Category Archives: Peter Walsh

Peter Walsh seems more like a free spirit, or maybe, never wants to grow up when it comes to his life.

In a way, he is a romantic. Reading through his romance, we can see that he loves with his instinct. When he feels right, he goes for it. For example, his marriage with the girl he met on the way back to India, or his love affair with the married woman. Somehow this free attitude still attracts Mrs. Dalloway. She sees the flaw of his characters, but she is still attached to this person. Peter fears aging, and he still love the idea of being young. I think when he is being judgmental towards Mrs. Dalloway’s sophistication, such as scolding her being a perfect hostess, is another way of showing that he is scared getting old(being responsible, be social in order to have that status in society). Yes, he seems happy with his philosophy of life unlike Mrs. Dalloway. Though the fact that he is not the one that Clarissa chose to marry just shows his main struggle of life: being independent and responsible.

In another way, Peter is impulsive and irresponsible. “He had never done a thing that they talked of; his whole life had been a failure. (6)” Failing Oxford, never seem to make a serious commitment, and the fact that he is very judgmental about the world all shows his immaturity. He barely follows through his passions or has a plan for his life, as Hugh Whitbread says his character is “permanent” (105). I think it is the youth from Peter Walsh that makes Mrs. Dalloway still thinks about him often. She misses the way they interact with each other and the youth/beauty of their love; she also misses the way that he is not afraid of staying young (even if it is immature). For Mrs. Dalloway, his way of living life freely assembles something young and vivid, something more like a hope that she wishes she never loses. Although we know how life wears her out when she becomes this mature and sophisticated Mrs. Dalloway.

Much of Peter Walsh’s character is revealed through his experiences and links to Mrs. Dalloway. As her early love interest, Clarissa rejected Peter’s marriage proposal before she married Richard Dalloway. Throughout the text, it becomes evident that the two still have strong feelings for each other, and they are constantly reevaluating and judging themselves through the eyes of the other.

One of the major reasons Mrs. Dalloway says she rejected Peter’s marriage proposal was because she felt that he was too conceited to be a successful partner. She was also aware of his conscious judgement of her rising into the upper echelons of English society. Like the other main characters in the novel, Peter is very judgmental of himself and others. He jumps from feeling a sense of pride of the modern English society in London to his criticisms of Mrs. Dalloway’s world and her strive to be socially successful.

One experience that influences Peter is his failing out of Oxford. Both he and Mrs. Dalloway feel that he has failed many of his aspirations. Like Mrs. Dalloway, Peter often reminisces about his youthful days in Bourton which also deeply influenced him.

It seems that Peter remains a dashing man through his side story of his engagement to Daisy and his quests in India, but he is immature in many ways and still a boy. He seems content with that lifestyle, however. Like Mrs. Dalloway, Peter struggles with the idea of aging and death, and he is moved by ideas of youth: the modernization of London and women wearing makeup, his imaginary encounter with the woman he followed, and his longing for the young, rebellious Clarissa.

His perspective on the modern English society is not as deep as Septimus’s view, and, resultantly, he does not see past the civilized surface. For instance, Peter is impressed by the ambulance and the English medical system, but he seems unaware or unmoved of the same English society that suppresses India, culturally and emotionally. Peter does not see that past the surface, there are still uncivilized acts.

Through Peter’s ignorance, the novel displays places where the “civilized” English society has failed and where real-life people may stall in their own personal lives and experiences. Clarissa’s own doubts of her decisions in choosing a high-society life are confirmed through Peter’s judgements and his sadness in her not choosing a more adventurous, romantic life.

At some point in the novel, Clarissa Dalloway has a theory: “the unseen part of us, which spreads wide, the unseen might survive, be recovered somehow attached to this person or that, or even haunting certain places after death..”

While Peter has matured in some ways in his return from India, he is still immature in other ways and there is still more he can learn about his own society-particularly from people like Septimus and Mrs. Dalloway herself.