The Implications 2 Words Can Have

Butler, Camron

Mrs. Dalloway, 2 words, one name. I was staring at my word document and in the bottom left it said “2 WORDS” and I just thought “what can I do with two words?” However I think just two words can have a lot of meaning, especially when they compose somebody’s name. The Mrs. Just lets you know her status more than anything it doesn’t tell you much more unless you know her however Dalloway has some interesting etymology.

The beginning Dal is believed to come from “Dael” which meant “valley” in old 7^th century English. “Allo” started out as “abollo” which meant “apple” in 6^th century Latin. And finally way, it’s a word used commonly in modern English and part of its meaning has been retained. Way is what “weg” was changed too and “weg” meant track or path just like now you can say come this way. Put all of these together and you get “valley of the apple path” or if you’re an actual etymologist unlike me you get “dweller by the path to valley”.

This reminds me of the quote “I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” But instead of shadow of death she’s walking through the valley of apples and apples can symbolize immortality, discord, knowledge, sin, feminine beauty, rebirth, and peace. “I walk through the shadow of the valley of death” is saying that (when you look into it a little) that death is just another part of life we have to go through and there is nothing special about it. Clarissa through the novel certainly seems to struggle with some of the things represented by apple, mostly sin and peace, I don’t think she achieved immortality, maybe as the Septimus thing shows she may be supernatural but I think most would assume she’s still pretty mortal.

Clarissa as one point in her use was a symbol of feminine beauty to her friends it would seem as two of them were fighting to marry her. Around the same time period of her life she messes around a little with sally teasing a possible romantic relationship there which at this point in time, to a lot of people, would be considered a sin. Sally also seemed to be a source of discord at this time however I don’t think that greatly affected Clarissa beyond a psychological standpoint and perhaps her affections for sally that almost led to her sinning. I don’t think Clarissa was ever reborn in this book except perhaps at the end when she also seemed to have attained peace when she was alone in her room.

This is a little bit shorter blog post (or so it seemed on word) but I just thought it was interesting since it stemmed from me just trying to think of the importance of two words and what they can mean or imply. All of the connections are rather loose and we have no way of knowing if Virginia Woolf even knew any of this when she was righting Mrs. Dalloway but it’s still pretty interesting to look at.