Monday, September 29, 2008

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.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I believe that the keyword here is "fallen". This may be foreshadowing Richard's death and/or Richard falling out of the window.