The Hours and Mrs Dalloway both display and illustrate many examples of gender and power struggles or conflicts. These struggles often occur between characters, but predominantly they occur between the characters and their emotions or other structures of power. In The Hours (film) and the novel, something that Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown and Clarissa Vaughan have in common is their feeling of failure, depression and inadequacy. Each woman feels trapped within her own life. The reasons for each woman's feeling of entrapment are often fairly similar and this is what links them. In this essay I have chosen to discuss the feelings of each woman in terms of isolation, depression and inadequacy. I will discuss how such feelings bring about the power and gender struggles that are displayed in both The Hours and Mrs Dalloway. I will discuss these feelings in terms of why these characters feel this, their responses to these feelings and the consequences these feelings impose. I will also consider these issues in Mrs Dalloway and will compare them in both Mrs Dalloway and The Hours. .
In The Hours, Virginia Woolf begins her day by making the decision not to have a proper breakfast. The decision to skip breakfast is made so that she can begin work on the book she is writing, namely, Mrs Dalloway. Her husband, Leonard, attempts to enforce a suitable breakfast upon her, but she refuses. She goes on to start work on her book, while he resumes reading proofs in the printing room. Virginia moves into her study and notes that it is in here that she feels safe. Virginia goes on to note that she must retain her weight of nine and a half stone, then, she believes that Leonard can be persuaded to move back to London. Already, one is given a clue that all is not right, that Virginia is not happy. She appears merely to be doing things for her husband and not for herself. However, by doing things for her husband, she is indirectly doing things for herself.
