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Chapter 12: Mrs. Brown
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Hours, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Passage of Time
Suicide and Mental Health
Marriage, Relationships, and Personal Fulfillment
Reading and Writing
Summary
Analysis
Virginia apologizes for not having gifts for Vanessa’s children. All the while, she is thinking about her novel and decides that Clarissa won’t kill herself—that someone else has to kill themselves, someone intelligent and tragic. Just then, Nelly gets back from London with the China tea and candied ginger, looking both triumphant and angry. Virginia is nevertheless happy. When Nelly isn’t looking, Virginia kisses Vanessa, feeling like she’s getting away with something secret.
Virginia’s thoughts suggest that Mrs. Dalloway’s plot is getting closer to its final form (where the character Septimus, who is intelligent but scarred by World War I, kills himself). Clarissa and Laura have each had kisses that resulted in complicated emotions, and now Virginia herself has one. While it is possible to read Virginia as having incestuous feelings in this scene, what Virginia really seems to long for is the freedom to be intimate. Virginia feels the pressure to live up to her role as the lady of the house whenever Nelly is watching, and this prevents her from showing intimacy.
Themes
