Throughout the book one can see that Virginia is an unhappy person. She describes her irritation at certain people and there are constant reminders about how she doesn't feel at home in Richmond, which indicate her wanting to move back to the city. For example, we are often reminded how Virginia is almost scared of her staff. She doesn't like bothering Nelly and almost sees herself as interference in their work, even though their work is done for her. She gets silently angry and annoyed by Ralph and Marjorie, who work for Leonard. She says that "she has an urge to slap him" (Ralph), when he grins at her. Owing to these thoughts and feelings, one is provided with another element that contributes to Virginia's growing unhappiness. Although, she claims that she puts on this front for the sake of her husband. She does this as she does not want her husband to assume that she is taking sides against him, she doesn't want to be seen as sympathising with Ralph. She fears this may affect how Leonard sees her, which is an example of a certain power struggle between the two. Virginia does not want to appear weak in her husband's eyes, and she does not want to put herself into an inferior position by agreeing with Ralph and going against her husband.
In The Hours Virginia's character comes across as someone who is constantly brooding. This pondering often has a depressing edge to is, which further illustrates Virginia's feeling of despair and entrapment. For example, as she walks, Virginia ponders the death of the character in the book she is writing.
"Clarissa Dalloway, she thinks, will kill herself over something that seems, on the surface, like very little" (Cunningham, 1999:84). .
It seems that a lot of thought is given to the death of this woman, which one could take to mean that Virginia herself thinks about death a lot, particularly suicide, which is what she settles on for her character, Clarissa Dalloway.