![]() ![]() It is also noticeable that though Mabel compares herself to a character in a story she is unable to picture the other people at the party in the same light. Who in the story feels that just like a fly she kept falling into the ink (darkness) and crawling out into the light again. Woolf’s use of the line ‘flies trying to crawl’ is also interesting as many critics suggest that by including this line into the story Woolf is making a direct reference to Anton Chekhov’s short story ‘The Duel’ and the character Nadyezhda Fyodorovna. ![]() Rather than being proud of her individuality and Miss Milan’s work on the dress, there is a sense that Mabel feels ashamed because she is not the same as everyone else at the party (in fashionable and expensive clothes). ![]() Rather than embracing her history (mother’s Paris fashion book) Mabel feels that she deserves to be chastised for how she is dressed at the party. Something that is possibly triggered by her sense of insecurity when it comes to other people (upper class). ![]() It is also interesting that throughout the story Mabel shows herself no kindness. Which in turn suggests that Mabel has been uncomfortable about how she is perceived by others for a considerable length of time (childhood to womanhood). No! It was not right.’ This line is important as not only does it highlight the sense of exclusion that Mabel feels when it comes to the other people at the party but it also acts as a trigger for Mabel to recall the sense of inferiority she had felt when she was a child. Something that is noticeable when Mabel ‘went straight to the far end of the room, to a shaded corner where a looking-glass hung and looked. Mabel feels no comfort in her appearance (in her new dress) rather she feels so insecure about how she looks (and how she may be viewed by others) that she attempts to hide herself from the view of the other people at the party. Taken from her The Complete Shorter Fiction collection the story is narrated in the third person (though some critics suggest Woolf is using stream of consciousness) and from the beginning of the story the reader realises that Woolf may be exploring the theme of appearance and insecurity. In The New Dress by Virginia Woolf we have the theme of insecurity, appearance, inferiority, individuality, alienation, connection, class, escape and change. ![]()
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