition.
Although loneliness pervades literary depictions of the city, alienation ultimately depends on
specific factors, including the individual, corruption, racial tensions, and gender roles.
In order to further understand the implication of isolation in the city, the group has
pursued four separate avenues of analysis. In her examination of Quicksand, Jessica
Tannenbaum investigates alienation in society as a whole, instead of narrowly tailoring her focus
to the city street experience. From her adventures in Naxos, Denmark, and the Alabama town,
Quicksands Helga aims to attain a sense of belonging-- and a home. Yet, this desire to escape

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her isolation is inevitably unattainable. Her corrupt society imposes an inescapable barrier to
belonging in the group. The more Helga strives to find acceptance in a corrupt society, the more
she propagates a greater isolation from herself. Joseph Kuperschmidts paper attempts to refute
the idea that the city inherently causes loneliness in his exploration of Helgas situation in
Quicksand. While Tannenbaums work points to intrinsic corruption in society - which includes
racial tensions as a part - as the reason for Helgas isolation, Kuperschmidt focuses mainly on the
existence of racially-divided groups that conflict with Helgas mixed racial background. Both
cities and small towns host these segregated communities, which prevent Helga from reconciling
her black and white identities. Similarly, Tannenbaum, by exploring Helgas isolation in the city
and in the Alabama town, suggests that isolation can supercede the city experience. According
to Kuperschmidt, the throngs of the city, which Baudelaire and Simmel propose can lead to
loneliness, actually serve as brief havens for Helga, momentarily providing the coexistence of
black and white individuals. Although Helgas isolation occurs primarily in cities, the
metropolis, in Kuperschmidts interpretation, acts predominantly as a setting rather than a
catalyst.
On the other hand, Matthew Melbournes paper attempts to prove that Clarissa navigates
the problem of her societal isolation through an artists lens, using her party as art to resist
isolating gender norms. Despite a social and individual predisposition to isolation, Clarissa
manages to mitigate her alienation through a sort of party-art that mirrors the artistic process
that Baudelaire describes in The Painter of Modern Life. In a fitting defiance of even
Baudelaires masculine paragon for the modern artist, Clarissa Dalloway follows this model of
meticulous and intuitive perception of crowd-life and resultant production of art. Similar to
Melbourne, Emily Ciccotti explores the gender-defying power of Woolfs portrayal of Clarissa

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as a modern woman, mastering the art of Baudelaires modern man and flaneur. Indeed, Ciccotti
reasons that Woolf borrows from Baudelaire the notion that city characters thrive or succumb to
isolation based on their conscious decision to enjoy adeptly partaking in the crowd or avoiding
the crowd, respectively. Moreover, Ciccotti demonstrates how Woolf argues for this self-
imposed inclusion or isolation, but also bends Baudelaires gender biases by contrasting with
fiery imagery Clarissas decision to avoid the flames of loneliness and unite herself with others
in socializing efforts, and Septimuss choice to burn away alone.
Over the course of our analytical journey with the texts, the group was struck by the
inherent similarities between Clarissa and Helga. Despite their different races, countries of
residence, and backgrounds, both women experience isolation and a similar longing for the
group. Notably, both writers juxtapose on the characters time spent in isolated rooms with their
energy and enthusiasm at parties. Through these similarities, the group finds that isolation
emerges as a universal experience.
The groups different assessments of the two texts suggests that isolation in the city
fundamentally results from an wide array of social, economic, and personal factors. Although
Tannenbaum and Kuperschmidt argue that isolation is inevitable, they recognize that this
inevitability only arises because of the racial tensions of the societies which Helga encounters. If
Helga had attempted to infiltrate a different world, she perhaps could have attained a sense of
belonging. Unlike Helga, Clarissa manages to overcome her isolation, Melbourne and Ciccotti
argue, by combatting gender roles within her position in an rigid social framework; with her
parties, she creates and controls a crowd while making a strong impression on her guests.
Nevertheless, our findings imply a paradox in the experience of societal isolation. Since
loneliness ultimately depends on the human interactions, individuals should retain the power to

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overcome their isolation. Though we can blame our fellow men for imposing isolation, we also
must look to ourselves to eliminate it.