Peter Walsh's pocketknife is a repeated image that occurs frequently throughout the text of Mrs. Dalloway. The most poignant scene in which the pocketknife is present occurs when Peter Walsh approaches Clarissa in her home before her party. He takes the knife out and begins to play with it in his hands as if it's a mere toy. Clarissa strongly dislikes the habit but has probably never got around to telling Peter. Peter's manipulation of the knife makes her feel "frivolous and empty-minded" and makes him appear so important and stately (44). Clarissa later likens this habit to his inability to read people's feelings. "...It was his silly unconventionality, his weakness; his lack of the ghost of a notion what any one else was feeling that annoyed her" (46). The irony here is that Peter is actually being completely empathetic. He knows what Clarissa is feeling, and he continues to run his finger along the blade of the knife. This is not the only occasion in which Peter toys with his knife.
So what is this reoccurring image all about?
I think that the knife has a few different purposes in the text. First and foremost, it represents Clarissa stabbing Peter in the back, so to speak. She chose to marry Mr. Dalloway, who seems to be an awful match for her instead of Peter. When Clarissa sees the knife, she is reminded of her mistake. That is why the combination of the knife and Peter's tears create a surge of emotion in Clarissa who ends up kissing him. The knife is also Peter's reminder that he is up against some tough weapons in cracking Clarissa, including Clarissa herself. He is still in love with her and must work toward her love as well. The knife, of course, is a symbol of masculinity as well. Peter's toying with the knife gives Clarissa a trivial reason to dislike Peter, and that's what Clarissa needs is a multitude of reasons to convince herself that she made the right choice with Mr. Dalloway.
-Megan R.
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...interesting, megan; i'm not sure that the "stabbing him in the back" reading necessarily holds water. but certainly it's a knife and not a pocket watch, so one imagines that woolf means to be quite deliberate. it may just be about fidgeting. a personal tick or characteristic. but it's a repeated thread for sure. can you find all the references and give us the page numbers?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, Ann Page. It seems to be a pretty deliberate symbol for me. It's interesting, because in the movie Peter came off incredibly more suffocating than he seems to be in the book. I almost feel bad for him a bit in the novel. In the movie, I sort of want to punch him in the face. I feel like Woolf gives him the knife as a symbol of, at least, the wound that Clarissa has left him with. Though I may think this, because I feel bad for Peter a bit in the novel. Again, in the movie, he should be punched. Haha.
ReplyDeletephallic symbol
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