mrs.dalloway

kjdfkjlkjThe explosive situation with the car allows us two specific insights into the text. One, it again highlights the emphasis of the British culture on figure heads and symbols. No one is sure which great figure resides within the important looking car, but each onlooker feels touched "by magic," as Clarissa notes. Traffic slows and onlookers halt and then rush to Buckingham Palace. The car, as with many of the objects with which Clarissa surrounds herself, is an empty symbol. What is inside does not matter. The shell of the car, in a postmodern sense, represents the empty significance that is often placed on social status within the world of Mrs. Dalloway's London.

It is at this moment that we also meet Septimus Smith. At the same time when Clarissa is frozen in delight, imagining the Queen and Prince and parties, Septimus is frozen by apprehension and fear. Many critics describe Septimus as Clarissa's doppelganger, the alternate persona, the darker, more internal personality...