The Hours

by

Michael Cunningham

Virginia Woolf Character Analysis

Virginia Woolf is the real-life author of Mrs. Dalloway, a novel that greatly influences the lives of Laura and Clarissa in the latter two timelines of The Hours. She appears in a slightly fictionalized form in this novel. As the prologue reveals, Virginia will eventually kill herself by drowning, but during the day in her life that is the main focus of The Hours, Virginia is living in Richmond, a suburb of London, with her husband, Leonard. She is in the middle of writing Mrs. Dalloway but has been making slow progress due to poor health and her fear that her bad headaches will return if she overexerts herself. Like the titular protagonist of her novel Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia is also preparing to host a social event later in the day, with her older sister, Vanessa, coming over with her children for tea. Although Virginia’s life may seem happy on the surface, she feels stifled by domesticity, forced to obey her husband Leonard, unable to communicate with servants like Nelly, and mostly unable to act on her attraction to women. All of these factors lead Virginia to fantasize about taking a train back to London, where she hopes things will feel more vibrant and alive. But just after Virginia buys a train ticket, she runs into Leonard and decides to go back to her Richmond home instead of taking the train. This fictional portrayal of Virginia Woolf reveals the large and small struggles she endured in her private life, many of which derived from feelings of repression and entrapment she felt to due to her society’s gender double standards and its condemnation of homosexuality—and which persist into the novel’s present, affecting both Laura and Clarissa.

Virginia Woolf Quotes in The Hours

The The Hours quotes below are all either spoken by Virginia Woolf or refer to Virginia Woolf. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Passage of Time Theme Icon
).
Prologue Quotes

She hurries from the house, wearing a coat too heavy for the weather. It is 1941. Another war has begun. She has left a note for Leonard, and another for Vanessa.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Leonard, Vanessa
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 1: Mrs. Dalloway Quotes

There are still the flowers to buy. Clarissa feigns exasperation (though she loves doing errands like this), leaves Sally cleaning the bathroom, and runs out, promising to be back in half an hour.

It is New York City. It is the end of the twentieth century.

Related Characters: Clarissa Vaughan, Virginia Woolf, Sally
Related Symbols: Flowers
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

Writing in that state is the most profound satisfaction she knows, but her access to it comes and goes without warning. She may pick up her pen and follow it with her hand as it moves across the paper; she may pick up her pen and find that she’s merely herself, a woman in a housecoat holding a pen, afraid and uncertain, only mildly competent, with no idea about where to begin or what to write.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Leonard
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3: Mrs. Brown Quotes

She inhales deeply. It is so beautiful; it is so much more than…well, than almost anything, really. In another world, she might have spent her whole life reading. But this is the new world, the rescued world—there’s not much room for idleness. So much has been risked and lost; so many have died.

Related Characters: Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf, Dan
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

She decides, with misgivings, that she is finished for today. Always, there are these doubts. Should she try another hour? Is she being judicious, or slothful? Judicious, she tells herself, and almost believes it. She has her two hundred and fifty words, more or less. Let it be enough. Have faith that you will be here, recognizable to yourself, again tomorrow.

Related Characters: Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf, Leonard
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

She will give Clarissa Dalloway great skill with servants, a manner that is intricately kind and commanding. Her servants will love her. They will do more than she asks.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Leonard, Nelly
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

Before following them, Virginia lingers another moment beside the dead bird in its circle of roses. It could be a kind of hat. It could be the missing link between millinery and death.

She would like to lie down in its place. No denying it, she would like that.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Richard/Richie, Vanessa
Related Symbols: Flowers
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11: Mrs. Dalloway Quotes

The truth is that he does not love Hunter and Hunter does not love him. They are having an affair; only an affair. He fails to think of him for hours at a time. Hunter has other boyfriends, a whole future planned, and when he’s moved on, Louis has to admit, privately, that he won’t much miss Hunter’s shrill laugh, his chipped front tooth, his petulant silences.

There is so little love in the world.

Related Characters: Clarissa Vaughan, Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf, Richard/Richie, Louis
Page Number: 134
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12: Mrs. Brown Quotes

Leaving the desk, she can hardly believe she’s done it. She has gotten the key, passed through the portals.

Related Characters: Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf, Richard/Richie, Dan
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

Nelly turns away and, although it is not at all their custom, Virginia leans forward and kisses Vanessa on the mouth. It is an innocent kiss, innocent enough, but just now, in this kitchen, behind Nelly’s back, it feels like the most delicious and forbidden of pleasures. Vanessa returns the kiss.

Related Characters: Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf, Leonard, Vanessa, Kitty, Nelly
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

She is better, she is safer, if she rests in Richmond; if she does not speak too much, write too much, feel too much; if she does not travel impetuously to London and walk through its streets; and yet she is dying this way, she is gently dying on a bed of roses.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Leonard, Vanessa
Related Symbols: Flowers
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18: Mrs. Dalloway Quotes

“But there are still the hours, aren’t there? One and then another, and you get through that one and then, my god, there’s another. I’m so sick.”

Related Characters: Richard/Richie (speaker), Clarissa Vaughan, Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf
Related Symbols: Cake
Page Number: 197
Explanation and Analysis:

Richard smiles. He shakes his head. He says, “I don’t think two people could have been happier than we’ve been.”

He inches forward, slides gently off the sill, and falls.

Related Characters: Richard/Richie (speaker), Clarissa Vaughan, Virginia Woolf, Leonard
Page Number: 200
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

Yes, Clarissa will have loved a woman. Clarissa will have kissed a woman, only once. Clarissa will be bereaved, deeply lonely, but she will not die. She will be too much in love with life, with London.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Vanessa
Page Number: 211
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Hours LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Hours PDF

Virginia Woolf Quotes in The Hours

The The Hours quotes below are all either spoken by Virginia Woolf or refer to Virginia Woolf. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Passage of Time Theme Icon
).
Prologue Quotes

She hurries from the house, wearing a coat too heavy for the weather. It is 1941. Another war has begun. She has left a note for Leonard, and another for Vanessa.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Leonard, Vanessa
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 1: Mrs. Dalloway Quotes

There are still the flowers to buy. Clarissa feigns exasperation (though she loves doing errands like this), leaves Sally cleaning the bathroom, and runs out, promising to be back in half an hour.

It is New York City. It is the end of the twentieth century.

Related Characters: Clarissa Vaughan, Virginia Woolf, Sally
Related Symbols: Flowers
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

Writing in that state is the most profound satisfaction she knows, but her access to it comes and goes without warning. She may pick up her pen and follow it with her hand as it moves across the paper; she may pick up her pen and find that she’s merely herself, a woman in a housecoat holding a pen, afraid and uncertain, only mildly competent, with no idea about where to begin or what to write.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Leonard
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3: Mrs. Brown Quotes

She inhales deeply. It is so beautiful; it is so much more than…well, than almost anything, really. In another world, she might have spent her whole life reading. But this is the new world, the rescued world—there’s not much room for idleness. So much has been risked and lost; so many have died.

Related Characters: Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf, Dan
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

She decides, with misgivings, that she is finished for today. Always, there are these doubts. Should she try another hour? Is she being judicious, or slothful? Judicious, she tells herself, and almost believes it. She has her two hundred and fifty words, more or less. Let it be enough. Have faith that you will be here, recognizable to yourself, again tomorrow.

Related Characters: Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf, Leonard
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

She will give Clarissa Dalloway great skill with servants, a manner that is intricately kind and commanding. Her servants will love her. They will do more than she asks.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Leonard, Nelly
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

Before following them, Virginia lingers another moment beside the dead bird in its circle of roses. It could be a kind of hat. It could be the missing link between millinery and death.

She would like to lie down in its place. No denying it, she would like that.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Richard/Richie, Vanessa
Related Symbols: Flowers
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11: Mrs. Dalloway Quotes

The truth is that he does not love Hunter and Hunter does not love him. They are having an affair; only an affair. He fails to think of him for hours at a time. Hunter has other boyfriends, a whole future planned, and when he’s moved on, Louis has to admit, privately, that he won’t much miss Hunter’s shrill laugh, his chipped front tooth, his petulant silences.

There is so little love in the world.

Related Characters: Clarissa Vaughan, Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf, Richard/Richie, Louis
Page Number: 134
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12: Mrs. Brown Quotes

Leaving the desk, she can hardly believe she’s done it. She has gotten the key, passed through the portals.

Related Characters: Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf, Richard/Richie, Dan
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

Nelly turns away and, although it is not at all their custom, Virginia leans forward and kisses Vanessa on the mouth. It is an innocent kiss, innocent enough, but just now, in this kitchen, behind Nelly’s back, it feels like the most delicious and forbidden of pleasures. Vanessa returns the kiss.

Related Characters: Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf, Leonard, Vanessa, Kitty, Nelly
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

She is better, she is safer, if she rests in Richmond; if she does not speak too much, write too much, feel too much; if she does not travel impetuously to London and walk through its streets; and yet she is dying this way, she is gently dying on a bed of roses.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Leonard, Vanessa
Related Symbols: Flowers
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18: Mrs. Dalloway Quotes

“But there are still the hours, aren’t there? One and then another, and you get through that one and then, my god, there’s another. I’m so sick.”

Related Characters: Richard/Richie (speaker), Clarissa Vaughan, Laura Brown, Virginia Woolf
Related Symbols: Cake
Page Number: 197
Explanation and Analysis:

Richard smiles. He shakes his head. He says, “I don’t think two people could have been happier than we’ve been.”

He inches forward, slides gently off the sill, and falls.

Related Characters: Richard/Richie (speaker), Clarissa Vaughan, Virginia Woolf, Leonard
Page Number: 200
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20: Mrs. Woolf Quotes

Yes, Clarissa will have loved a woman. Clarissa will have kissed a woman, only once. Clarissa will be bereaved, deeply lonely, but she will not die. She will be too much in love with life, with London.

Related Characters: Virginia Woolf, Vanessa
Page Number: 211
Explanation and Analysis: