As established during class, Mrs. Dalloway focuses on the flow of thoughts people have rather than their actions or the "objective reality" that surrounds them. The internal discourses people have in their heads is what defines their character. Judging by what Clarissa Dalloway thinks about in her mind, one may infer that she is concerned with her appearance and the way she appears to others. She considers how she would look "if she could have her life over again," and compares herself to to someone Lady Bexborough, wishing she had been like her. (10) She later describes herself as feeling "suddenly shrivelled, aged, breastless," moments after learning that Lady Bruton has invited her husband to lunch without her. (30) Her thoughts could be exaggerated but they give insight into her self-image, which is what stood out to me during her unexpected reunion with Peter Walsh.
As I interpreted the sequence, Peter and Clarissa have their own self doubts and critical observations of each other. This is what most struck me the first time reading through this part-- that Peter and Clarissa both seem to experience feelings of personal inadequacy or think that the other is being too critical/hurtful. The line "He's very well dressed, thought Clarissa; yet he always criticises me," and the following criticism on page 40 sort of mirrors "Why make him suffer, when she had tortured him so infernally?" on page 41. They both feel hurt by each other, and a little later the excerpts "...a complete life, which she put down by them and said, "This is what I have made of it! This!" And what had she made of it?" along with "And she would think me a failure," on page 42 suggest self doubt coming from Clarissa and Peter respectively. They seemed to be thinking the same things about themselves or about each other.
However, looking through the passage again I noticed that this trend wasn't always the case. Peter thinks Clarissa looks older, Clarissa thinks Peter looks the same. (39) After Peter considers that's he's a failure in the eyes of Clarissa and her family, he recalls his experiences in India and feels pride in having not spent his time as Clarissa has. (42-43) Despite acknowledging that my observations weren't always true, I'd conclude that Clarissa has some worries about what other people (such as Peter) think of her, but these "other people" might also be experiencing the same worries as she does. Maybe this reflects the way our minds work along with how information is conveyed through the thought processes of different characters.
Citation
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. ed. Bonnie Kime Scott. New York: Harcourt. 2005. Print.
