Mrs. Dalloway Walking Tour
Justin Andries, Georgia Flynn, Mason Domico
A note on the assignment: Students read Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, in which several characters walk around London in June of 1925. Each group of students was asked to trace the journey of one character or couple. Justin, Georgia, and Mason followed in the steps of Peter Walsh, who has recently returned from serving in a colonial post in India.
Next, Peter walks through Trafalgar Square to Regent’s Park. Regent’s Park is a beautiful and calming place of nature in the bustling city of London. Walking through the paths, flowers, and fountains, I began to understand why this place puts Peter in a meditative state as he reflects on his past with Clarissa and ponders his youth with Clarissa and Sally Seton. He thinks about when he first met Richard Dalloway and how he knew Clarissa would marry him. Peter takes a long walk through the city and encounters many different landmarks, but Regent’s Park in particular is a place where he reflects on his relationship with Clarissa and is able to ponder his present life as a 53 year old man who is recently divorced and alone again. This meditative feeling is something that I too felt walking through Regent’s Park, a beautiful area where I could simply look at the greenery and the fountains throughout the paths as I walked them and reflect.
In this video, Peter is thinking of English society and how efficient and organized it has become as Septimus passes by in an ambulance. On his walk past the British museum towards the Lincoln Inn, his thoughts go from admiration and beauty of his surroundings to deep, morbid thoughts about life and death. Peter depicts how everyone goes through life and has their own story while also letting the readers know that life has an end to it. When I go on walks when the weather is nice, and the birds are chirping, and I’m surrounded by beautiful scenery, I too fantasize about how life has been good to me. Maybe that’s why my walks home are so long, because I far too often get lost in the world inside my head.
After being able to walk in the path of Peter Walsh and visit the home of Mrs. Dalloway, I was able to capture some pictures and a video. Mrs Dalloway’s house is a block or two from Big Ben and Westminster and it is close enough to hear the bells ringing from Big Ben. After filming a video in front of her house and reading from Mrs. Dalloway about the scene where Peter unexpectedly visit Mrs.Dalloway at her home, I headed north. When Peter is done talking to Mrs. Dalloway he proceeds past Westminster and heads north up to Regents Park. Peter was able to pass most of the heart of London after visiting Mrs. Dalloway and at the end of the day, Peter finds himself back near Westminster.
