Mrs. Dalloway Nine

"Up in the sky swallows swooping, swerving, flinging themselves in and out, round and round, yet always with perfect control as if elastics held them.." (Woolf 69)

In Mrs. Dalloway, Virgina Woolf talks about birds as if they are puppets held up by perfectly controlled strings. This is a similar idea to that of the almanac in Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop.

Tidying up, the old grandmother
hangs up the clever almanac                                                                                                  on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
hovers half open above the child,
hovers above the old grandmother
and her teacup full of dark brown tears.

The idea that things are not what they seem to be is a very prominent one in both of the texts. There are always higher ups controlling what goes on in everyday life; normal beings are mere puppets. This exaggeration also makes normal life seem more complicated than it really needs to be. 


Sestina, Elizabeth Bishop
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. New York: Harcourt, Brace and, 1925. Print.