Cougars and Bulls: Brett and Romero's Relationship

In the second half of the book The Sun Also Rises, we were introduced to the character Romero, a young and successful Spanish bullfighter (with extreme emphasis on young). Later on, Romero catches Brett's attention, and he becomes one of her many lovers. While I had no objections to Brett's previous lovers and marriages, I did have an objection to her chasing after Romero. Before Brett meets Romero, we are introduced to him through Jake, who meets him before a bullfight and remarks on that Romero is the "best looking boy he had ever seen" (page 167). He is indeed still a boy, at the age of nineteen, and both Montoya and Jake refer to him as "boy" and "kid". My issue with Romero and Brett's relationship is the significant age difference. Romero is still a teenager, and Brett is a middle-aged woman in her mid-thirties. In anyone's terms, this seems pretty creepy. While we don't normally consider this age difference because Brett desperately tries too seem younger than she actually is, you can't deny that Brett is "robbing the cradle". While Jake, Mike, and Bill seem to have no issue with Romero and Brett, all of the aficionados clearly disapprove of this relationship. They cut out Jake from their inner circle because he introduced Brett to Romero. While the reason for their disgust goes unnamed, they clearly think Brett is awful for Romero and will ruin him. While the relationship between the two of them was very short-lived and didn't work out well, I can't deny the fact that even starting it was very strange. In today's terms, Brett would be referred to as a "cougar" for chasing after men much younger than her. This age difference would not be as significant if both were older, say Romero was 25 and Brett 46, but Romero is still a teenager, no matter how old he may seem or how young Brett seems. In discussion with a classmate about this, it was brought up that it would be even stranger if the genders were reversed, and instead of an older woman and a younger man, it was an older man and a younger woman. Both are very strange indeed, but the latter is almost preying. In conclusion, I found Brett and Romero's relationship very disconcerting, and was relieved when it only lasted a few days.

Reflections on Mrs. Dalloway

Recently, we finished reading Mrs. Dalloway, a fascinating book that explored many issues and ideas surrounding the end of World War I. While I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I did not like the ending at all. I'm the kind of person who likes a conclusive ending. I don't like cliffhangers unless there is a sequel, I want to know every little detail of what is to become of each character. While the abrupt ending was presumably a literary device applied by Woolf to provoke extra thought, I finished the book crestfallen, stuck in Peter's excitement as he sees Clarissa walk back into the room. This ending was ambiguous, and I found myself wanting closure to the story. There were innumerable paths the end of this story could take; Clarissa could realize she loves Peter and leave Richard, Richard could finally say "I love you" to Clarissa and they could live to a ripe old age and die, Peter could confess his love to Clarissa and be turned down, Clarissa and Sally Seton could have a surreptitious love relationship with each other (unbeknownst to their husbands, or maybe even known), Elizabeth and Clarissa could get in a large argument over their opposing beliefs and Clarissa could become alienated from her daughter, Sir William Bradshaw could receive a firm talking-to from Clarissa about how he was wrong in his treatment of Septimus, and really the list could go on and on. There is absolutely no indication from Virginia Woolf as to what happens to her characters, she leaves them "stuck in a moment that they can't get out of" (as said by the band U2 in their 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind). So as we move on to Hemingway's  The Sun Also Rises, I can't help but feel trace amounts of resentment towards Virginia Woolf for such an abrupt ending to such an interesting book.

Elizabeth Dalloway: the forgotten character?

So far in the novel, we have discussed in depth Clarissa Dalloway and her love life, Peter Walsh, Richard Dalloway (to some degree), Septimus, passing laypeople in the streets, but we have not yet addressed Elizabeth Dalloway, who has almost been portrayed as a background character, not as seemingly significant as say Septimus, Clarissa, and Peter. 

Clarissa seems to regard her daughter with some form of disapproval, stemming from their differences. According to Clarissa, Elizabeth does not "care a straw for either of them [Gloves and shoes]", which is mentioned in passing in the first few pages of the book. On that same page, we get a slight introduction to Elizabeth, but it seems to be tinted with Clarissa's resentment for her daughter who "cared for her dog most of all", and "went to Communion", spending large amounts of time with Miss Kilman. As we know, Clarissa is an Atheist, and her mention of her own daughter going to communion seems said with a note of disapproval. Elizabeth seems to reject all of the things that Clarissa holds in high esteem and bases her life around, like dinner parties, luncheons, flower arrangements, and clothing. She "does not care one bit" and it seems to irk Clarissa, but it is not mentioned again till much later in the book when Elizabeth leaves to go on an outing with Miss Kilman. There, we see a strong reaction from Clarissa to Miss Kilman and Elizabeth, saying that "love and religion" (seemingly what Elizabeth and Miss Kilman discuss) is "detestable! How detestable they are!". It is clear that Clarissa does not like Miss Kilman, who treats her with disdain, again going against what Clarissa believes to be proper etiquette. Clarissa is a polite upper class woman who acts courteously even when she doesn't want to, so Miss Kilman seriously offends her by her glaring hostility and feeling of superiority when she comes to take Elizabeth to the Stores. While this reaction to Miss Kilman and Elizabeth being in each other's company may stem from Clarissa's dislike of Miss Kilman, I think it also reflects Clarissa's disapproval of Elizabeth's choices. While she certainly still loves her daughter, Elizabeth is going out of her way to be different from her mother and it cannot go unnoticed by Clarissa and the reader. It is important to note, though, that those are really the only people who do notice: Clarissa and the reader. Clarissa seems to put up a front, reflective of all the other things she hides about her life to keep her public image, hiding her relationship with Elizabeth. When Elizabeth timely interrupts Clarissa and Peter, Clarissa exclaims "My Elizabeth!", and as noted by Peter to be insincere, she could have chosen to say many other things such as "Here's Clarissa!". Clarissa and Elizabeth's relationship seems to be one at a surface level, hidden by a thin layer of pretense, and covering a somewhat deeper mother-daughter love. 

While most of our picture of Elizabeth Dalloway is through Clarissa's eyes, we get a brief visual description of Elizabeth at the top of page 120, "For the Dalloways, in general, were fair-haired; blue-eyed; Elizabeth, on the contrary, was dark; had Chinese eyes in a pale face; and Oriental mystery...", before Woolf returns to Clarissa's opinionated view of Elizabeth. Even in her appearance, Elizabeth stands out from the Dalloways, reflective of her differing personality and interests to Clarissa's. Through Woolf's somewhat racially offensive description of Elizabeth (I detest the word "oriental" very much so), we continue to see themes of Elizabeth's nonconformity to her family. 

Overall, I am very interested to see whether we will receive more information on Elizabeth, especially that isn't clouded by Clarissa's disapproving view. I would like to see why she chooses to be different, her opinion of her family, and the way she sees the world around her. We have had short narratives from other characters through their eyes, and I will continue to hope that Elizabeth will be the next up to bat.