the hours (时时刻刻)英语简介

Laura seeks comfort in books, specifically Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Through reading, she can step out of her life and critically examine her own experiences. The subject matter of suicide also forces her to consider the idea that she wants to find a way out of her own life. In the final chapter of The Hours, we find out that Laura attempted suicide and ultimately left her family to move to Canada. The day described in The Hours shows Laura considering these two possibilities, possibly providing the catalyst for making the decision to leave her family.
Laura Brown
Laura Brown, like many women of her generation, married young and has settled into the roles of wife and mother at a relatively young age. Although her husband -Dan is kind, her son loves her, and they live in a nice home. Laura is unhappy, because she feels as though she has woken up in someone else’s life.
பைடு நூலகம் Dan
Dan loves his wife, Laura, but does not understand her. He takes deep pride and satisfaction in his job, his home, and his family. Laura does not derive the same happiness from her domestic life. She feels she has a duty and obligation to Dan, because he fought in the war and because he loves her, but she does not reciprocate his feelings for her. She sees him as another child, someone who depends on her for stability and comfort. Much of his happiness comes from her fulfillment of her roles as wife and mother. However, her dissatisfaction leads her to believe that her domestic life will not complete her and she ultimately chooses to leave.
Clarissa Vaughn
Clarissa’s character is closely based on the title character of Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. Like the character in Woolf’s book, she has a wondrous outlook toward the world around her. Though she takes great pleasure in the day-to-day details of life, she questions the choices that she has made and has doubts about what her life has come to. She has strong feelings of nostalgia for her love affair with Richard and the sense of unchecked possibility that she had in her youth. Clarissa compares this period of wild, unabashed freedom to the domesticity of her present life. She loves the small domestic details of her life, and she enjoys the simple acts of buying flowers and keeping a beautiful apartment. At the same time, she wonders if all of it is enough and has doubts about whether she feels fulfilled by her life and her relationship with Sally. Even though she questions some of her choices, at the end of the day she takes comfort in the idea that the life has meaning because of those hours that are filled with supreme, wonderful pleasure.
THE HOURS
Analysis of Major Characters
• • • • • • Virginia Woolf Laura Brown Clarissa Vaughn Leonard Woolf Dan Richard
Virginia Woolf
The character Virginia Woolf is closely based on the biography of the actual Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf is best known for perfecting a stream-of-consciousness style, which imitates on the page the free, impressionistic flow of human thought. Virginia Woolf’s struggle with mental illness led her to commit suicide, which Cunningham depicts in the novel’s prologue.
Virginia struggles with her mental health and is very conscious of this struggle. She fights to keep the “shadow in the mirror,” the pounding headaches, and the voices in her head at bay. Virginia focuses on her writing as a way of channeling her energy and emotion productively. At the same time, Virginia sees her writing as something that happens to her rather than as something she has fully under her control. She is incredibly sensitive to the world around her and unusually receptive to small details of her environment, which she believes have incredible significance. Her sensitivity makes her a great writer, but she also is subject to incredibly strong emotions that are set off by events that other people might not even notice. Though she wants to be healthy, she perceives the world in such a profound way that the feelings of madness haunt her.
Leonard Woolf
Leonard Woolf supports and respects Virginia and acts as a stabilizing presence in her life. Virginia is subject to wild mood swings and has trouble controlling her mental illness. Despite these struggles, she does not take basic steps to take care of herself. Leonard tries to make sure that she eats regularly, gets enough sleep, and doesn’t become upset. He panics when she disappears from the house and goes to the train station. On a broader level, he has moved her from London to the suburb of Richmond so that she can recuperate. Though Virginia loves Leonard and appreciates his efforts to care for her, she feels that his attempts to manage her life are restrictive and stifling. She longs to return to London and sometimes resents Leonard’s attempts to act as her caregiver.
Richard
Richard serves an important role in both the Clarissa and Laura sections of the book. He loves his mother, Laura, deeply and understands her thoughts and emotions more than she realizes. When she comes to comprehend the extent of his empathy, she feels startled and starts to see the potential repercussions of her unhappiness. Richard’s awareness may be one of the factors that motivates her to leave her family. As an adult, Richard transfers his observant interest to Clarissa. Though he has a long-term relationship with Louis, Clarissa is his primary inspiration and the emotional centerpiece of his novel. He relies on her as a caretaker and mother figure, and he draws great strength from her childlike appreciation of the world. Clarissa functions as a substitute for the mother figure that Richard lost as a child.