Marxist: Prime Minister and Clarissa Dalloway Essays

Submitted By MPadfoot
Words: 364
Pages: 2

“…One couldn’t laugh at him. He looked so ordinary. You might have stood him behind a counter and bought biscuits-poor chap, all rigged up in gold lace. And to be fair, as he went his rounds, first with Clarissa then with Richard escorting him, he did it very well. He tried to look somebody. It was amusing to watch. Nobody looked at him. They just went on talking, yet it was perfectly plain that they all felt to the marrow of their bones, this majesty passing; this symbol of what they all stood for, English society” (Woolf 172). This passage, more subtly than most, shows the struggle with the class conflicts that was present during both the time period and in the book. The struggle between the low and high society is shown blatantly with Clarissa and Ms. Kilman, but also here, in the narration of the Prime Minister’s appearance at Clarissa Dalloway’s evening party. The readings in the book let it be known that the attendees of the party were mostly rich and high class individuals, with Clarissa’s own cousin and Sally being a few exceptions. It’s important to understand that the party is comprised almost entirely of the upper society, because the narration of the Prime Minister is then presumably made by them, since no distinct narrator is given. It’s curious to see that the passage both praises and insults the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister himself seems to be lacking, appearance wise. He is called “ordinary” and it is said that it looked as if he could have worked