The novel, The Hours by Michael Cunningham is an intriguing book about three main characters that have different lives but somehow they all seem to intertwine towards the end. Theyll search for meaning in their lives and evaluate suicide as a way of escaping the problems they face. Virginia, Clarissa, and Laura are incredibly sensitive and perceptive to the world around them. Each moment causes them to critically evaluate how they feel about living, so they constantly consider suicide as a way of evading the oppressive aspects of their lives.
Therefore, beginning with the life of Virginia Woolf as a celebrated English novelist, that is very sensitive to what surrounds her. With Virginia thinking every detail in the environment that is around her holds an incredible significances, is what makes her a phenomenal writer. Virginia being a good writer also struggles with mental problems that haunt her as described in the book, which states, She can feel the nearness of the old devil (what else to call it?), and she knows she will be utterly alone if and when the devil chooses to appear again. The devil is a headache; the devil is a voice inside a wall; the devil is a fin breaking through dark waves The devil is a brief, twittering nothing that is a thrushs life. The devil sucks all the beauty from the world, all the hope, and what remains when the devil has finished is a realm of the living deadjoyless, suffocating (Pg30). Dealing with major headaches, Virginia tries to find the significance of it by saying that it is the devil causing all of this pain that she is enduring. The thought of suicide is always flouting around in the back of her mind as an easy way out. Throughout this novel Virginia coups with her issues by creating this book about Clarissa Dalloway, who is a made up character by Virginia that is shaped around the struggles and values of Virginia has endured. Having Virginia being the puppet master of the story makes it all wrap around her wants and needs. For example Leonard, Virginias husband asks her why someone has to die in her book. With the reply from Virginia, Someone has to die in order for the rest us to value life. It's contrast. (Pg79). This shows she believes people have to experience a person losing their life for others to realize what they have. Not only does she feel that way about her book but she also does with her real life. The headaches and problems caused her before to move from London to the suburbs even though she desperately wants to return to her home. A conversation with Leonard revealed how she felt by saying, My life has been stolen from me. I am living in a town I don't wish to live in. I am living a life I have no wish to live. (Pg86). The mental issues she has is reviling in both herself and her characters in the novel. She acts like nothing in her life is what she wanted. This all leads up to why she ended her own life after all of this. Therefore Virginia and Clarissa are two different characters in The Hours they both have around the same moral view on their lives.
Virginia and Clarissa, Laura, a young housewife of Dan Brown and mother of a three-year-old son, constantly feel that she should have a different life. A bookworm, she sees herself an outsider who lives in exile from a life of domestic normalcy. Laura has encountered the thought of suicide from time to time. When she tries to be the best wife and mother to her family, Laura always evaluates and eventually brings herself-a-steam down. When It was Dans Birthday, she spent hours working on his cake and when it was finished, She imagined it larger, more remarkable (Pg99). Even when its something so minor like a birthday cake, she still can pick out what was wrong. Laura is living an average life but has a mind that is dying for more. Reading Virginia Woolfs book Mrs. Dalloway, she finds comfort. She feels the constraints of her own life closing in around her; she starts to seriously evaluate the idea of suicide. The suffocation of her life is making her get away from it all, she is going somewhere (where?) to be alone, to be free, of her child, her house, the small party she will give tonight (Pg142). Laura is wise by taking herself away from all the stress in her life and really recognizes the person she wants to be. By taking the book with her to read, she started to think about taking her life away. Laura ended up saving her life but she finally realized that being a mother and a wife dont make her completely satisfied. When she comes back to two hour and a half get-away life, she picks up her son at a neighbors house. She decides to keep her escape from life a secret because, she certainly doesnt know how shed explain two and a half hours spent reading in a rented room. (Pg189). To cause no more problems for Laura she just decides to keep her little outing to herself and goes home to finish her husbands cake. Not even having the perfect life can satisfy all ones needs. That is how it was so easy for Laura to think about suicide but over came it and realized how to make her life better.
Virginia, Clarissa, and Laura have qualities that flame in all of them that were proven. The thought of suicide was the largest of all but only Virginia was the one that followed through. With all that has been said, Virginia, Clarissa and Laura are three indigent women that have made their path of life. It is the walkers choice to deal with what the path holds or take them off.
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