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Chapter 21: 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
Clarissa and Sally carefully lead Laura (who is now elderly) down the hallway to their apartment. Julia has put away the food for Richard’s party, but the flowers are still in the vase. Clarissa introduces Julia to Laura. Julia offers her condolences. Julia tells them she managed to reach almost everyone on the guest list to tell them not to come, but a few showed up, including Louis, and she had to break the news of Richard’s death.
The final chapter of the book brings together the different timelines, showing three different generations of women (Laura, Clarissa and Sally, and Julia) that came after Woolf. On the one hand, they seem to be caught in a cycle, with Julia just beginning to learn about the grief that has become a major part of the older women’s lives. At the same time, this chapter also begins with optimism, showing how in spite of all her troubles, Laura managed to survive to old age.
Themes
It’s now 10 minutes past midnight. Clarissa tells Laura there’s a bed ready for her when she wants it. Clarissa says Richard was wonderful, and Laura agrees, saying he was also a good writer. Clarissa senses that Laura knows that Richard’s novel was inspired by Clarissa. Laura asks if Clarissa ever edited Richard’s writing, but she says an editor needs some objectivity and that she was too close to Richard.
Clarissa and Laura romanticize Richard after his death, with each ignoring the more difficult aspects of their relationship with him. Once again, however, this sad moment also offers the potential for optimism, showing how for all Richard’s flaws and for all that his disease diminished him, the people who loved him still focus on his positive qualities after his death.
Themes
Clarissa says she tried to take care of Richard the best she could. Laura says she did too, but she wishes she could have done better. Laura attempted suicide at one point and fled her family, but has somehow outlasted both Dan, who died of cancer, and her daughter, who was killed by a drunk driver.
Clarissa wonders how Richard felt as he jumped out the window. She wonders what it felt like to hit the ground and assumes there couldn’t have been much pain—and might have even been some pleasure. Sally and Julia have decided to eat some of the party food so it won’t go to waste. Clarissa thinks the food looks pristine and permanent, even though she knows how perishable it really is. Sally says that everyone should eat and go to bed.
The pristine food for Richard’s party, like the flowers, symbolizes how fleeting beauty can be. Clarissa has an abundance of good food, but she probably won’t be able to use it all before it spoils. While Clarissa continues to think about the past and the future, Sally and Julia find a way to live in the present by eating the food while it’s still good.
Themes
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Clarissa thinks about how after she and everyone else goes to bed, it will truly feel like Richard has left the world. She wonders if any of Richard’s writing will survive, imagining that it’s possible people in the future might want to read him but that most books, even good ones, are more likely to vanish. She thinks about how most people lead lives full of difficulty with only “an hour here or there” when everything seems to be perfect.
Books seem to represent a type of permanent knowledge that passes from generation to generation, but as Clarissa notes, enduring books like Mrs. Dalloway are the exception more than the rule. Clarissa envied Richard’s fame as a writer (particularly since the books from her own publishing house have been struggling), but now that she sees how quickly his fame might disappear, she has to confront the idea that even Richard may one day be forgotten by time and become irrelevant.
Themes
Julia asks if she should make a plate for Laura, but Clarissa says she’ll see to Laura. Laura gives a weak smile, and Clarissa has no idea what Laura could be thinking. Clarissa is no longer Mrs. Dalloway because Richard isn’t around anymore to call her that. She has yet another hour in front of her to face. She invites Laura into the kitchen, saying everything’s ready.
Despite all of Clarissa’s fears and anxieties in this chapter, the novel ultimately ends with Clarissa accepting that her only choice is to live in the present and try to make the best of it. Rather than focusing on the grim consequences of Richard’s death, Clarissa tries to find a sense of anticipation around the fact that, without Richard around to call her Mrs. Dalloway anymore, Clarissa has the freedom to attempt to build a new version of herself.
Themes
