Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)_Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street

Virginia Woolf is not only the greatest woman writer of the twentieth century but she was also a friend of many great writers such as Elliot, Joyce and butler. Although coming form from a rich family she was not giving the opportunity to go to school, she explained this consequence in a lot of the writing; she also explained that education is the key transformer of women perception in society.
In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf related the story of an old woman walking down the bond street to go buy herself some gloves. She described, the nature, the street, the people and even the queen that she encountered during her walk. While she is walking, Mrs. Dalloway Clarissa saw Hugh Whitbread who was taking a family member to the doctor. She asked him what was wrong with the person; Whitbread would not answer her clearly. That then brought memory to her very own brother who was too shy to talk to her because she was lady. “How then could women sit in parliament? How could they do thing with men?” (P2448) she wondered how is it possible for women to advance in society, have the same rank as men in parliament if it even impossible for brother and sister to talk like normal people, impossible for her friend Whitbread to tell her the truth about the disease. “To ride; to dance she had adore all that. Or going on long walks in the country, talking about books…Oh the things on had said! But one had conviction. Middle age is the devil. People like Jack’ll never know that, she thought…how did it go?” (P2449) Here just like William Blake in the Ecchoing Green, Woolf was telling us that the old lady was nostalgic of her young years when she saw them dancing. She stated that looking back who always miss what you thought was so bad before; she gave the example of the middle ages. This bring it back to a slogan that said ‘ you never know how good you had till you loose it.’ “For all the great things one must go to the past, she thought. From the contagion of the world’s slow stain…fear no more the heat o’ the sun…and now can never mourn, can never mourn, she repeated…the moderns had never written anything one wanted to read about death, she thought; and turned.” (P2450) This was just a repetition of the statement before: missing what we do not have anymore. Woolf also told us here that our past is very important, that we must understand it in order to succeed in our future. That also explained Clarissa urged to make the shop girl see the French gloves that were worn long time ago, how better they were…