The Intersection of External Time and Internal Time in Mrs Dalloway by

In Mrs Dalloway, the modernist writer Virginia Woolf undermines the usual conventions of prior prose fiction by adopting an innovative approach to metre. She contrasts the objective external time and subjective indwelling time that structure the plot of the one-day novel. In fact, the myth takes place on a single day in June and, by the use of two all-important(prenominal) techniques, namely the waterway of consciousness mode of narration and the interior monologue, the reader is constantly flowing from the present to the past or the future. Moreover, Woolf blurs the distinctions mingled with dream and verity but emphasizes the importance of the present moment. Finally, both representations of time have a great influence on characters life and relations between each other. Firstly, time itself, which, in fact, measures and divides, becomes fluid, elastic and mobile the interaction of memories and thoughts. As Showalter points out in the introduct ion of Mrs Dalloway, In Time and Free Will (1888) Bergson speaks about psychological time, which is internal, subjective, and measured by the relative intensity of the moment (qtd. in Woolf xx). Internal time is one of the new characteristics that Woolf introduces in her novel. In other words, she describes a subjective reality by the stream of consciousness. By this new mode of narration, Woolf gives to the reader the impression of entering the consciousness of the characters. It describes the unorganised flow of thoughts, sensations, and memories that is the time in the mind (or internal time). Characters memories introduce the element of time. Furthermore, one of the techniques for represen... ...clusion, I would say that Woolf also found her own voice in Mrs Dalloway. Indeed, in this novel, she has radically broken with the traditional way of representing time. The intersection between external and internal time structures very well the novel desp ite his disordered and discontinued nature. In fact, Woolf has succeeded in keeping unity throughout the story despite the constant moves between the consciousnesses of every character. Moreover, by the use of the new modern techniques, i.e. the stream of consciousness and the interior monologues, she makes the novel seem more truthful. Therefore, through this subjective approach to reality, the reader is closer to the characters and s/he is easier absorbed in the new world of fiction. Bibliography Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway. London Penguin Classics, 2000.