Mrs. Dalloway
Map:
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Analysis:
_
Mrs.
Dalloway,
written by Virginia Wolfe, included 240 references to London area locations, an
average of almost 1.3 references per page. Of the most commonly reference
locations throughout London were Regent’s Park with 22 references, Westminster
with 13 references, Buckingham Palace with 11 references, and Big Ben with 10
references. If it was not already evident that all of these 240 locations were
central to one city, the word London was, in fact, is mentioned 42 times, more
than any other place in the book, ensuring the reader that the novel is indeed
set in London. The 4 most common London-area
locations (Regent’s Park [22], Westminster [13], Buckingham Palace [11], and
Big Ben [10]) all correlate to specific scenes, settings, and even themes that
thread throughout Mrs. Dalloway. For
example, Regent’s Park is the single most mentioned area of London. Considering
that Regent’s Park is where Rezia and Septimus as well as Peter spend much of
their time, the novel’s literary “center” seems to be set in Regent’s Park. The
data showing Regent’s Park as the most mentioned London-area in the novel
supports a strong correlation between the number of times a location is
mentioned in a novel and the novel’s most frequent setting. Also, Big Ben is
mentioned the fourth highest among London-area locations in Mrs. Dalloway, even
though the characters do not spend time at Big Ben’s specific location. The
fact that Big Ben, a symbol for time throughout Mrs. Dalloway, is mentioned fourth most and most among locations in
London not visited by the characters suggests that time, the symbolic meaning
of Big Ben, is a central theme throughout the entire novel. Although it may not
be the most predominant theme, the theme of time is certainly a central focus
of Mrs. Dalloway and, thus, suggests
a strong correlation between locations or settings of a novel and the themes
presented in it.
Raw Data:
mrs_dalloway-matt.xlsx | |
File Size: | 14 kb |
File Type: | xlsx |
Graph of All References:
Table of All References:
_ Works Cited:
Woolfe, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt Inc., 2005. Print
Woolfe, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt Inc., 2005. Print