Good English Soap

“(Does he believe the bird has left a residue of death on his hands?  Does he believe good English soap and one of Aunt Virginia’s towels will wash it away?)”  (Cunningham 121).

This is another example of The Hours and its characters being more cynical and sad than those in Mrs. Dalloway.  Virginia Woolf here is commenting on how death always lingers, how it can’t be gotten rid of simply by “washing” it away or forgetting about it.  This shows a concern with death and its inevitability, whereas in Mrs. Dalloway death was simply there, and unavoidable, but life should still be lived as pleasantly as possible.

Vanity Fair

"Oliver St. Ives, who came out spectacularly in Vanity Fair," (Cunningham 93).

Vanity Fair is a magazine that features fashion, the lives of celebrities, and other such frivolities.  It is mentioned to bring to mind again living gaily and without care; being in love with trivial pursuits which can make one happy, as both Clarissa's are.  Vanity Fair is also a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, about girls climbing the ladder of social success, concerned only with vanity and beauty.  This is yet again a nod to the Clarissas and their way of life; taking joy in everything, no matter how trivial.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/Vanity-Fair-About-the-Novel-A-Brief-Synopsis.id-158,pageNum-3.html

The Golden Notebook

"Vanessa's copy of The Golden Notebook lay on the chipped white nightstand of the attic bedroom where she still slept alone."  (Cunningham 98).

The Golden Notebook  is a book by Doris Lessing about a young woman living in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).  The young woman keeps four different notebooks, each about a different aspect of her life, and they are used for the narrative structure of the book.  This is much like Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours, with different stories, different points of view, all coming together to form a cohesive novel.  The book is about the woman's struggle to find herself and to live authentically, which is what many of the characters in the two novel are also struggling to do; to enjoy life and time the way they should be enjoyed.  

http://www.mahalo.com/The_Golden_Notebook

Rilke's Apollo

“It is one thing to be asked to carry a cabbage across the street, quite another to be asked to carry the recently unearthed head of Rilke’s Apollo.”  (Cunningham 77). 

Ranier Maria Rilke, a poet, wrote a beautiful poem, "Torso of an Archaic Apollo," now translated from German, about a headless statue of the beautiful Apollo, a Greek god.  Apollo embodies many things, but all replications of him have been beautiful; he is, above all, an embodiment of beauty and youth.  In the poem, however, the statue of Apollo being viewed that is so loved and revered is missing a head, and the author bemoans this fact.  So if one was to “unearth” the head of Apollo, it would be important to the author of the poem to see it, but it would also represent the discovery and capture of youth and beauty.  Carrying the head would be a task of utmost importance, and one that must be delicately performed.

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/gr/Rilke.html

Solemnity.

“As horn bleat and dogs bay, as the whole raucous carnival turns and turns, blazing, shimmering; as Big Ben strikes the hours, which fall in leaden circles over the partygoers and the omnibuses, over stone Queen Victoria seated before the Palace on her shelves of geraniums, over the parks that lie sunken in their shadowed solemnity behind black iron fences.”  (Cunningham 168).

This portrayal of London is much more grim than Mrs. Dalloway’s.  It does, however, carry parallels between the two; the “leaden circles” of time, of the hours struck from Big Ben, ringing out and falling over all of London, is discussed in both books.  In Mrs. Dalloway, the parks, such as Regent’s Park, represent youth, happiness and reflection, and are in no way grim or dark.  Here, however, they are described as “sunken in their shadowed solemnity behind black iron fences.”  This portrays them more like death than life, and time as growing nearer to death, not adding to life.

On a bed of roses.

“If she does not speak too much, write too much, feel too much; if she does not travel impetuously to London and walk trhough its streets; and yet she is dying this way, she is gently dying on a bed of roses.”  (Cunningham 169).

London, for Virginia Woolf, was excitement, it was life, it was time and youth and growing old.  However, it also brought back her illness; was slowly killing her.  By moving to the country, she revived her physical health but could not live the way she wanted; she wanted more excitement, more stimulation.  In the country, she had all the comforts necessary to her health, a “bed of roses,” but her youth and her mind were dying, just as roses wilt and lose their beauty.

O. Henry

“‘This is sort of an O. Henry moment, isn’t it?’ Sally says.”

Sally references O. Henry after she arrives home with yellow roses for Clarissa, but notices that she already has some.  O. Henry, born William Sydney Porter, was an American short-story writer, who specialized in stories with coincidental or twist endings.  It is coincidental and a bit of a twist that both women have bought both the flowers.  I believe that Michael Cunningham may have referenced O. Henry here to serve as foreshadowing—the novel has very much of a twist ending, with Richard’s death and him turning out to be Laura Brown’s son.

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ohenry.htm

Eight Miles High

“(That ragged group over there, three boys and a girl, could they possibly be playing “Eight Miles High”?)” (Cunningham 15).

“Eight Miles High” is a song written in the 60s by the band The Byrds.  The song contains some lyrics that seem to fit well not only with The Hours but with Mrs. Dalloway.  “Among those afraid/Of losing their ground” seems to fit with the insanity that seems to be encroaching on a few characters in these novels (Richard and Septimus); they are losing their ground, their “proportion.”  The line at the end of the song, “Some living/Some just standing alone” also serves to point out the contrast between those who live and enjoy the small things in their lives, no matter how trivial (like Clarissa Vaughn and Dalloway) and those who think too much, become too involved, and do not enjoy their lives (like Richard, Septimus and Miss Kilman).

http://www.metrolyrics.com/eight-miles-high-lyrics-the-byrds.html

Oh, here's death.

“Oh, thinks Virginia, just before tea, here’s death.  What, exactly, does one say to children, or to anybody?”  (Cunningham 116). 

This quote makes one think back to Mrs. Dalloway’s party, when Septimus’ death is being discussed.  Here, in Virginia’s story, a bird has died, and her niece and nephews are having a funeral for it, upset by its death.  Virginia, however, wonders how one should deal with death and how to explain it, whereas carefree Clarissa prefers just not to think about it, and therefore has more enjoyment in life as it is happening.

Venture too far for love...

“Venture too far for love, she tells herself, and you renounce citizenship in the country you’ve made for yourself.  You end up just sailing from port to port.”  (Cunningham 97).

This quote is a direct link to Peter Walsh in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.  Peter has too many loves, each trivial, each mortal.  All end, and he moves on.  He sails “from port to port” for love, and has no home, no place to settle down anymore.  This is also a contrast, because this quality is not portrayed as a bad thing in Mrs. Dalloway, as it is here, in The Hours.

You.

“It isn’t failure but it requires more of you, the whole effort does; just being present and grateful; being happy (terrible world).  People don’t look at you on the street anymore, or if they do it is not with sexual notions of any sort.  You are not invited to lunch by Oliver St. Ives.  Outside the narrow kitchen window the city sails and rumbles.  Lovers argue; cashiers ring up; young men and women shop for new clothes as the woman standing under the Washington Square Arch sings iiiii and you snip the end off a rose and put it in a vase full of hot water.  You try to hold the moment, just here, in the kitchen with the flowers.”  (Cunningham 94).

This passage is a very important one in conveying the themes of Michael Cunningham’s “The Hours.”  This is the only passage in the book that makes repeated use of the word “you.”  By reusing this word, it implies the universality of this theme; the theme of growing old.  Every person, everywhere, is subject to growth and aging, and eventually, death.  As Clarissa Vaughn tries to prevent the flowers from wilting by putting them in warm water, she tries to stop growth and aging and time.  She, as does everyone, tries to “hold the moment,” and keep it from leaving.

We're everything, all at one.

“‘We’re middle-aged and we’re young lovers standing besides a pond.  We’re everything, all at once.  Isn’t it remarkable?’”  (Cunningham 67).

This is yet another example of how Richard is going crazy and losing his sense of time.  He is remembering a moment from the past, but not just remembering it, he is reliving it.  He says that he is in that moment, and the present one, too, and also believes thinks that are yet to happen have happened already.  He does not take each moment as it comes and let it pass, but lets them all linger and become a confused mess.  

Too much, oh, far too much.

“‘There was so much, oh, far too much for me.  I mean, there’s the weather, there’s the water and the land, there are the animals, and the buildings, and the past and the future, there’s space, there’s history.  There’s this thread or something caught between my teeth, there’s the old woman across the way, did you notice she switched the donkey and the squirrel on her windowsill?  And, of course, there’s time.’”  (Cunningham 66).

This quote is coming from Richard, who is ill and going insane.  He says that there was “too much for him,” too many things in life to take in and contemplate.  As was shown by an early quote and concordance, Richard is “falling out of time,” and does not respect time; therefore, in trying to deal with everything in life, he must not only deal with the present, but the past and future, too, since his sense of time is muddled.  This is the same as Virginia Woolf’s “Septimus,” who thinks he sees his dead friend Evan.  Septimus and Richard, unlike the two Clarissas, do not live in the moment, and time takes its toll on them because of it.

(any future at all)

“(assuming, of course, there is any future at all).”  (Cunningham 64).

This quote, from Clarissa Vaughn’s point of view, shows a parallel to Mrs. Dalloway and her points of view and the themes of both books.  The Clarissa’s in both books live in the moment; the pay no attention to the future, and do not dwell on the past as anything more than memories that are gone. The respect the passing of time, and take each moment as it comes, and then lets it go.  This quote is a perfect example of this feeling in both Clarissa’s, Ms. Vaughn and Mrs. Dalloway.

Fallen out of time.

“‘Sorry.  I keep thinking things have already happened. when you asked if I remembered about the party and the ceremony, I thought you meant, did I remember having gone to them.  And I did remember.  I seem to have fallen out of time.’” (Cunningham 62).

This passage is a parallel to Mrs. Dalloway and its themes.  In Mrs. Dalloway, Septimus Smith is a young married man who is going insane.  The doctor tells him he has “lost proportion,” meaning a mental state which respects time and the world around him.  Here, Richard Brown is doing the same thing—he is “falling out of time,” going insane.  Time is a driving factor in everyone’s lives, and as it is always there, it must be respected.