5. What is the role of Big Ben in Woolf‟s Mrs Dalloway?

Time is so important to the themes, structure, and characters of this novel that Woolf almost named her book The Hours. Time imparts order to the fluid thoughts, memories, and encounters that make up Mrs. Dalloway. Big Ben, a symbol of England and its might, sounds out the hour relentlessly, ensuring that the passage of time, and the awareness of eventual death, is always palpable. Clarissa, Septimus, Peter, and other characters are in the grip of time, and as they age they evaluate how they have spent their lives. The ancient woman at the Regent's Park Tube station suggests that the human condition knows no boundaries of time, since she continues to sing the same song for what seems like eternity. She understands that life is circular, not merely linear, which is the only sort of time that Big Ben tracks.

And…

Big Ben and his timely voice is an important symbol in Mrs.Dalloway. As Big Ben chimes, time stands still while the characters reflect on the present and past. In addition, Big Ben's "striking" presence throughout the novel carries forward the story to it's finale at Clarissa's party. His timely chimes strike at significant moments, for example, after Peter and Clarissa's first encounter since his return from India "he stepped down the street, speaking to himself rhythmically, in time with the flow of the sound, the direct downright sound of Big Ben striking the half-hour" .Big Ben's sound stops the progress of the novel as seen by Peter Chile he reflects, "whether by calling at that hour he had annoyed her; overcome with shame suddenly athaving been a fool; wept; been emotional; told her everything, as usual, as usual " (52). Ben Big becomes, himself, a character who demands the narrative to hover over specific events and then move forward connecting lives, places, and events

---