The Hours is an emotionally intense movie based off of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. One of the more moving stories is that of Richie, a young boy whose mother almost commits suicide on her husband's birthday. We make the connection that the young boy, traumatized by this event as a young child even though he does not actually see her attempt at suicide, is the same as the man who later commits suicide himself in a story that apparently centers around a different group of people.
Interestingly, we note this connection as watchers when a siren in the street below Richard's current appartment seemingly spurs his memory of a flashback to the scene in which he sees his mother again, after having guessed that she will commit suicide. My theory is that the sirens connect The Hours back to Septimus, the PTSD ("shell-shock" is a more name accurate when taking into account the time period in which the book was written) character in Mrs. Dalloway. The siren in the street below that brought back memories for Richard could be connected to the effects of the shell-shock condition that Septimus had. Sirens could have brought back memories of World War I for Septimus, from air raids or attacks on the front lines, for example, just like sirens brought back memories of being a little child afraid of his mother's likely suicide for Richard.
Richard's connection to the character of Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway is also notable for another reason. Virginia Woolf is said to have written about Septimus's condition because she herself had experience with this condition. Similarly, in the movie, Richard, who commits suicide in front of Mrs. Dalloway, is indirectly related to Virginia Woolf, whose story we are also following. Both older Richard and Virginia suffer from mental problems and feel imprisoned in the places they are living. Both consider suicide. Finally, Richard also commits suicide because in part Virginia Woolf has seemingly decided that this will be part of his story. She seems to be writing the other two plot lines that we are following. Virginia has almost caused Richie's mother to commit suicide when he was a child, but says she cannot die, that someone else must die in her place. Later, she remarks that this death must be the death of the poet, the "visionary," which infer later to be Richard.
Yet whereas the suicide in the book seems to have been caused by the approach of "humanity" towards Septimus in the form of the doctor, there is no real explanation for Richard's suicide in the movie. We are left to wonder if his mother's almost-suicide has marred him for life like Septimus was scarred by the War. Or is Richard's death simply because of Virginia's portrayed whim? Then how would she explain the death if she were physically writing a novel about the instance? Is it because she sees herself as an exact parallel to Richard, because her mother died when she was young and she wants to commit suicide? Is Virginia writing her own story into the character of Richard in this movie?
So many questions are left unanswered, I am not sure where to begin, or where to end. I was able to draw several inferences from this movie; the problem with movies is a lack of nonverbal communication. Watchers are left to narrate the movie for themselves, based on their interpretations. This can be effective sometimes, but for a story based on Mrs. Dalloway, which is centered around perceptions, it is difficult to understand the meaning without complete 3rd person narration to tell us the author's intentions.
No comments:
Post a Comment