Mrs. Brown's The Hours: Michael Cunningham's Represented Mrs. Dalloway

브라운부인의 『시간들』: 마이클 커닝햄이 재현한 『댈러웨이 부인』

Patricia Waugh once regarded modernism fiction as 'the struggle for personal autonomy' against the opposition existing social institutions and conventions. Michael Cunningham's characterizations of Virginia Woolf and Septimus in The Hours show the two contrasting reactions to individual alienation and mental dissolution in the modern era. As the personifications of endurance and self-destruction against the mechanical power of contemporary world, Woolf and Septimus consist of just the world of diptych where the woman's role is confined to the angel in the house. By creating Mrs. Brown based upon his own alienated mother image, however, Cunningham succeeds in representing the more dramatically vivid world of triptych where woman can have her own room and self-realization despite still facing the dilemma of the traditional family. Accepting Joycean Bloom's optimistic and relaxing way of life in part, Mrs. Brown connects the labyrinths between the author's (and also Richard's) alienation with the theme of celebration of the life. Clarissa in postmodern New York setting is still a concealed and mystified character. Similar to Mrs. Dalloway, on the one hand Clarissa watches other people's tragedy with compassion. Cunningham's Clarissa, on the other hand, is no longer seeking for either winning or defeat in the spectacular world unlike her predecessors. In many resilient attitudes of everyday life Clarissa is closest to Mrs. Brown whom Virginia Woolf originally hopes to describe. Without any fear or rage toward the society Clarissa witnesses and achieves "the humanity, humour, depth" of female values by successfully turning the trivial life into an epic journey.