We watched the movie The Hours last week which really brought Mrs. Dalloway into a different light. While parts of the novel were quite dark, especially with regards to Septimus and when Mrs. Dalloway contemplated death, the overall tone of the book had a light quality to it. The movie adaptation of it was essentially entirely dark. Whether literally dark because all the shades in Richard's apartment were pulled down, or metaphorically when Clarissa has a break down, or even musically with the manipulating-ly repetitive music when Laura was baking a cake or driving, the movie as a whole was very dark. This had an effect of drawing out what Virginia Woolf must have been feeling herself, as well as reiterating how fleeting and short life can be.
The movie also affected me quite a bit more than I had expected it to. In general, I am an emotional person, so the fact that I was quite upset at the scene where Virginia Woolf drowns herself in the river while her suicide note is being recited wasn't surprising. I was dripping tears when Laura was contemplating suicide and leaving her boy, and even more so in the heart-wrenching scene where Richard and Clarissa interact almost unknowingly one last time before he falls out the window. I think that these scenes affected me more than they would normally because in a three-week span, with the movie sandwiched in between, two people I knew committed suicide themselves, and the realization that terrible things like this happen to people you don't necessarily expect them to, really hit home.
All of the deaths in the movie The Hours, the death of Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway, as well as the death of Virginia Woolf in real life, really had an impact on me, for I was in a dark mood myself the last few weeks. All of those people, real or not, had a story behind them, one that was not necessarily visible to everyone else, and all, whether they knew it or not, impacted someone else with their life, as well as their death.
Digressing a bit from English Class, I would like to say I am so sorry for Cl. and Co. who, in their better days, brought a lot of light to the world. I can't believe they're gone. RIP.
The movie also affected me quite a bit more than I had expected it to. In general, I am an emotional person, so the fact that I was quite upset at the scene where Virginia Woolf drowns herself in the river while her suicide note is being recited wasn't surprising. I was dripping tears when Laura was contemplating suicide and leaving her boy, and even more so in the heart-wrenching scene where Richard and Clarissa interact almost unknowingly one last time before he falls out the window. I think that these scenes affected me more than they would normally because in a three-week span, with the movie sandwiched in between, two people I knew committed suicide themselves, and the realization that terrible things like this happen to people you don't necessarily expect them to, really hit home.
All of the deaths in the movie The Hours, the death of Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway, as well as the death of Virginia Woolf in real life, really had an impact on me, for I was in a dark mood myself the last few weeks. All of those people, real or not, had a story behind them, one that was not necessarily visible to everyone else, and all, whether they knew it or not, impacted someone else with their life, as well as their death.
Digressing a bit from English Class, I would like to say I am so sorry for Cl. and Co. who, in their better days, brought a lot of light to the world. I can't believe they're gone. RIP.
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