19 ‫ العدد‬/ ‫مجلة كلية االداب‬
Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
Tense Shift
in Virginia Woolf’s Novel “Mrs Dalloway”
Ass.Teacher
Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
Al-Mustansiriya University- College of Arts
Department of Translation
:‫الملخص‬
‫اُ صٍغخ اىفعو ًٕ صٍغخ ىغٌ٘خ رسزخذً ىيذالىخ عيى صٍِ حذٗصٔ ٗاىزً ىٖب صالصخ اشنبه‬
‫ٗثشنو عبً ٌحبٗه اىنبرت االثقبء‬.‫ٍَبصيخ ىيضٍِ اىفعيً اي صٍغخ اىَبضً ٗاىحبضش ٗاىَسزقجو‬
ًٍْ‫عيى صٍغخ صٍٍْخ ٗاحذح ىيخطبة اىيغ٘ي ٍع اظٖبس اىزغٍشاد اىزً رحذس فً االطبس اىض‬
ٗ‫ٗرىل ثزغٍٍش اىصٍغ اىضٍٍْخ ٗفقب ىيصٍغخ اىضٍٍْخ اىشئٍسخ ٗاىزً غبىجب ٍب رنُ٘ فً اىَبضً ا‬
‫فٖزٓ اىزغٍشاد فً اىصٍغ اىفعيٍخ رسبعذ اىَزيقً عيى فٌٖ اىعالقبد اىضٍٍْخ اىزً رشثظ‬,‫اىحبضش‬
‫ غٍش اُ اىزح٘الد اىضٍٍْخ اىَفبجئخ ٗاىَزضبسثخ احٍبّب ٌَنِ اُ رسجت‬,‫االحذاس اىزً ٌزٌ سشدٕب‬
.‫االسثبك اٗ عذً اى٘ض٘ح ٍبىٌ رنِ الغشاض اسي٘ثٍخ‬
‫ارُ ٌحبٗه اىجحش اىحبىً اصجبد اُ اىشٗائٍخ فٍشجٍٍْب ٗٗىف فً سٗاٌزٖب "اىسٍذح‬
‫داالٗي"اسزخذٍذ اىزح٘الد فً االصٍْخ احٍبّب ثشنو ٍزضبسة ٗىنِ ىٍس الصبسح اسرجبك اىقبسئ‬
.‫ٗاَّب م٘سٍيخ اسي٘ثٍخ رَنْٖب ٍِ رحقٍق ربصٍٍشاد اسي٘ثٍخ ٍعٍْخ فً اىشٗاٌخ‬
Abstact
Tense is a linguistic feature which is used to denote time in a language.
Generally, it is has three divisions compared with its counterparts in real life,
namely: past , present, and future. Generally, writers maintain one tense for the
main discourse and indicate changes in time frame by changing tense relative
to that primary tense, which is usually either simple past or simple present.
Changes in verb tense help readers understand the temporal relationships
among various narrated events. But sudden or inconsistent tense shifts can
cause confusion unless they are for stylistic purposes.
The present study tries to prove that in “Mrs. Dalloway” Virginia
Woolf uses tense shifts, sometimes inconsistently but not to cause confusion or
unclearity. She has used them as a stylistic device in order to create certain
stylistic effects in the novel.
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19 ‫ العدد‬/ ‫مجلة كلية االداب‬
Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
1. Section One
1. 1. A Summary of the Plot and Main Characters of the Novel.
Clarissa Dalloway goes around London in the morning, getting ready
to host a party that evening. The nice day reminds her of her youth
at Bourton and makes her wonder about her choice of husband -- she
married the reliable Richard Dalloway instead of the enigmatic Peter
Walsh, and she had not the option to be with Sally Seton for whom she
felt strongly. Peter himself complicates her thoughts by paying a visit,
having returned from India that day.
Septimus Smith, a veteran of World War I, spends his day in the park
with his wife Lucrezia. He suffers from constant and
indecipherable hallucinations, mostly concerning his dear friend Evans
who died in the war. After he is prescribed involuntary commitment, he
commits suicide by jumping out of a window.
Clarissa's party in the evening is a slow success. It is attended by
most of the characters she has met in the book, including people from her
past. She hears about Septimus' suicide at the party, and gradually comes
to admire the act -- which she considers an effort to preserve the purity
of his own happiness.
Clarissa Dalloway
Clarissa Dalloway, the heroine of the novel, struggles constantly
to balance her internal life with the external world. Her world
consists of glittering surfaces, such as fine fashion, parties, and high
society, but as she moves through that world she probes beneath
those surfaces in search of deeper meaning. Yearning for privacy,
Clarissa has a tendency toward introspection that gives her a
profound capacity for emotion .Constantly overlaying the past and
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Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
the present, Clarissa strives to reconcile herself to life despite her
potent memories.
Septimus Warren Smith
Septimus, a veteran of World War I, suffers from shell shock and
is lost within his own mind. He feels guilty even as he despises himself
for being made numb by the war
On the surface, Septimus seems quite dissimilar to Clarissa, but he
embodies many characteristics that Clarissa shares and thinks in much
the same way she does. Septimus chooses to escape his problems by
killing himself, a dramatic and tragic gesture that ultimately helps
Clarissa to accept her own choices, as well as the society in which she
lives.
Peter Walsh
Peter Walsh's most consistent character trait is
ambivalence: he is middle-aged and fears he has wasted his life,
but sometimes he also feels he is not yet old. He cannot commit to
an identity, or even to a romantic partner. He cannot decide what
he feels and tries often to talk himself into feeling or not feeling
certain things. For example, he spends the day telling himself that
he no longer loves Clarissa, but his grief at losing her rises
painfully to the surface when he is in her presence Unlike calm
Richard, Peter is like a storm, thundering and crashing,
unpredictable even to himself. Peter cannot clearly see his own
shortcomings. His self-obsession and neediness would have
suffocated Clarissa, which is partly why she refused his marriage
proposal as a young woman.
1.2. Time and Tense
Although the two terms „time‟ and „tense‟ apparently have
the same meaning, they have two different indications. Time is a
universal, non-linguistic concept with three divisions: past,
present, and future, whereas tense is a linguistic concept and can
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Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
be defined as the form of a verb used to indicate the time, and
sometimes the contribution or completeness, of an action in
relation to the time of speaking.(Quirk and Greenbaum,1973:40)
Therefore, verb tense refers to the time when an action takes
place. There are three simple tenses of a verb: the present, past,
and future. The present tense indicates an action taking place –
right now – at this moment. The past tense indicates an action
that has occurred in the past. The future tense indicates an action
that will occur in the future.
Many languages use tense to talk about time. Other languages
have no grammatical means of carrying out more accurate
location in time ,i.e., they have no tenses but still can talk about
time using different methods, for example in German, there is no
grammatical oppositions which can give distinctions in
remoteness in the past or in the future . (Comrie, 1985:83) On the
other hand English uses „tense‟ as a method to refer to time: past,
present, and future. Thus it can be said that tense is “a
grammatical category of the verb expressing by means of
grammatical controls the time relationship of the action referred
to in the sentence and the time of utterance.(Hartmann and
Stork,1972:235)
The basic distinction in English is between past and non-past,
e.g., walks is „non-past‟ whereas walked „past‟, but either forms
can combine with certain conjunction, and adverbials to express
circumstances independent of „time‟, e.g., If you went to the
party,…or He comes here everyday. What is traditionally
referred to as the „future tense‟ in English is a question of mood
and the so-called
„ perfect tenses‟ are now usually considered
as aspect (ibid).
Mood and Aspect
Here are some of the terms used in discussing verbs and
tenses:
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Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
Mood: it has the following types:
(1) indicative mood expresses a simple statement of fact which
can be positive or negative
Ex: I like coffee
I don‟t like coffee
(2) interrogative mood expresses a question:
Ex: Why do you like coffee?
(3) imperative mood expresses a command:
Ex: Sit down
(4) Subjunctive mood expresses what is imagined or wished or
possible:
Ex: The President ordered that he attend the meeting.
Aspect:
It expresses a feature of the action related to time, such as
completion or duration:
Ex: I have emailed the report to Jane.(perfective aspect)
We are eating (progressive aspect)
Tenses and their Uses
1.2.2.1. Present Tense
Three basic types of present are distinguished:
1. Timeless present, expressed with the simple present tense
which is used to express habitual and universal statements:
Ex: I(always)write with a special pen.
The sun sets in the west.
2. Limited present, expressed with the present progressive
Ex: She is cleaning the house.
3. Instantaneous present, expressed with either the simple or the
progressive form:
Ex: As you see, I‟m dropping the stone into the river.
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Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
Watch carefully now :first, I write with my ordinary pen; now ,I
write with a special pen.
1.2.2. 2. Past Tense:
An action in the past may be seen:
1. as having taken place at a particular point of time
2. over a period which may be seen as :
a. extending up to the present,
b. relating only to the past; if the latter, it may be viewed as:
1. having been completed, or
2. not having been completed.
Ex:
I wrote my letter of 16 June 1978 with a special pen.
I have written with special pen since 1078
I wrote with a special pen from 1977 to 1978
I was writing poetry with a special pen
1.2.2.3. Future Tense:
In English, this tense is different from the two previous ones since it
has no special linguistic form. So it can be said that there is no „future
tense‟ in English, but there is “a variety of forms to talk about the
future” (Foley and Hall,2003:72).These forms include:will,be going
to which are added to the present tense, infinitive, as well as verbs
and adjectives that contain future meaning (ibid:80)as it is obvious in
the following examples:
*We will be here in two days.
*He is going to study environmental law next year.
*The President is to hold an official reception for the visitors.
*I hope to see everyone at the next Open Day.
*No one could shake off the sensation of impending doom.
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The choice of one of these forms depends on the meaning the user
wants to convey whether a prediction, an intention, or talking about
an arrangement.
Thus it can be said that present tense shows an event or action
taking place in the current moment. Past tense shows that
an event or action has already occurred. Future tense shows that an
event or action will take place but has not yet occurred.
2. Section Two
2.1. Tense Shift
Tense shift or back-shift as some grammarians prefer to call is a
grammatical change which takes place in the verb phrase where the
user of the language is able to shift from one tense into another. Most
of the shifts occur when direct speech is changed into indirect speech,
so what is simple past in the original speech is shifted to the past
perfect. Quirk & Greenbaum (1973) define it as the following:
The most important alteration takes place, however, in the
verb phrase:- this is the change that is referred to as backshift. When the reported speech are changed as follows:
Direcrt
Indirect
(1) present
past
(2) past
(3) present perfect
(4) past perfect
past perfect
Ex: “I am tired,” she complained
She complained that she was tired
(p.342 )
This rule is not always followed especially when the reference of
the sentence is the present or even future, as Quirk and Greenbaum
(1973) stated:
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Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
The rule of back-shift can be ignored in cases where the
validity of the statement reported holds for the present time
as much as for the time of utterance:
Ex. “Nothing can harm a good man,” said Socrates
Socrates said that nothing can harm a good man.
could
(p.343)
As such it can be stated that verb tenses show time, and a writer
must be careful to use the tense (present, past, or future) that correctly
shows the time of an event or action. Problems with tense shift occur
when a writer moves from one tense to another inappropriately or
intentionally, combining different time frames within the same
sentence, paragraph, or essay. This problem will likely confuse the
reader. The present paper tries to prove that in “Mrs Dalloway”
Virginia Woolf uses tense shift intentionally as a stylistic device to
create certain stylistic effects in the novel ; still she controls it by
using special devices as will appear in the following analysis.
3. Section Three
3. 1. A Stylistic Analysis of the Use of Tense Shift in “Mrs.
Dalloway”.
The novel begins with a conventional way of narration
where the writer describes the thoughts of her heroin ,Mrs.
Dalloway, as she is in her way to buy flowers for her fifty
birthday party:
1.Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.
2. For Lucy had her work cut out for her. 3. The doors would
be taken off their hinges; 4. Rumpelmayer’s men were coming.
5. And then, thought Clarrisa Dalloway, what a morning- fresh
as if issued to children on a beach. 6. What a lark! What a
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Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
plunge! 7. For so it had always seemed to her when, with a
little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had
burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into
the open air.
(p.5)
The writer uses simple past tense in reported verb and future in
the indirect speech in S.No.1 and past perfect in S.No.2; then she
immediately shifts to future tense in the passive voice in S.No.3.
where she describes what is supposed to happen in the party.
However, she uses the expression “thought Clarissa Dalloway”
putting it between two inverted commas to show the reader that
the previous sentences are just an inner dialogue inside Mrs.
Dalloway‟s mind quoted indirectly. Then all of a sudden the tense
shift to present , where Mrs. Dalloway‟s voice comes directly
through two exclamatory sentences in S.No.4. and S.No.5.The
writer shifts to the past perfect since one of its uses is to describe
the cause of a past event. (Foley &Hall,2003:56) .Thus, by using
this tense the writer is able to show that Mrs. Dalloway has felt
astonished because the squeak of the hinges of the French window
makes her feel like this.
1.How fresh ,how calm, stiller than this of course, the air
was in the early morning; like the flap of a wave; the kiss
of a wave; chill and sharp and yet 2. (for a girl of
eighteen as she was then) solemn, feeling as she did
,standing there at the open window, that something awful
was about to happen; looking at the flowers, at the trees
with the smoke winding off them and the rooks rising,
falling; standing and looking until Peter Walsh said,
3.“Musing among the vegetables?-4.wasthat it ?-5.“I
prefer men to cauliflowers‟-6.was that it?
(p.5)
In this passage , the writer begins to use the “flash back”
technique.
A flashback (also
called analepsis)
is
an
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Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the
current point the story has reached. (Leaska, Mitchell A:
1970).Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened
prior to the story‟s primary sequence of events or to fill in
crucial back story A scene in a narrative is called a flashback if it
depicts a set of events that occurred before the scenes
immediately preceding it intermingled with the cinematic
technique “the close map shot”. Thus, at this moment of the
novel, Mrs. Dalloway thinks of the beauty and freshness of this
morning using the present tense , but all of a sudden the tense
shifts to the past in S. No. 2.where she concentrates on a
particular event happened in the past time that of a girl of
eighteen (Mrs. Dalloway herself) standing at an open window.
Here, the sudden shift from the present to the past is necessary
because she recalls some of the events which took place eighteen
years ago like her standing there at the open window expecting
the happening of something awful and her looking at the flowers
and trees. It is important to mention that at this age she was
engaged to her ex-fiancé (Peter Walsh).
Mrs. Dalloway‟s stream of thoughts is cut by Peter Walsh‟s voice
, saying: “Musing among the vegetables?” which is an elliptical
form of “Are you musing..” and she answers him by saying “I
prefer men to cauliflowers?” These two direct speeches which
come in the present tense are not real but imaginative. They are just
inside Mrs. Dalloway‟s mind. What proves this is the free direct
speech sentence with the past tense “Was that it ?” which
intermingle and end them. This shift reveals the fact that in spite of
the passing of all these years, she still remembers everything about
him : his sayings, his eyes, his smile,…and the sentence : (He must
have said it at a breakfast one morning when she had gone to the
terrace): is a good evidence .Then the narration shifts to the future
where she thinks of his returning: “He would be back from India
one of these days”
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Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
These quick and sudden shifts of tenses at the opening
page of the novel are a reflection of the unstable emotions Mrs.
Dalloway feels at this moment of her life where she prepares for
her fifty birthday party, as if she is not accepting the idea of
being an old woman. Thus the writer makes the present moment a
compound of the fleeting inspections of the past and foretastes of
the future. Time is fluid, but space and Mrs. Dalloway‟s
personality are fixed since she is still in her way to the florist.
1. For they might be parted for hundreds of years, she
and Peter;2. she
wrote a letter and his were dry
sticks; 3.but suddenly it would come over her, if he were
with me now what would he say?-4.some days, some
lights bringing him back to her calmly, without the old
bitterness; which perhaps was the reward of having card
for people; they came back in the middle of St James‟
Park .5.But Peter-however beautiful a day might
be….never saw a thing of all that .6. It was the state of
the world that interested him.
(p.8)
In this passage the writer goes back to the flash back as a
device to express Mrs. Dalloway‟s remembering of her ex –
fiancé, Peter Walsh. The dominant tense of the sentences is the
past except S. No.4. where the voice of her thoughts arise. Then,
the narration goes back to the past .
However, when the writer uses the conventional way of
narration, she prefers to stick to one tense, i.e. past tense with no
tense shift in order to make the events moves smoothly with no
cut as when she describes Mrs. Dalloway‟s walking in Bond
Street.
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19 ‫ العدد‬/ ‫مجلة كلية االداب‬
Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
Bond Street fascinated her; Bond street early in the
morning in the season; its flags flying; its shops; no
splash; no glitter; one roll of tweed in the shop where her
father had bought his suits for fifty years.
(p.11)
But the moment her impressions of this street appear, tense
shift comes back again as a way to express the free association of
Mrs. Dalloway‟s thoughts of this moment.
1. „That is all,‟ she said, looking at the fish monger‟s. 2.
„That is all,‟ she repeated pausing at the window of a
glove shop where, before the War, you could buy almost
perfect gloves. 3. And her old Uncle William used to say
a lady is known by her shoes and her gloves. 4. He had
turned on his bed one morning in the middle of the War.
5. He had said , “I had enough Gloves and shoes; she
had a passion for gloves.”
(p.12)
In the above passage, the following tenses are used .in
S.No.1 and S.No.2 simple present tense is used to express her
direct thoughts. However, the moment she stands at the window
to contemplate the glove shop, the tense shifts to the past (simple
or perfect) as a way to describe her contemplation of the past
time. Mrs. Dalloway remembers everything related to her life
when she was at the age of eighteen: the perfect gloves, Uncle
William, shoes….. Since these things are symbols of Mrs.
Dalloway‟s social life, they make her remember many other
things and thus a series of her free association begins. The writer
is able to reflect these thoughts through her use of tense shift
which enables her to intermingle the two moments: the past and
the present.
Nevertheless, the writer doesn‟t leave the reader alone
within these thoughts; she prefers to use a device which picks up
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Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
him from this dilemma: that is the explosion of the tyros of a
motor car as it is clear in the following paragraph:
“Oh, a pistol shot in the street outside “Dear, those motor
cars,„said Miss Pym, going to the window to look”……The
violent explosion which made Mrs. .Dalloway jump and Miss
Pym go to the window and apologize came from a motor car
(p.14)
This is to show the reader that all these shifts of tenses are
just images inside Mrs. Dalloway‟s mind, who is standing now
alone in front of the glove shop. This device also helps the writer
to keep a single point of time to prove that we are still in the
present moment.
In another paragraph in the novel the writer uses another
device which is Big Ben as a reminder for the passing of time:
The sound of Big Ben striking the half-hour struck out
between them.
(p.44)
Mrs. Dalloway is still walking in Bond Street but her mind
is recalling her memories with him as it is clear in the following
passage:
1. so she would still find herself arguing in St James‟s
Park, still making out that she had been right and she
had too not to marry him. 2. For in marriage a little
license, a little in dependence there must be between
people living together day in day out in the same house;
which Richard gave her and she him.3. (where was he
this morning, for instance? Some committee, she never
asked what?) 4. But with Peter everything had to be
shared …. 5. She had to break with him or they would
have been destroyed, she was convinced.
(p.56)
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Because the above passage is a free association of her thoughts
, the narration doesn‟t stick to one tense . In S. No. l the tense is
simple past (would still find herself) as one of the uses of would
is to express characteristic activity in the past (often a aspectual
in effect ) (Quirk and Greenbaum ,1973:56). This indicates that
she has kept thinking of her right decision not to marry Peter
Walsh. In S.No.2 two tenses are intermingled :. Present (there
must be ) and past (gave). The timeless simple present expresses
her belief of the necessity of the independence between husband
and wife which, as she thinks , must always be.
Nevertheless, the tense of the relative clause (which Richard
gave her) is supposed to be in the present too to keep concord in
tense, but the writer shifts to the past tense . This shift of tenses
gives the reader an indication that Mrs. Dalloway believes of the
necessity of respect between husband and wife which is supposed
to be between her and her husband. However, she doesn‟t confirm
this fact because the second sentence comes in the past tense as if
she says that this respect is no longer found between them, or is
not in the same degree as it was at the beginning of their marriage.
In S.No.3 Mrs. Dalloway‟s voice comes directly where she shows
that she doesn‟t care about her husband because, as she says, she
never asks him where to go. Actually, she is unsure about her own
feelings toward him. By using tense shift, the writer is able to
reflect these feelings to the reader. Even though this sentence
comes in the past indicated by the use of verb to be “was”, it
refers to something happen in the present time. What proves this
is the word “this” and the two brackets. Then the narration shifts
from the thinking of her husband to Peter Walsh. The tense which
governs S. No. 4 and No.5 is the past with no shift. This way
enables the writer to reveal Mrs. Dalloway‟s thoughts clearly.
1. Remember my party, remember my party, said Peter
Walsh as he stepped down the street, speaking to himself
rhythmically, in time with the flow of the sound….2.Oh these
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parties? he thought; Clarissa's parties.3.Why does she give
these parties? he thought…..4.Only one person in the world
could be as he was ,in love.5.And there he was, this fortunate
man, himself,….
(p.44)
In this passage which is a vivid reflection of Peter's feelings
after meeting Mrs. Dalloway the dominant tense is the present
one. In S. No. 1, the writer makes the voice of Mrs. Dalloway
very close to the reader by using free direct speech where the
reporting clause comes initially and without inverted commas. By
using this tense, the writer is able to bring a new action (here
Peter's remembering of Mrs. Dalloway) and to create a flow of
impressions which comes easily in S. No. 2 and No.3. However,
the writer controls Peter's stream of thought by using the tense
shift in the reported clauses (said Peter, he thought….) and the
third person pronouns.
Since Peter Walsh has a great influence on Mrs.
Dalloway‟s feelings, the writer prefers to reveal his thoughts
directly. Free direct thought with its present tense dominates S.
No. 1 and No.2. This mode enables the reader to hear his thoughts
and to know that he has rejected the artificial social life of Mrs.
Dalloway. Walsh wants to convince himself that his decision not
to marry her was right and here comes S .No. 4 with its future
tense. However, without her love, he feels aimless and
unsuccessful and this makes him weep the moment he meets her
after many years, and the tense shifts to the past in order to
provide the reader with an objective description of Peter at this
moment. All this becomes obvious in the following paragraph:
1. I know all that, Peter thought: 2.I know that I‟ve up
again, he thought, running his finger along the blade of
his of his knife, 3.Clarissa and Dalloway and all the rest
of them; 4.but I‟ll show Clarissa- and then to his utter
surprise, suddenly thrown by those uncontrollable forces,
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thrown through the air, 5.he burst into tears; wept; wept
without the least shame, sitting on the sofa, the tears
running down his cheeks.
(p.43)
In the case of giving an objective description of a certain
character, the writer does so in a conventional way by giving a
straightforward description without any intervention of any
consciousness as when she introduces Septimus Warren Smith's
character:
Septimus Warren Smith, aged about thirty, pale-faced,
beak-nosed, wearing brown shoes and a shabby overcoat,
with hazel eyes which had that look of apprehension in
them which makes complete strangers apprehensive
too…
(P.17)
The main tense of this passage is the past since it doesn‟t
represent any consciousness. It gives the reader necessary
information about this character; still there is a shift to the present
(which makes…..) because this is a comment given by the
narrator itself, and to prove that these characteristics are still in
him.
3.2. How does the Writer Control the Time in the Novel?
Two types of time conflict in this novel: the chronological
and psychological time. The former can‟t be shortened or
expanded, whereas the latter can be shortened and expanded, and
even recalled in the consciousness (Leech and Short:1981 ( .The
chronological time affects the main characters in the novel
namely: Mrs. Dalloway, Peter Walsh, and Septimus Warren
Smith. Even though the action of the novel covers one day, the
consciousness of the characters brings emotions and thoughts of
the past into the present.
The writer uses the following devices to control the psychological
time:
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19 ‫ العدد‬/ ‫مجلة كلية االداب‬
Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
1. The hearing of the sound of the motorcar which attracts the
attention of all the persons in the neighborhood and cuts Mrs.
Dalloway‟s‟ free association of thoughts .The following extract
which is taken from a passage with many shift of tenses that filled
two pages proves this:
The violent explosion which made Mrs. Dalloway jump
and Miss Pym go to the window and apologize came from
a motor car which had drawn to the side of the pavementpassers by- had just a time to see a face of the very
greatest importance…..
(p.14)
The motor car with its blinds drawn and an air of
inscrutable reserve proceeded towards Piccadilly, still
gazed at, still ruffling the faces on both sides of the street
with the same dark breath of veneration whether for
Queen, Prince, or Prime Minister nobody know.
(p.16)
2. The seeing of the airplane which writes something in the sky
relates certain characters to each other since it attracts their
attention simultaneously though they exist in different places in
London. This device enables the writer to shift from one mind
into another easily. So here the chronological time is fixed but the
psychological time is changeable because each character reflects
its own emotion in seeing the airplane. Septimus‟s interior
monologue has been interrupted.
The world waved and quivered and threatened to burst
into flames. It is I who am blocking the way, he thought.
Was he not being looked at and pointed at…But for what
purpose?
(p.35)
As stated before, in reflecting consciousness there is a shift of
tenses. Therefore, the past tense of S.No.1. shifts to the present in
S.No.2. and goes back to the past in S.No.3.The change shows the
confusion which Septimus suffers from. The moment his wife
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19 ‫ العدد‬/ ‫مجلة كلية االداب‬
Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
calls him, he goes back to the present moment. („Look, Look,
Septimus!’she cried)(p.21)
3. The sound of Big Ben is used as a reminder for the passing of
time.
For having lived in Westminster-how many years now?
over twenty, -one feels even in the midst of the traffic, or
waking at night…..before Big Ben strikes.
(p.6)
The sound of Big Ben striking the half-hour struck
out…..
(p.44)
4. Septimus commits suicide the same day Mrs. Dalloway holds her
birthday party.
Conclusions
1. In this novel, Woolf prefers to use no tense shift, i.e., uses the
conventional way of narration in the passages of description, in
order to make the narration moves smoothly or to give an
objective description of a certain character.
2. Woolf prefers to use tense shift in the passages of contemplation
of past events or when a certain character reveals his own
thoughts and impressions. By using this way, the writer is able to
cover many events and thoughts where the actual time is fixed
and to bring the reader very close to a certain character.
3. The chronological time is fixed since the events of the novel
occur in just a single day, whereas the psychological time is
changeable; it goes back and comes again to the present moment
and sometimes contemplate about the future.
4. Woolf controls the psychological time either by using audible
devices like the sound of Big Ben or virtual devices like the
seeing of the airplane.
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19 ‫ العدد‬/ ‫مجلة كلية االداب‬
Aamal Ahmed Hamza al Shamari
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