Subjectivity Under Power: A Foucauldian Interpretation Of Clarissa In Mrs. Dalloway

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is one of the most important modernist writers in the20thcentury. Mrs. Dalloway (1925), her first mature experimental novel, is considered as one ofthe most important modern novels in the West. It has been studied from various perspectivesin the field of literary criticism. But most studies on Mrs. Dalloway focus on the innovativewriting techniques and the profoundness of themes such as life and death as well as feministideas. The lack of study on the power relations and the operation of power among charactersin Mrs. Dalloway, which Virginia Woolf also cares much about, sets this thesis on to itspresent shape.Taking Mrs. Dalloway as the object of study, this thesis tries to analyze how powerfunctions in modern society on Clarissa, the main character of the novel, in light of MichelFoucault’s theory of power. Famous for his power theory, Foucault takes power as arelationship existing among individuals and attaches great importance to the operatingmechanism of power in his theorectical explications. By analyzing the power relations amongindividuals, Foucault shows people how power functions on them. Therefore, this thesis,based on Michel Foucault’s theory of power, points out that power not only represses Clarissabut also renders her with changes in the degree of subjectivity by discussing the relationsamong Clarissa and other characters in the novel. In fact, the change of her subjectivityundergoes three stages: the crisis of her subjectivity, the loss of her subjectivity and the fightfor her subjectivity.As far as the crisis of subjectivity on the part of Clarissa is concerned, this thesisanalyzes power relations around Clarissa from the discourse aspect. As a ParliamentMember’s wife, Clarissa Dalloway lives a rich life but she is not happy at all because she hasno right of discourse in her family and in love. She suffers from her lover Peter Walsh’scritique, her husband Richard Dalloway’s ignorance and her daughter’s alienation, whichdeprives her of the right to express herself freely. Lack of the right of discourse, Clarissafinally loses her own voice and her subjectivity is brought into crisis. Under the control of discipline power, Clarissa without a discourse right is confrontedwith the loss of her subjectivity. As a matter of fact, it even starts from the first day shemarries Richard Dalloway. In order to train Clarissa into a qualified wife for a ParliamentMember, Richard Dalloway makes demand on her by giving advice for her to follow. MissKilman who has a strong religious mind also attempts to control Clarissa through religiousthought. Besides the discipline power inside the family, there is also that kind of power frompeople in the society such as Hugh Whitbread which also works on Clarissa and her action.Under the prison-like social environment padded with discipline power, Clarissa graduallyloses her true self and is trained into a “docile body”.The repressive nature of power challenges and extinguishes Clarissa’s subjectivity, butits productive nature stimulates her desire to fight for regaining her subjectivity. Throughdiscourse, Clarissa fights back Peter’s critique and tries to discipline him into a “docile body”just like her. To avoid being defended by the past lesbian days, Clarissa, the ParliamentMember’s wife, intentionally excludes Sally Seton, her old girlfriend, from her social group.By applying discourse and discipline power to Miss Kilman, Clarissa resists the control fromher. In spite of that, during the process of fighting against those people, Clarissa reconstructsand enhances her subjectivity not as Clarissa herself but as Mrs. Dalloway. There is no hopefor the success of her resistance because of the wrong object she is trying to fight against.Englightened by Michel Foucault’s power theory, this thesis concludes with theparadoxical role of power. It is the power that represses Clarissa and leads her subjectivity indanger. It is also power that also leads to her effort to fight for the change of her subjectivity.