How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
She imagines turning around, taking the stone out of her pocket, going back to the house. She could probably return in time to destroy the notes. She could live on; she could perform that final kindness. Standing knee-deep in the moving water, she decides against it. The voices are here, the headache is coming, and if she restores herself to the care of Leonard and Vanessa they won't let her go again, will they? She decides to insist that they let her go. (Prologue.1)
Although Virginia Woolf loves her husband and sister very much and knows that her death will break their hearts, her love for them has its limits. She refuses to live on in misery just for their sakes, and by explaining her decision in this way, Michael Cunningham draws a clear connection between Virginia's suicide, Richard Brown's suicide, and the attempted suicide of Laura Brown.
Quote #2
[…] You have
given me
the greatest possible happiness. You
have been in every way all that anyone
could be. I don't think two
people could have been happier till
this terrible disease came. (Prologue.3)
In the suicide note that Virginia Woolf leaves for her husband, Leonard, Virginia chooses to say her goodbyes by telling Leonard how much he meant to her. Michael Cunningham didn't create this note himself: it's a transcript of the real note that the real Virginia Woolf left behind.
Quote #3
She loves Richard, she thinks of him constantly, but she perhaps loves the day slightly more. She loves West Tenth Street on an ordinary summer morning. She feels like a sluttish widow, freshly peroxided under her black veil, with her eye on the eligible men at her husband's wake.
Like her namesake, the original Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Vaughan is in love with life, despite its many tragedies. Even the impending death of her dearest friend Richard Brown doesn't prevent her from feeling wonderful on a bright, sunny day.