Throughout our more current readings for class there has been an idea of personal issues hidden within the texts. In The Yellow Wallpaper the author's own personal affairs were brought upfront to the reader through the use of another character. I would like to suggest that the same thing is happening within Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolf.
There seems to be many issues that paralleled Wolf's personal life throughout this novel. For instance, the friendship Clarissa Dalloway had with a young woman named Sally is described as a bit more than that of good friends. Clarissa even goes on to say that that moment when Sally had kissed her was the happiest one of her life (pg. 36). This relationship seems to parallel the friendship Virginia Wolf had with her Vita Sackville-West, a married woman, who Wolf had given a love letter to before. This relationship started in 1922, three years before Mrs. Dalloway was published.
Virginia Wolf was also supposedly said to have suffered from depression throughout her lifetime, which parallels her character Septimus Smith's personality within her novel. With how much I have read so far in the novel, Septimus is currently playing with the idea of suicide. Wolf also had similar thoughts running through her head since she tried to commit suicide a few times, before ultimately "succeeding" by drowning herself on March 28, 1941).
(BTW: Such facts as these about the book and Wolf can be found on good ol' Wikipedia.com)
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