Peter Walsh Irritates Me
Peter Walsh Irritates Me
Peter Walsh.
Peter Walsh…
Peter Walsh–
PETER WALSH
PETER WALSH!!!
Hi everyone! Now that Peter's name is echoing through your head the way his words echo through Clarissa’s, I’d like to get into the core material of my blog, which assuming you read the title, won’t come as a surprise to anyone. I do NOT like Peter Walsh and actually find him quite annoying. Between his interrupting, annoying commentary, and menacing dirty looks, he really just… gets on my nerves, and if Clarissa ever saw anything in him, I’m not too sure why. Let me explain.
Exhibit A:
While Sally Seaton and Clarissa Dalloway are on the terrace during the “most exquisite moment of her whole life” (Woolf, 42) Peter interrupts by saying “‘star-gazing?’” (Woolf, 43). Mind you, Sally Seaton had just kissed Clarissa, causing her to feel ways she’s never expressed having felt before. This gets to the point where she even explicitly states that “the whole world might have turned upside down! The others disappeared; there she was alone with Sally” (Woolf, 42) and Peter just comes in and ruins it! He actually ruins it! Clarissa is enraged, so enraged to the point that “it was like running one’s face against a granite wall in the darkness! It was shocking; it was horrible!” (Woolf, 43). Oh Peter, look what you did to poor Clarissa. You RUINED her moment, and as if that’s not bad enough, that’s not even the only thing you ruined…
Exhibit B:
Ruining her walk to get flowers. We get the action of Peter being a nuisance from the FIRST PAGE IN THE BOOK. Let me take you there, Clarissa is going out to buy flowers (which we are told is a result of Lucy being busy) and Peter's annoying voice immediately infiltrates her head as she reminisces on him saying, “‘musing among the vegetables?’--was that it?-- ‘I prefer men to cauliflowers’-- was that it?” (Woolf, 9). Poor Mrs. Dalloway is just trying to go get some flowers for her party and Peter is already seeping into everything, I mean he made that comment years ago and it just keeps coming back! Sure, she can’t remember the specific words, but with how much this guy runs his mouth, how could she? I mean he acts like EVERYONE needs to know his opinion! Speaking of his opinion…
Exhibit C:
He totally just ruins things for Clarissa. I mean, Clarissa LOVES hosting her parties, and he’s always just menacingly lurking near her. Poor Clarissa cannot even get him out of her head as she’s starting her party, “oh dear, it was going to be a failure; a complete failure… she could see Peter out of the tail of her eye, criticising her, there in that corner” (Woolf, 180). I mean, seriously Peter! This has to be psychological harassment. Do you ever stop to think about how your constant opinions have hurt Clarissa? No wonder she chose the soft, loving, and intellectual Richard over YOU.
Now, while some of this blog was clearly satirical, I do genuinely believe Clarissa didn’t actually love Peter and PERSONALLY feel that Richard was the better choice. That said, I do really like what Peter brings to the story since it definitely adds some internal conflict for Clarissa, and I think Woolf executed that pretty well. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the blog and I’d love to see what you guys think of it! Thanks for reading!
-Naomi
Interesting take Naomi! To me, Peter is one of the better characters in the novel precisely because he's intrusive and whiny -- in fact, these qualities show that he's very carefree and doesn't care what others (including us, the readers) think about him. For many of us, this trait is something to look up to. That's what makes Peter such a great character in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteVery funny blog, Naomi; I had a lot of fun reading it. Your enthusiastic writing style is very refreshing, and it definitely helps you get your point across very well. However, I also think you are excluding an important detail from this post, as all of your quotes and opinions come from Clarissa's POV, which, as we discussed in class, is very skewed and unreliable. I think that Peter Walsh was a really important character to the story, and I wish we had gotten more of his perspective in both the book and this blog. Everyone has their own opinion, though (and I know Peter Walsh is a point of contention for many people), so great job writing yours
ReplyDeleteHey Naomi, I really enjoyed reading your blog! It was very fun to read. I think that is take on Peter Walsh is very different and interesting. While people see Peter Walsh as a character that is rebel character that a lot of people relate to. I really enjoyed your take on Peter Walsh's Nature and a happy go lucky kinda of character. I really enjoyed your blog Naomi!
ReplyDeleteIn Peter's defense, I will somewhat hesitantly point out that in the first two exhibits, he is literally "innocent" in that he has no idea he's doing anything to mess with Clarissa's world. To this day, he has no idea that he has interrupted something between Clarissa and Sally--he just has terrible timing! And, true, he is kind of dogging Clarissa at this point, so it is kind of implied that he's walking around trying to find where she's gone. And yet, he's just trying to be friendly, say something witty about star-gazing. He's in love and nervous, and he thinks Sally is on his side. Never in a million years would it cross his mind that they are kissing when he walks up.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course he can't control his unbidden sudden appearance in Clarissa's stream of consciousness--all he did was write that letter telling her he's coming to town, and she didn't even read the whole thing! It's not his fault that he lives rent-free in her head.
The last example is different, though. He is physically present at the party, and you're right--he does knock Clarissa off her game temporarily. But she recovers. And in the end, he does sort of gain a new respect for her parties--he has more fun than he'd expected to have, for example, and he ends up having this pretty deep conversation with Lady Rosseter/Sally Seton, which could be seen as an example of Clarissa's party "kindling and illuminating." So even if he is sort of trying to kill the vibe, he doesn't quite succeed, and he ends up having a decent time.
I do sometimes wish we could see the scene right after the ending of the novel, when Clarissa suddenly appears before Peter and Sally and they finally talk. But he'd probably just whip out that pocket-knife again and start being annoying. Peter Walsh!
Hi Naomi! I found this blog really interesting as I think it's easier to be annoyed by Peter since we're reading it through Clarissa's perspective. Clarissa already has a preexisting picture of Peter always interrupting, so her commentary is quite biased in that she's often expressing her irritation of this (especially in the Sally scene).
ReplyDeleteNaomi! I love this take as I also personally agree. I found characteristics Peter Walsh had to be similar to past relationships (not necessarily romantic) and so I found him even more irritating. However, without Peter, I don't think Clarissa would have "discovered" herself at the end of the novel and his thought process was refreshing to see at times when after being so immersed in Clarissa's thought process. Overall, amazing blog!!
ReplyDeleteHi Naomi, I completely agree with you. From the start of Clarissa introducing Peter, I immediately was annoyed by him. His ability to unbeknowingstly ruin moments, or say something that insults Clarissa and sticks with her forever just rubbed me wrong. Though I do find it fascinating how much power Peter's words have over Clarissa, that she can be affected by something said decades ago and still feel the same way about it she had then. Overall, Peter is an annoying loud mouth with very unfortunate timing. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Naomi! I also found Peter Walsh to be somewhat annoying while reading it, bothering Clarissa when she's just trying to live her life. Even while not being there, just the memories of the conversations they had made Clarissa bothered. However, this is from Clarissa's point of view, so sometimes she could just be making him seem more annoying, especially when he wasn't even there.
ReplyDeleteHi Naomi! I also hated Peter Walsh when reading this book - and by no means has this changed for me. To me, the entire meaning of his existence was a means to stand in the way of Clarissa feeling any sense of true warmth towards who she had been, and who she'd grown to become. Her younger days were spent being worried that she would become as he'd rudely suspected; and her adulthood is spent lamenting of how he'd been right, and how he'd never leave her mind because of all of that. Truly, if all the things he'd done had been fully intentional, I would've likened him to some form of manipulator - but for right now, I will just call him a dreadfully unhappy and insecure man who'd taken it out on a woman who rejected him.
ReplyDelete