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Flowers are an important symbol in Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway, and in The Hours, which is modeled after Woolf’s novel, flowers symbolize the beauty of life, but also its shortness and fragility. Like Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa spends her morning thinking about buying flowers for Richard’s party that evening. As Richard himself notes at one point, flowers can serve two main purposes, being either a gesture of congratulations (like Clarissa intends them to be at Richard’s party) or condolences (like at a funeral). Clarissa initially buys flowers for a party where she hopes to impress Richard. The flowers perhaps have a romantic undertone, illustrating Clarissa’s nostalgia for her youth and her missed opportunity to have a long-term relationship with Richard. In this instance, flowers represent Clarissa’s mixed emotions about her past with Richard: though it’s a period of her life she looks back on fondly, the feelings of loss and missed chances at love she associates with it fills her with sadness and regret, too. Meanwhile, when Clarissa later finds out that she and her current partner, Sally, both bought flowers, it reminds her that, while she and Sally sometimes take each other for granted, they still have things in common, and this renews Clarissa’s sense of gratitude and appreciate for her life.
But although flowers are beautiful, they also foreshadow the darker events that occur near the end of the novel. While Virginia, in the book’s 1920s timeline, is writing Mrs. Dalloway, she witnesses Vanessa’s children laying flowers around a dead bird in her backyard, suggesting the flowers’ relationship to death and the suffering that characterizes life. At the end of The Hours, the flowers that Clarissa (whose nickname is “Mrs. Dalloway”) bought become a memorial to Richard after she watches him die by suicide, and the gathering of friends she has organized becomes mournful rather than celebratory, The symbolism of Clarissa’s flowers thus reaffirms the fragile, fleeting, and unpredictable nature of life.
Flowers Quotes in The Hours
The The Hours quotes below all refer to the symbol of Flowers. 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:
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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.
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Chapter 10: Mrs. Woolf
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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.
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Chapter 15: Mrs. Woolf
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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.
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Chapter 16: Mrs. Dalloway
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Sally hands the flowers to her and for a moment they are both simply and entirely happy. They are present, right now, and they have managed, somehow, over the course of eighteen years, to continue loving each other. It is enough. At this moment, it is enough.
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Get the entire The Hours LitChart as a printable PDF.
Flowers Symbol Timeline in The Hours
The timeline below shows where the symbol Flowers appears in The Hours. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Mrs. Dalloway
...near the end of the 20th century, Clarissa Vaughan is on an errand to buy flowers for a party she’s hosting. She is 52 and in good health. Her friend Richard,...
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...finally makes it to the florist, Barbara. Clarissa makes small talk about how she needs flowers for Richard’s party. Barbara originally came to New York to sing opera. As they’re looking...
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Chapter 2: Mrs. Woolf
...how to begin her novel, Mrs. Dalloway. She imagines Mrs. Dalloway saying something, then getting flowers. She considers various possibilities before deciding she finally has to get up and write. Leonard...
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Chapter 3: Mrs. Brown
...She plans to make Dan a birthday cake later and set a big bouquet of flowers on a table surrounded by all his presents.
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...and Richie. Laura thinks of the cake she’ll make later in the day and the flowers she’ll buy. Dan has already poured cereal for himself and Richie.
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Chapter 4: Mrs. Dalloway
Clarissa heads with her flowers to Spring Street. She passes two young girls who recently saw a famous person and...
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...mind is not as sharp as it used to be. Clarissa shows Richard all the flowers she has for his party, and he asks if all those flowers mean he’s died.
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Chapter 8: Mrs. Dalloway
Clarissa gets home with her flowers and sees Sally in the hallway as she’s on her way out to lunch with...
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Chapter 11: Mrs. Dalloway
Clarissa fills a flower vase with yellow roses. She is surprised when Louis buzzes the intercom at her apartment....
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Chapter 16: Mrs. Dalloway
...gift for Clarissa, so she decides to sop at a Korean market and buy some flowers—roses. When Sally gets back to the apartment, she can tell from Clarissa’s voice that something...
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Chapter 18: Mrs. Dalloway
...ordinary thing she can think of. Clarissa starts telling a very short story about buying flowers that morning.
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Chapter 22: Mrs. Dalloway
...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...
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