Mrs Dalloway: Section 4 Summary & Analysis

The narrative now follows Peter Walsh as he leaves Clarissa’s house. He criticizes Clarissa angrily to himself, thinking that she has grown sentimental and insincere. Her coldness as a youth has turned into conventionality in middle age. Peter then feels ashamed that he wept and confessed to Clarissa, and he suddenly feels again the blow of Clarissa rejecting him thirty years before.

The St. Margaret’s bell rings (a few minutes after Big Ben) and it makes Peter think of Clarissa’s illness and the fact that she will die someday. He reassures himself that she is not dead and that he is not old yet. He knows he will soon have to ask Richard for help in finding work, but he reassures himself that he does not care what people like the Dalloways and Whitbreads think of him.

Peter recognizes that he has been a failure in some sense, as he was expelled from Oxford, but he still feels justified in being an idealistic young man. A group of military boys marches by carrying guns, and Peter feels respect for them, though he does not respect the traditional England they defend.

Peter stands in Trafalgar Square and feels a sudden sense of freedom, as if he was young again. He sees an attractive young woman walking past and he starts to follow her at a distance. He never approaches her, but imagines her as his ideal woman as he watches her – not worldly or rich like Clarissa. He imagines how he would first greet the young woman, and Peter feels like a “romantic buccaneer,” delighting in his own recklessness.

The woman finally reaches her house, takes out her keys, and goes inside. Peter’s fantasy disappears, but he isn’t upset. He recognizes that “one makes up the better part of life,” and he thinks of Clarissa’s parting plea that he remember her party. Peter keeps walking, feeling optimistic because it is “still very early,” and he heads for Regent’s Park.

Peter comes to Regent’s Park and observes the London life passing by. He is proud of its civilization, which he finds ironic because he dislikes the idea of the English empire and army. He starts reminiscing, and realizes that it is his meeting with Clarissa that is making him nostalgic. He remembers how he could never get along with Clarissa’s father.

Peter sits down on a bench next to a gray-haired nurse with a baby in a stroller. Peter remembers Elizabeth, and suspects that she and Clarissa don’t get along, as Clarissa tends to trust her own charm too much and overdo things. Peter smokes a cigar and then falls asleep.