Mrs Dalloway

I'm still laughing at the thoughts Clarissa has about her parties, how they are 'life' to her in an intangible, almost inexplicable way. It's a timeless emotion: I love having parties myself, as do most of my female friends, so we can just catch up with each other all at once and stay on top of things. How do you help your friends out if you don't know what's going on in their lives? Each social circle, no matter how high up the 'social scale' one finds oneself within, has it's elite and it's bores.
Miss Killman harbors resentment for her state in life, her low rung on the social ladder, and her resentment keeps her from advancing beyond her state. She's become a monster, the monster she projects on to Clarissa really comes from within herself. Woolf chose her words well when she described Miss Killman as the monster within her "lost her malignity...and became...merely Miss Killman, whom Heaven knows Clarissa would have liked to help"(p 190). Clarissa seems superficial, and she has no idea where or what the equator is (p 185), so she's pitifully uneducated, and the opposite of Miss Killman because she is everything Miss Killman is not. While Miss Killman prides herself on her suffering to bring her knowledge (p 196) and her education to sustain herself financially, Clarissa gains knowledge through observation of what goes on around her and is sustained by her husband's income. Clarissa has no need to know where or what the equator is but is aware of her surroundings; Miss Killman has no need to know what's going on with the world now but teaching history puts food in her mouth and money in her pockets to survive. Each is educated in the way she needs, to get her through her day and make it to another; neither would survive in the other's world.
Clarissa reminds me of my best friend because she can throw the best parties, always has the right food and the right amount (I do the cooking, she just tells me how many people and a vague idea of each of their lives so I can plan the menu; she can't cook and I can't keep up with that many people), and I'm sad because she and Miss Killman could be good together if they were able to use each other's strengths to surpass each other's weaknesses (or at least get along for Elizabeth's sake).