King Lear 1.4.134-224

One artist's rendering of Goneril and Regan

(Don't forget the reading in Mrs. Dalloway, pp. 155-161)

After reading these lines from 1.4 and consulting the notes on the left-hand pages, please find a place where you find the language notable either because of syntax or diction. Your "place" should be no more than a phrase, and could be one word. Quote it, and say what was notable about it. Good luck!

Mrs. Dalloway 147-155

"Odalisque with Yellow Persian Robe and Anemones" by Matisse

Peter Walsh notes with approval an ambulance going by; the ambulance is carrying Septimus' mangled body. Peter thinks about himself, and especially about what one might call his love life. Based on this reading, and what's come before, is Peter a sympathetic figure? Is he a fool? Both?

some catching up on Mrs Dalloway

St. Paul's Cathedral ("She walked just a little way towards St. Paul's, shyly, like some one penetrating on tiptoe, exploring a strange house by night with a candle . . . .")

What is Elizabeth, Clarissa and Richard's daughter, like? She is similar to her mother in some ways; can you define her difference? (see pages 131-136, where we see things from her point of view) AND/OR

Assume that the story of Septimus' death happens on pages 143-146, beginning with "But he remembered Bradshaw said," and ending with "and why the devil he did it, Dr. Holmes could not conceive."

Is the author editorializing here--is there some point she is trying to make in this incident, or is it just part of the story of Septimus? If you do think there is a point, what is the point? How subtly is the point made?

Mrs. Dalloway 136-147

The term "Big Ben" actually refers no to the clock or the tower but to the main ("great") bell inside the tower.



The clock face being cleaned.

How is the section of the book, pp. 136-147, typical of the entire book so far? How is it different?

Mrs. Dalloway 80-88

A world War I photograph. Note the gas masks. In this reading, we learn about Septimus' time fighting in this war. Note how his experience and his mental illness are connected.

Possible topics: how are Septimus' experience fighting the war and his illness connected?
Another possible topic: while we can't deal with this question conclusively: the two main characters so far are (arguably) Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith. Does the juxtaposition of these two unrelated characters have meaning? (Of course.) What might be a possible meaning?

Mrs. Dalloway 69-80

A painting by Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf's sister, with whom she had a very close relationship.

Please select your favorite moment, phrase, or sentence and describe it (if it's a moment) or just quote it (if it's a phrase or a sentence). Don't discuss it at this time. Just describe it or quote it.

Note: there are notes in theback of the book that explain certain obscurities.

Don't forget your inferences and supporting observations concerning your chosen poem. Please have these in hand-in-able form (typing not necessary).

If you're doing a revision of your first essay, it's also due Tuesday.

Thank you

Mrs. Dalloway 63-69

Van Gogh's painting Starry Night. Is this how Septimus sometimes sees the world?


sentimental has at least three meanings:

1. marked or governed by feeling, emotional idealism, or sensibility (awareness of, sensitivity to, responsiveness to something)
2. resulting from feeling rather than reason or thought
3. having an excess of sentiment (reliance on feeling) or sensibility

Note that (1) is neutral, neither positive nor negative; (2) is either neutral or a little bit negative; (3) is pretty clearly negative.

Clarissa Dalloway worries that she might be too sentimental, at least in the eyes of Peter Walsh; that she might be guilty of definition (3).

Is Septimus, in tonight's reading, sentimental according to any of the three definitions?

Mrs. Dalloway pp. 57-63

An illustration for Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice.

Assume for the moment that in some respects Mrs. Dalloway is a comedy. Where's the humor?

Mrs. Dalloway 48-57

Trafalgar Square, across which Peter Walsh walks.

In this reading, Peter, having left Clarissa Dalloway's house, whiles away some time while waiting to meet the lawyers who are helping with the divorce of the woman he is love with. He marches alongside of some young men training to be soldiers; he follows an anonymous young woman for a while; he sits on a park bench and falls asleep; and, as I take it, he dreams ("The grey nurse resumed her knitting . . . . But to whom does the solitary traveller make reply?") In his dream he imagines some goddess-like being "showering . . . down from her hands compassion, comprehension, absolution . . . ."

compassion: feeling kindly and sympathetically toward those who are suffering

comprehension: understanding

absolution: forgiveness, as from someone with full authority to declare someone no longer subject to punishment

The prompt for this blog: how does one of thes words--compassion, comprehension, absolution--function as a value in the romantic comedy, The Awful Truth?

In other words, you needn't comment on Mrs. Dalloway tonight; I'd like you instead to discuss the movie you saw today. Thank you!

Mrs. Dalloway 39-48

Big Ben

"(The leaden circles dissolved in the air.)"

In this reading assignment, Clarissa Dalloway and Peter Walsh meet again after several years. Would you describe the meeting as passionate, not passionate, both, somewhere in between? Why?

Mrs. Dalloway pp. 30-39

An example of sky-writing.

In these pages, we learn some things about Clarissa Dalloway's love life in the time before she was married. What do we learn, and how do they affect our sense of her character? Don't feel you have to discuss every single thing we learn about her love life; comment on any number you feel appropriate. If you would like to make a comment unrelated to this specific prompt, feel free to do so.

Mrs. Dalloway 16-23

Buckingham Palace

In this section, we continue to follow the progress of the car with the important person in it, and briefly enters the consciousness of some people in the crowd at Buckingham Palace, waiting for the car, hoping to get near someone so important. They look up and see an airplane spelling out a message in the sky with its exhaust-smoke. Septimus and Lucrezia see it too.

1. See if you can spot symptoms of Septimus's mental illness in this section. Discuss. If you need to be speculative, be speculative, but keep your eye on what the text says. If you want to, turn back to Septimus's thought (or the narrator's articulation of what people like Septimus often feel: "the world has raised its whip; where will it descend?"

AND/OR

2. Discuss what life with Lucrezia's life with Septimus is like.