There was one sentence in the very first chapter that really made me think when I read it and then reflected on it later. The part is where Mrs. Dalloway is just getting started with her day. She is just thinking about Big Ben when her next thoughts are these, "There! Out it boomed. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable."
I really liked the very last part of the quote, "...then the hour, irrevocable...". To me, there was something very poetic about this part. I read "then the hour"- kind of fast, but the then came the comma and then "irrevocable" which I just read very slow, and melancholy even. But this line also made me reflect on time itself. After I had read and thought about it, it made me ask myself some questions. Some of the questions were "Why did the hour fly by so fast?" and also "Did I do anything in the last hour that was worth anything?" "Did I contribute anything to myself or others?" "Was the last hour productive?" "Was the last hour valuable?". Then there were other questions about the future like, "What can I do to make the next hour better or more productive?" "Or am I just going to waste the next hour wondering what could have been or what could be?"
I think that the last question especially reflects on the book. I mean the whole book is about people thinking about what happened in the past, and what is to come in the future. Time is definitely a huge theme in this novel.
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Wow, I didn’t notice that. It really does go with the theme of the book. The past has past. It can be reflected on, but not changed. Time is a huge theme in the book, and that statement really sets up the idea of past experiences, emotions, and feelings, all of them past and set in stone. All that the characters, and us for that matter can do is reflect on the past and change what we do in the future. That is really cool, I just read right past that part. Thanks for pointing it out.
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