Discussion Question 6 **SPOILERS**

6. As the day and the novel proceed, the hours and half hours are sounded by a variety of clocks (for instance, Big Ben strikes noon at the novel's exact midpoint). What is the effect of the time being constantly announced on the novel's structure and on our sense of the pace of the characters' lives? What hours in association with which events are explicitly sounded? Why? Is there significance in Big Ben being the chief announcer of time?

I didn't notice this until towards the end of the book. Do you suppose this is why Michael Cunningham named his book The Hours? I need to read that too.

I did get the sense of a very relaxed pace to the characters' lives, and I think the time announcements contributed to that. Perhaps the significance of Big Ben was the point that no matter how isolated we may think we are, we continually cross other paths that shape our next steps.

Terri...I believe Cunningham says this is exactly so. And it's a wonderful read! The Hours is a very favorite book of mine, as is Mr. Dalloway, though the latter novella caused a lot of ill will when it came out...Richard Dalloway was off dallying while Clarissa shopped...with a *gasp* MAN!!

The Hours is in my short stack. I thought if I was going to read Mrs. Dalloway, I should follow up with the former while the latter is still in my mind. I'll have to think about Mr. Dalloway. I tend to be disappointed in sequels written by someone else.

The clock striking does accentuate the relaxed pace of the character's lives. Despite their relaxed pace, however, time does relentlessly move forward. I think Virginia also uses the time as device to hold the book together and to illustrate people's interrelatedness as well as a mechanism to shift points of view. Perhaps the use of Big Ben which can be heard by many people also connects the book to the British experience

I hadn't thought of that. I may have to go back and see about the shifting points of view. Very interesting!

I think maybe I'm a little on the woo-woo side here, but I think of the clocks and of Big Ben as Woolf showing us the current that's inherent in a stream of consciousness.

Big Ben is also, from what I know of 1920s English society, a major figure in the popular culture. It's a physical (sound waves are physical, after all) reminder that the society the characters move in is shared, regardless of their various perceptions of isolation.

I noticed that the chiming of clocks sometimes interferes with communication between characters. (Now I have to go look it up)...I'm reading the Harcourt Harvest Press edition, on p. 48...Peter is just leaving after a rather sad meeting between Clarissa and him:

“Peter! Peter!” cried Clarissa, following him out on to the landing. “My party to-night! Remember my party to-night!” she cried, having to raise her voice against the roar of the open air, and, overwhelmed by the traffic and the sound of all the clocks striking, her voice crying “Remember my party to-night!” sounded frail and thin and very far away as Peter Walsh shut the door.

Can't you just hear all of the noise?!

Karen O.

Interesting...I found an online version of the book, and there are 17 "clock"s found. There are 24 when "o'clock" is included.

As someone who picked this book up at intervals over the course of one week, I found the clock chimes a very useful reminder that the book was focused on the various events as they occurred over one day.

It was particularly striking when reading the POV of the Warren Smiths..... I twas stunning to see the changes of lucidity that Septimus went through during that one day - visits to the park, mumbling to himself, seeing ghosts, visiting doctors, moments of clarity of vision and then, well you what happened next because you read the book just l did.

I think the chiming of the clocks helped pull together the various POV and to show how time can appear to stand still when you are observing multiple individuals at the same time.

>8 klobrien2: Karen, I heard that...it seems so desperate, this overwhelming need to stay connected to Peter, despite the huge amount of interference that's making them strain at every turn.

>10 lkernagh: Lori, I think the cohesion that time provides is key to understanding the book. It's the same clock, Big Ben, that rolls its hours over the entire book. Funny...it really seems to me Woolf should have called the book "The Hours" as she intended to until the last minute. Michael Cunningham's novel is less aptly called The Hours, I think.

I agree with all that say that the striking clock let you keep on track of the story. It shows the relaxed pace of the characters and makes clear that the story really is only a day.

There were times when I was reading that I thought to myself, but when is the clock going to sound? I mean, that some parts seemed longer in time than the time recorded it as being. This was more in the afternoon. And then suddenly it was evening.
--BJ

>13 billiejean: But isn't that the point, BJ? Without the sounding clock, time moves at a personal pace, unrelated to anything except the person experiencing it.

That is a very good point Richard. Because don't we all live in a universe of parallel time? Parallel time each one to the other because what it is my time for is not what it is your time nor --BJ's time for. A good point and something very interesting to ponder. I had never thought of parallel time like that until just now. I always thought of it as some sort of out-of-body experience. Now I don't think that at all.
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