Processing Emotions in Mrs. Dalloway and Demonology :: Virginia Woolf Rick Moody Social Classes Essays

Processing Emotions in Mrs. Dalloway and Demonology Hold them in or let them out; typically these are the only two options one has in dealing with their everyday emotions. Over time, making this decision has differed greatly. The transition between holding in your emotions and letting them out can be seen between two writers from two different eras. In Virginia Woolf’s Mrs.Dalloway, she portrays people in upper class England during the first half of the 20th century and how they process their emotions. Then, in Rick Moody’s short story Demonology he reveals how an average American family during the latter half of the 20th century chooses to handle their emotions. These two stories are perfect examples of how different eras dealt with their feelings in a completely different manner. There can be many connections drawn between these two stories as to the situations the characters are living in and what they have to deal with. Given that they each take place in completely different time periods, the story lines act as a steady base to make judgments as to how they handle their emotions. The story lines also act as a reliable source as to what was going on during each time period. So with these two books, we are able to take them out of there context and actually view them as real life history. By doing this we are able to compare the two different eras and see how they decided to handle their emotions. To begin comparing these two stories, the easiest comparison that is made is that both are stories that are based in one day. This allows us to see how they react to everyday situations. Second, they both deal with people conversing amongst one another. Each person has an image to up hold throughout the two stories. This is most apparent in Mrs. Dalloway since the main character is always trying to uphold her status amongst her social bracket. This is also the case in Demonology where the narrator’s sister is living the typical materialistic American life style, be it through her kids or simply her decisions on anything she does. Finally, these two stories allow us to see how people handle themselves when confronted with marital issues and most importantly how they deal with tragedy. All of these comparisons set the stage for an open look as to what each author and era had to deal with and the way they went about it.