Quotes+and+Reviews



“ Clarissa wants, suddenly, to show her whole life to Louis. She wants to tumble it out onto the floor at Louis’s feet, all the vivid, pointless moments that can’t be told as stories. She wants to sit with Louis and sift through it”(132).

"But there are still the hours, aren't there? One and then another, and you get through that one and then, my god, there's another" (198).

"Fear no more the heat o' the sun, Nor the furious winter's rages" (151)

"It is possible to die. Laura thinks, suddenly, of how she--how anyone---can make a choice like that" (151).

"It could, she thinks, be deeply comforting; it might feel so free: to simply go away. To say to them all, I couldn't manage, you had no idea; I didn't want to try anymore" (151).

"I don't think two people could have been happier" (6) (200)

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself" (35)(37)

"Her son watches her adoringly, expectantly. She is animating principle, the life of the house." (47)

"Superstitions are a comfort sometimes, I don't know why you so adamantly refuse all comforts" (61).

"Clarissa Dalloway will die, of that she feel certain, though this early it's impossible to say how or even precisely why" (69).

"If she were able to speak she would say something---she can't tell what exactly---about how he has had the courage to love singularly, over decades, against all reason. She would talk to him about how she herself, Clarissa, loved him in return, loved him enormously, but left him on a street corner over thirty years ago (and, really, what else could she have done?)" (203).

"I am dying in this town" "If you were thinking clearly you would recall that it was London that brought you low" "He makes her think sometimes of a mouse singing amorous ballads under the window of a giantess. " (44)



"Told through the eyes of three characters in three time periods, The Hours focuses on three women who are at points in their lives where they find themselves questioning the world and their place (or not) in it. Virginia Woolf has seen success with her writing, but also mental illness. Recovering in a small town with her husband, Virginia struggles with the restlessness burning inside her. In 1940s America, housewife Laura Brown has it all, but can't figure out why she isn't happy, though she puts on a convincing facade. All she can think about is escape. And in New York in the 90's, Clarissa is preparing a party for a friend who is both rewarded by a literary prize, and dying of AIDS. The chapters alternate in perspective, and together lead to a final conclusion. The writing is alot more straightforward and it was a very interesting book overall"

"This novel is based off of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. It follows the lives of three different characters that all relate and show some aspects of Mrs. Dalloway herself and the other characters in the novel. I think it was such an innovative and interesting idea to use such a classic novel as Mrs. Dalloway to inspire a modern and contemporary novel that still explores many of the same issues, but in a more current context. I think that the most interesting thing that Michael Cunningham did was use Virginia Woolf (or his fictional depiction of her) to help explore all he wished in this novel. By using the real life struggles she went through and his fictional understanding of them, he was really able to have the reader connect to the book and its themes on a much deeper level."

"The Hours is an intriguing book. I enjoyed it while reading, it was definitely more accessible to me than Mrs.Dalloway. In fact, reading it right after reading Mrs.Dalloway was incredibly helpful! The story line of Clarissa Vaughnan is nearly identical to Clarissa Dalloway, so reading The Hours helped me to better understand both books. I gained a better grasp of "Mrs.Dalloway" and felt like I had the inside scoop on "The Hours" The Hours follows three different women living in different time periods. Each of them struggle with the quest for meaning in the lives, and each experience "turning point" moments that cause them to take radical action. Of the three women, I was most bothered by Laura Brown's decsion to leave her family. Maybe I'm just a romantic, but to me it does not seem plausible that a seemingly devoted wife and mother would just get up and leave it all. The affections between her and her son were far too deep, it's not as if he was a problem child. I think that perhaps since this book was written by a man, he does not understand the depth and breadth of the relationship between a mother and child. "

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The novel opens with a vivid description of Virginia Woolf's suicide. The plot then moves through __ time and space __ to intertwine the lives of three women: Woolf, Laura Brown (an unhappy housewife), and Clarissa Vaughan (the modern-day Mrs. Dalloway). As we switch back and forth between these three women's stories, we experience their lives as told through the events in a __ single day __.

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In __The Hours__,some of the main plots have to do with all three of the women wishing they had something more. Laura feels suffocated in her life and wishes to be free and away from her life. Virginia feels constantly prodded and useless because of her illness. People are constantly checking up on her, watching her, to make sure that she doesn't have a break down. Clarissa wishes she could be with Richard. Her and Richard were one time together but now she takes care of him as his condition slowly worsens.

Another plot/plot idea is death. Each of the characters have experienced some sort of death or thoughts of death. Virginia imminently kills herself because she says she can't stand the voice any longer. Laura reads Virginia's book and then thinks about killing herself. Her life seems so bad that considers the idea of ending it all. Laura says that it would almost seem refreshing to not have to feel, or think, or be. Clarissa took care of Richard for many years and loved him throughout those years. She did all that care taking to one day have to watch him kill himself.