"We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep--it's as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out of windows or drown themselves or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us, the vast majority, are slowly devoured by some disease or, if we're very fortunate, by time itself. There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more" (225).
This is my favorite passage from Michael Cunningham’s The Hours. In these few sentences, Cunningham encompasses what seems, in my opinion, to be the primary message of the novel: three women, Virginia, Clarissa, and Laura, trying desperately to hold on to the consolatory “hour here or there when our lives burst open and give us everything we ever imagined.” Laura Brown’s sneaking off to read in a hotel room epitomizes this clingy desperation.
I am a bit disappointed in myself for not recognizing Laura’s desperation. During her narrative, I was often frustrated with her shiftiness. It seemed to me that one minute she is unhappy and contemplating suicide, and the next minute she regrets her ungratefulness and appreciates her life. I viewed her as a tempermental complainer. I was not alert enough, as a reader, to recognize the game Cunningham plays with notions of happiness versus gratefulness. Happiness exists on its own. On the other hand, gratefulness can exist with other emotions, especially unhappiness. For example, person can be grateful for $5, yet still be unhappy that they only have $5. Laura Brown is grateful. She appreciates her husband and child, but she is not happy.
After reading the above passage, I feel like a person who has just had a conversation with someone they don’t entirely “get,” so they dismiss them. Perhaps later they realize that they should not have so eagerly thrown this person aside. So, this is my apology to Mrs. Brown: I thought you were all right, I thought your sorrows were ordinary ones. I had no idea.
National Gallery on Writing
16 years ago
The last part of your blog was funny. I would like you to know that you were not the only one who felt that Laura was fickle. I did however, notice that she was very depressed. I like how you used the example of being happy that you found five dollars, but unhappy that it is just five dollars. When I was reading about Laura I really thought that she was just going to stick it out and be with her family and be unhappy. I was surprised that she ended up abandoning her family. I was upset with her, but it made for a more emotional novel.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful post!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read that passage it hit me kind of hard. The first few lines are spoken with casual undertones (at least they were in my head), which made me feel incredibly sad. Whenever someone uses loaded words in such an indelicate manner it always makes me feel uncomfortable and completely helpless. How do you save someone who is comfortable in their pain?
Great post!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I sort of got the impression that Laura was not necessarily all that grateful for her family. Rather, she felt that she ought to feel grateful, as Dan (being a WWII veteran) deserved a wife like that. That's just my thought on that, anyway :)
I had the same kind of feelings about Laura, but it was for this reason that I found her the most interesting character in the novel. She is living in an era when women have enough freedom to go out driving on their own and make financial transactions on their own, which was not the case in Virginia's time. Yet she still feels conspicuous being a woman alone at a hotel, surrounded by solitary businessman that raise no suspiscion, something that would be normal in Clarissa Vaughn's era. The intermediary nature of her time leaves her feeling empty and ambivalent, not sure whether she should be grateful for the small freedoms she has or bitter for the freedom she still lacks.
ReplyDeleteVery insightful! Laura Brown is my favorite character in the novel, mostly because she seems so simple at first glance but is actually the exact opposite. She feels helpless and lonely despite the fact that she has a husband and a son, both of whom she is very grateful for. But that doesn't change the fact that she is unhappy and unable to find purpose and meaning in her life. This is evident in her fixation on her husband's birthday cake...she thinks if she can make it 'perfect' she will have accomplished something great, something worth living for. The truth is, no matter how good it is, it will never be good enough. She is looking for purpose in all the wrong places and you are right, her sorrows are anything but ordinary.
ReplyDeleteShe is also my favorite character, but it might just be because I find domesticity to be FASCINATING.
ReplyDeleteI think Kristin touches on something though, when she suggests that "the intermediary nature of her time leaves her feeling empty and ambivalent." Though Anne mentions that her "sorrows are anything but ordinary," one has to wonder exactly how many women felt like this during that era. Staying at home all day, existing to please your husband. It really must have been DEPRESSING.
I think the decade lends itself well to the themes of "Mrs. Dalloway", and Cunningham was certainly clever in realizing that. Way to go, guy.
GREAT post! Very interesting! I particularly like your example of being grateful that you have five dollars but being unhappy that you only have five dollars. It really illustrates how one can be grateful but not exactly happy. Laura was also my favourite character in the novel, especially her emphasis on the cake. I also like your title and coonclusion for the post. Making it an "apology" to Laura was very touching and appealing....
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