THE FRAGMENTED SELF AND MODERNIST EXPERIMENTATION IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS DALLOWAY

This article explores Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925) as a seminal work of literary modernism that interrogates the fractured nature of identity in the aftermath of World War I. Through a dual focus on Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith, the novel examines the tensions between interior experience and social expectation, memory and temporality, conformity and collapse. Woolf’s use of stream of consciousness, nonlinear narrative, and shifting perspectives allows for an intimate portrayal of psychological disintegration and emotional resilience. Drawing on psychoanalytic, philosophical, and socio-political frameworks, the analysis reveals how Woolf critiques institutional power, medical authority, and class hierarchy while proposing an alternative aesthetic rooted in impression and subjectivity. Ultimately, Mrs Dalloway articulates a vision of the modern self as contingent, relational, and continually shaped by both historical trauma and fleeting moments of insight.