A comparative study of the presentation of characters' mental states in Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and The Hours by Michael Cunningham.

"I adumbrate to a study of insanity and suicide: the world seen by the sane and insane side by side." Virginia Woolf's description of her intentions for Mrs Dalloway By clarifying Mrs Dalloway as a story of insanity and suicide we are lead to presume that the focus of this novel will be 'insanity', a marginalized mental state. But Woolf subverts this social conception of mental instability, and writes instead a novel, which reunites insanity …

…unite as one; society. Cunningham universalises Woolf's concerns by taking insanity to Richard, as well as generalising mental instability by including Laura Brown and Woolf's narratives. In effect he clarifies Septimus's insanity as not simply a freak occurrence born out of the war, but as a predestined part of society. The use of water imagery enhances the uncontrollable nature of the characters mental states, blaming society in conjunction with the individual for their mental instability.