Clarissa vs. Mrs. Dalloway: The Clash of the Public and Private Selves in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway

Abstract

At the beginning of the 20th century, social norms regulating women’s life were still strict. Virginia Woolf, as one of the most significant feminist writers, introduced the social position of women in her works and the duplicity, the tension of the public and the private spheres that appeared in women’s life caused by social oppression. This clash is what this paper aims to focus on, the differences between the public and private selves introduced through the character of Clarissa Dalloway in Mrs. Dalloway, and the control of social and gender norms ruling women’s life in the early 20th century.