Richard and Clarissa

 For this post, I'd like to take a look into a relationship I thought I'd never write a blog post about - the good Dalloways, Richard and Clarissa. I was never exactly impressed with their relationship throughout the novel, and it seemed disjointed and with no real connection - I thought Clarissa had settled. Regardless about her specific feelings for Peter, or whether she truly would have been happier with him, she always talked about him with so much more passion than she ever did Richard. Utimately, Richard was the safe and tame choice. She'd have a nice man that looked after her, a respectable place in society, and wouldn't ever have to worry about money.

I continued thinking this way up until the scene where Clarissa hears of Septimus' suicide, and has an intense moment of thought and connection with Septimus. She's in such a different situation and has a radically different life to Septimus, but somehow Clarissa gets the closest to hitting the nail on the head. She thinks about Bradshaw and his like, and questions what his role was in all of this, saying that Bradshaw is 

... capable of some indescribable outrage - forcing your soul, that was it - if this young man had gone to him, and Sir William had impressed him, like that, with his power, might he not have said (indeed she felt it now), Life made intolerable; they make life intolerable, men like that? (180)

 This reminded me so much of Septimus' insistence that Bradshaw and Holmes were "human nature" - they would try to force you to fit into the box, to do what a human is meant to - "forcing your soul" as Clarissa puts it.

And this was awfully interesting for my view on the Dalloway's relationship with each other. Clarissa obviously had some sort of kinship with Septimus, felt that same repulsion with forcing her soul - but at the same time, isn't that what she does when holding her parties and hosting? She loved it, yes, and she seems to thrive, but isn't it also possible that the parties and the people sometimes just get to be too much, too overwhelming, having to force herself to smile and pretend. She interacts with these people because she loves it, she walks the streets of London and takes in all the bustling streets and life and just loves it, but then she sometimes might become like she does at the beginning of the party - disconnected from reality, apathetic, overwhelmed by all the human nature.

And that's where Richard comes in - Richard and Clarissa's relationship seems to be a mostly disconnected, relatively emotionless one. They might feel strongly about each other, but they don't (can't, in Richard's case) show it, don't talk about it or interact in that same passionate way Peter and Clarissa did. But then, their relationship was never about deep, emotional conversations or passionate arguments like Clarissa with Peter. Maybe that's just the one relationship Clarissa has where there aren't really any expectations, no need for human nature. 

Neither side has any expectation for the other to do some specific thing, to act some specific way that human nature dictates you must. They don't tell each other they love the other, they don't sleep together, and live relatively separate lives, because that's not the point of their relationship for Clarissa. She just needs something to retreat from, to unwind and recharge her battery. She describes it herself, saying 

Even now, quite often if Richard had not been there reading the Times, so that she could crouch like a bird and gradually revive, send roaring up that immeasurable delight, rubbing stick to stick, one thing with another, she must have perished. But that young man had killed himself (180)

That "immeasurable delight" Clarissa has for life fades sometimes, human nature gets the best of her and she finds herself overwhelmed, and Richard is who she goes to to recharge. But she doesn't interact with him, doesn't talk, it's enough for him to just be there doing nothing. Their relationship isn't one filled to the brim with passion, because Clarissa already has plenty of that, her entire life is filled with it. That's not what she needs in the comfort of her home. It's calm, it's peace, it's a moment to collect her thoughts and not deal with the all the rabble of people and life and human nature. She doesn't have to worry about what Peter thinks about her and how he might criticize her, she doesn't have to worry about being the perfect hostess, looking respectable and kind. She only has to be there with Richard, and he has no expectations for more. Only then, removed from life, can she begin to rekindle and strike up her delight once more.

Richard isn't her settling - it's her picking a steady rock in the rushing river that is her life. Something to cling to and reorientate herself with when she becomes overwhelmed and loses her way. Would she get this same steadiness from Peter? This ability to unwind without talking, without judgment. I'm leaning pretty heavily to no. You can't ever really know how it might have turned out, but if Clarissa's "safe space" had been filled with that deep cutting criticism that always hits at Clarissa's most vulnerable points? It might have all gotten to be too much for her. Either way, I definitely have a lot more of a positive view of Clarissa and Richard's marriage now that even the flower/I love you scene didn't give me. 

I think their relationship is really open to each person's individual interpretation, more so than pretty much any of the other relationships in the book. I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions - do you agree? See my point but have a different personal view? Think I'm really reaching? Just see no logic in my point whatsover? Feel free to share, and thank you for reading!