Mrs Dalloway: Plot Summary (Edexcel A-Level English Literature): Revision Notes

Mrs Dalloway: Plot Summary

1. The events of Mrs. Dalloway take place in London during one day and night in mid-June 1923.
2. Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class housewife married to Conservative politician Richard, is preparing for a party that night.
3. In the morning, Clarissa walks through London to buy flowers, enjoying the small sensations of daily life and reminiscing about her late teenage years at Bourton.
4. She notices a car carrying an unknown important person and an aeroplane skywriting an advertisement.

5. Clarissa returns home and is visited by Peter Walsh, an old friend from Bourton who has been in India for years.
6. Peter was once passionately in love with Clarissa, but she rejected his marriage proposal.
7. Their brief meeting is filled with shared memories and mutual criticism. Peter leaves when Clarissa's daughter Elizabeth enters.

8. Peter walks to Regent's Park, reminiscing about Clarissa's rejection and idealising a young woman from afar.
9. The narrative shifts to Septimus Warren Smith, a World War I veteran suffering from shell shock, waiting in Regent's Park with his Italian wife, Lucrezia.
10. Septimus has hallucinations of his dead friend Evans and believes he is condemned to death for his lack of emotion.
11. Lucrezia has been taking Septimus to Dr. Holmes, who dismisses Septimus's condition as "a funk."
12. That afternoon, the Smiths visit Sir William Bradshaw, a doctor who plans to send Septimus to a mental institution.

13. Richard Dalloway has lunch with Lady Bruton and Hugh Whitbread, discussing emigration. Richard buys roses for Clarissa and plans to tell her he loves her but cannot say it.
14. Clarissa reflects on the privacy of the soul and the gulf between individuals, even between spouses.
15. Elizabeth goes out with her history tutor, Doris Kilman, who is poor, unattractive, and bitter, trying to convert Elizabeth to Christianity. Clarissa and Kilman hate each other.
16. Elizabeth leaves Miss Kilman, who then wallows in self-pity and hatred.
17. Septimus becomes briefly lucid while Lucrezia is making a hat, and they share a moment of happiness.
18. Dr. Holmes arrives to visit Septimus, who sees him as a monster. Septimus jumps out the window, killing himself.
19. Peter hears the ambulance and marvels at it as a symbol of English civilisation. He lingers at his hotel and then goes to Clarissa's party.
20. At the party, Clarissa worries it will fail and senses Peter's silent criticism.
21. Sally Seton, whom Clarissa loved passionately as a teen, arrives unexpectedly, now married and settled.
22. The Prime Minister visits briefly but his appearance is anticlimactic.
23. Sir William Bradshaw arrives late, and his wife tells Clarissa about Septimus's suicide.
24. Clarissa goes off alone to reflect on the sudden arrival of death at her party and feels a kinship with Septimus.
25. She admires his pure soul and views his suicide as an act of communication.

26. Peter and Sally reminisce, waiting for Clarissa. Clarissa finally appears, filling Peter with ecstasy and terror.