The Role of Setting and Landscape in “Mrs. Dalloway” and “On the Road”

Mrs. D entrustay by acclaimed novelist Virginia Woolf is an interesting literary ensnare with several distinctly remarkable features. The compose utilizes a stream-of-consciousness technique records the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which they fall canvass the pattern, however disconnected in waitance, in which each incident stacks upon the consciousness (Woolf, 1) to bring out the inner almost sights of the character references in a direction which effectively weaves to progress toher the elements of memory and prison term.Prior to the early 20th degree Celsius simulated literature had emphasized the primacy of plot and detailed descriptions of the characters and the pictures, with externalities serving as the most significant turning-point in the falsehood, effectively limiting the innermost workings of the characters minds to a more secondary role, mainly that of providing the motivation for the external occurrences in the plot. red ink against the grain, Woolfs refinement of the stream-of-consciousness technique the representation of multiple consciousness lingering around a locus is definitely one of her lasting contri neverthelessions to the literary world, as evidenced by her novels.In Mrs. Dalloway the plot can be set forth as generated by the inner ragings of the characters, i.e. Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus, whose natures are revealed through the ebb and race of their emotions, impressions, thoughts and observeings. This in turn effectively transforms the rather ordinary events in their lives into the extraordinary, specially as their consciousness awaits to slip in and out through sequence conceptualized not merely as a analog series of events but also as cyclical.Focusing on the two distinct worlds of the primary characters forgiving capital of the United Kingdom society matron Clarissa Dalloway with a stable life in Londons high society and young Septimus Warren Smith thought to be suffering from a metal affliction brought about by the loss of a fri obliterate in World War I the novel explores their seeming parallel thought processes despite differences in kindly station and the fact that they did not know each other and had never met, within a unmarried eventful day in June.Both appear to experience exhilarating shifts in their moods, eerily correspondent to bouts with manic notion which Woolf apparently suffered from profound joy over the simple beauty of resound and the appearance of its fresh, tiny leaves, apprehensive dread over what they perceive as the on-rushing of snip, alarm over their impending demise, and what could only be described as overt guilt over the crime of being human with its incidental sensibilities, awareness, failures and shortcomings.In the concluding chapter of the book the reader finds Clarissa finally being introduce with the character of Septimus posthumously when his distinguished doctors wife explains to their hostess Mrs. Dalloway the reaso n for their tardiness the suicide of a patient earlier in the day, leading her to internally remark that Here is death, in the middle of my party (Woolf, 108). A beak at Mrs. Dalloways mind reveals a rather emphatic arrest of the sensitivity, despair and ultimately defiance besieging her symbolismic double.In admirable literary fashion, despite all events happening within the 24-hour span of a single day, the setting and landscape appear to be effectively adequate for the story to unfold. The seemingly fluid nature of time the author utilizes allows the effortless interweave of the characters thoughts from the present to the past and vice-versa, even allowing the creeping up of thoughts about the future. in spite of the cornucopia of ideas taking shape in the characters minds and the feelings such thoughts evoke, the clever determination of time imparts order to the fluidity of thoughts, memories and encounters populating the world of Mrs. Dalloway.Big Ben that seemingly soli d symbol of a strong England sounds out the passing of time hour by and by hour, a constant reminder to the characters painfully aware of the grip of time over their lives. Yet when the hour is chimed, the sound disappears as if its leaden circles change state in the air signifying the ephemeral nature of time which most bulk in their wary obsession with time still fail to understand. Woolf skilfully introduces the notion of time not merely as having a linear character but a circular aspect to it as well up when the reader is introduced to the ancient woman singing the same song for a seeming eternity at the Regents Park piping Station.In basis of the visual landscape, the author captures the beauty of a London pass day in June with the abundant images of trees and flowers in the story. The variety of flowers appearing throughout the text is suggestive of the characters fleeting emotions. In the spread outing pages of the book, the reader is acquainted with Clarissa Dallow ay on her way to the flower shop.Clarissa, deep and profound in her thoughts, revels in the beauty of flowers and trees, speckle the stiffer, more aloof members of the position establishment practised in the art of keeping their emotions in check all the time are represented as awkward in the way of manipulation flowers (Richard treats the bouquet of flowers as if it was a weapon while Mrs. Bruton appeared to be at a loss with the flowers send offered to her, eventually stuffing them into her dress, the femininity and grace of the motility surprising even herself) and traditional in their choice of blooms roses and carnations as picked by Richard and Hugh.In tune with the reflective tone of the novel, the significant abundance of trees with their far-reaching root systems appear to signify the extensive reach of the human soul, even as the two protagonists wage their consume personal battles in a crusade to defend their souls. The element of water appearing in the characte rs fluid thoughts as on-rushing waves evokes images of the process away of the old to be replaced by the new in an unceasing cycle of the waves lapping at the shore (the appearance of which increases in fanaticism until it reaches the shore, only to fade into another), i.e. death as the fate awaiting us all.Set against the punctuate of post-war London, traditional English society is presented as if a tide wrench down those who fail to adapt to the pressing changes plaguing England, and one such possibility was Septimus Warren Smith who had ultimately failed to accept and understand his vastly altered concrete social realities following the end of the war and the irreparable scarring of humankind.In contrast, Clarissa appears to suffer navigated the murky waters of London high society quite praiseworthily (a silver-green mermaid in Peter Walshs eyes) yet underneath the veneer of obedient wife and mother is a kindred soul who identifies with Septimus and his wish to struggle against the oppressive pressures of society, essaying to strike a balance between privacy and open communication with the significant people in their lives. In the last analysis, she refuses to submit to the temptation herself, and veers away from the outlet chosen by Septimus.In a similar manner to that of Virginia Woolf, the the Statesn writer Jack Kerouac, who founded the so-called Beat propagation, could also be considered as a pioneer in terms of contributions to the literary field. Though Kerouac was of a different generation and genre from the English author, the two share the similarity of going against convention in their own lifetimes in a bid to assert their own ideas on crafting literary pieces. His novel On the itinerary could be described as an attempt to inspire readers to go out there and seize the day Carpe diem as the French say, so to speak and live life.On the roadway we brook the young, somewhat nave writer Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, whom the narra tor describes as tremendously excited with life in their adventure traipsing around the States to test the limits of their American Dream. Various settings, e.g. a small town in rural Virginia, a jazz joint in urban sweet York, a Mexican whore-house, and landscape are utilized by the author in their full extent to present the reader with images of the USA and its new-world wonders urban jungles, sleepy towns, the American rural wilderness, vast expanse of desserts the only tangible connection between them being the road, the need for a generation to get out of their seeming confinements limited by space, to break out and judge freedom unchained by any imposed-from-above belief, sentiments or ideology.These youths, overwhelmed by the neglect of fulfillment and the overriding sense of desperation in their lives made them feel that the only thing to do was go, providing the impetus to search for their own personal freedoms, the pleasure of which they found in sex, drugs and jazz music. For Sal, life is holy and either moment precious, which may perhaps account for Dean seeming to be doing everything at the same time as a fear and oversight of death appeared to haunt the gang in their sojourn throughout America (death will overtake us before heaven), manifested by visions of a great spirit trailing after them across the desolate of life.Yet this fear did not prevent them from living their life not held by the sway of materialism, that mad dream-grabbing, taking, giving, sighing and dying just so they could be buried in those awful cemetery cities beyond Long Island. As their travels in concert come to an end, Sal and Dean find themselves in the poverty-stricken city of Mexico, where among the brothels, shoeless old women, and simple meals, Sal notices that beggars slept wrapped in advertising posters torn off fences (Kerouac, 248).An excited Sal declares This was the great and uninhibited Fellahin-childlike city that we knew we would find at the end of t he road (Kerouac, 248). They had found a world where people could apparently live in bare, unadorned simplicity not harassed by the pressures of a materialistic culture, a timely reminder that despite the pretentiousness of the relatively affluent 20th century, peoples possession of goods, or the pretermit of it are not the sole determinants of being human. Such an idealistic put across in a work of fiction attempts to counter the overriding electronegativity and corruption of the corporate fantasy dominant in American culture, of which its built-in conflict with other needs and interests of the human spirit continues to be play out in contemporary societies up to the present.The two novels, Mrs. Dalloway and On the Road utilize landscape and setting to the full extent, endpointing in powerful narratives which allow the reader much visual power, i.e. the reader is transported to post-War early 20th century London and a modernizing 20th century America. Yet the authors use sett ing and landscape in rather different ways. In the case of Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway, she employs the setting and landscape in an interestingly novel manner which complements her stream-of-consciousness technique, while Kerouac resorts to a rather typical use of setting and landscape to blushing mushroom a picture of the America of the Beat generation in On the Road. The techniques they used might be different yet the end result is the same stunning literary narratives which are undoubtedly some of the smooth works written in their respective periods by writers of their generation.ReferencesClark, Tom. Jack Kerouac upstart York Harcourt, Brace, Javanovich, 1984.Dunphy, Mark. Call Me Sal, Jack Visions of Ishmael in Kerouacs On the Road in Melville Society Extracts, July 2002.Hunt, Tim. Kerouacs Crooked Road The Development of a Fiction. Berkeley University of California Press, 1996.Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. New York Viking Press, 1957.Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway.originally publis hed 1925. Accessed through the University of Adelaide program library Electronic Texts Collection, on 28 November 2007<http//ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91md/>