The New Dress

Themes and SymbolsBy: Mary Jane Ca ῇos

Themes

ALIENATION and LONELINESS Mabel’s sense of alienation appears as soon as she reaches the party

While the other guests chat with her, an intense self-consciousness about her look and style allows her only to converse with them at a superficial level, which holds her in a bubble of loneliness. (Wolf, 1990)

Lines that portray Alienation & Loneliness:

“… this thing, this Mabel Waring, was separate, quite disconnected”

"I feel like some dowdy, decrepit, horribly dingy old fly", she said, making Robert Haydon stop just to hear her say that, …and so showing how detached she was"

"left alone on the blue sofa,… for she would not join Charles Burt and Rose Shaw"

INSECURITYDescribes the feeling of general unease or nervousness that may be triggered by perceiving of oneself to be vulnerable or inferior in some way

Just as when, Mabel kept on thinking of the ill things that the other guests might be thinking a bout her and her dress

Lines that portrayed Mabel’s Insecurity in the story:

o “What’s Mabel wearing? What a fright she looks! What a hideous new dress!”

o “I feel like some dowdy, decrepit, horribly dirty old fly”o “… like magpies and perhaps laughing at her by the

fireplace”

SOCIAL CLASS

A major factor that isolated Mabel from the rest of the guests at the party and considered as one of the nurtured root that caused her insecurity

Affected how she perceived herself when she was alone and in the privacy of her workroom in contrast to Mrs. Dalloway’s Drawing room which was filled with socialites

Lines that portray Social Class:

o “What she had dreamed of herself was there- a beautiful woman”o She was “ the core of herself, the soul of herself”o “woken wide awake to reality”o “This was true… this drawing room, this self, the other false”

FEMININE GENDER

Illustrated through “Frock Consciousness” – clothing consciousness style used by Virginia Woolf

-describes gender as a constructed "clothing" and to show how patriarchal and class discourse is internalized by Mabel and put into action in everyday life.

SYMBOLS

INSECTS- “FLY”

Metaphor for upper- class women

Lines that portray this symbol:

o “Flies trying to crawl over the edge of the saucer”o “She could not see them like that … she saw herself like

that- she was a fly, but the others were dragonflies, butterflies, beautiful insects”

CLOTHING

Metaphor for gender and class restriction it imposes a new identity from the outside. Social coercions of class and gender expectations launch an attack on her at the party, repressing her individuality, telling her what an ideal woman should look like, transforming both her view of her dress and of herself, leaving her without self-confidence

MIRROR

Metaphor for the power of sexism and classism

Symbolic tool that bring about Mabel’s endless “Reflections’ of insecurity, embarrassment and agony.

Also a symbolic tool for societal sexism reflecting dot- sized images of women

Examples: Mabel- yellow dot Mrs. Holman- black dot and black button

An oppressive device, commanding a proper compliance to society’s dominant lookism and institionally challenging a woman’s control of her body, clothing and appearance

SOURCES:

Woolf, Virginia. 1989. The New Dress. In The Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf. Ed. Susan Dick. Harcourt Inc: San Diego. PP.170-177.

Virginia Woolf.1995 (1928). Orlando: a biography. Hertfordshire, Wordsworth Classics: UK.

The Diary of Virginia Woolf, 1980. vol. 3, 1925-1930. Ed. Anne Olivier and Quentin Bell. Hogarth Press: London.