Mrs. Dalloway

Clarissa Dalloway goes out to buy flowers for her party. The city rushes through her mind. She runs into her old love Peter Walsh's friend Hugh Whitbread. Big Ben strikes. A car backfires and stills all of London. Septimus Warren Smith, across the park, hears the same bang and spirals into vision.

Septimus and Rezia sit in Regent's Park. He hears Evans speaking through the birds. Dr. Holmes has been coming to the house; now Sir William Bradshaw is to see them. Rezia is desperately lonely. Septimus thinks about communication, about the message humanity needs to receive, about not feeling.

Peter Walsh arrives unexpectedly at Clarissa's house. They share an agonizing, tender conversation — about India, about his love affair, about the life not taken. He weeps. She shows him her mending. He leaves. Big Ben strikes. Clarissa watches him go and thinks: 'still she loved him.'

Peter Walsh walks through London and falls into a half-sleep in the park, dreaming of an idealized woman. Septimus and Rezia see Sir William Bradshaw, who recommends institutionalization. Septimus experiences visions of Evans. Woolf indicts Sir William through his twin goddesses: Proportion and Conversion.

Miss Kilman, Clarissa's daughter Elizabeth's religious tutor, takes Elizabeth to the Army and Navy Stores. Miss Kilman eats cakes and nurses her hatred of Clarissa. Elizabeth escapes on a bus, moves through the city, and briefly imagines she might become a doctor or a farmer — a woman outside the social roles her mother inhabits.

Septimus and Rezia are briefly, wholly happy. She makes a hat; he helps; they share a moment of genuine connection. Dr. Holmes arrives. Septimus throws himself from the window onto the railings below.

Clarissa's party fills with guests: admirals, Cabinet ministers, old friends, the Prime Minister himself. Peter Walsh arrives and is surprised. Sally Seton (Lady Rosseter) arrives unexpectedly. The party reaches its glittering height. Sir William Bradshaw arrives and mentions the death of a young veteran.

Clarissa retreats to a small room at the party. She thinks about the young man who died — Septimus, whose death she learns of through Bradshaw's announcement. She understands why he did it. She looks out at the old woman in the opposite house, going to bed. She returns to her party. Peter Walsh sees her coming and feels extraordinary terror. An ecstasy.