This one line, completely changed the way I saw Clarissa Dalloway, wife of a politician.

“Her one gift, she feels, is an ability to know people by instinct.

She is so sure of yourself and her abilities and yet, I feel like she knows little of anyone else because all she thinks about is herself. I think it is important to recognize your talents so that you may better use them to serve those around you. Clarissa has many opportunities to feel for the people around her, and yet the only person she thinks about is herself.

While walking down one of London’s busy streets, she is thinking of herself and remembering what it was like to be eighteen.

While talking to Hugh about his sick wife, Clarissa is thinking about her hat and how self conscious she feels.

When she thinks of her “dear friend” Peter Walsh, she only remembers his harsh words and not their long friendship, all because he predicted her future. Someone she once loved, she only remembers the worst in him.

While pondering death, she continues to only think of herself. While death is something that affects everyone, she is only thinking of herself.

I have never read Mrs. Dalloway before, but I feel that I am not impressed with her character in the slightest. I know that often in novels characters go through trials and setbacks to become a better person than they were before, but I am skeptical for Clarissa. Mrs. Dalloway isn’t Odysseus. She isn’t Harry Potter. I don’t know how much better of a person she will become by the end of the book.