Leaden Circles, Eternal Springs, and Rusty Pumps: Time, Nature, and Industry in Mrs. Dalloway

This article explores often-overlooked ecocritical aspects in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, analyzing Woolf’s literary intersection of time, nature, and industry as a precursor to contemporary Anthropocene discourse. Acknowledging prevailing interpretations of Mrs. Dalloway through social lenses of trauma, class, and gender, Evans reveals how Woolf’s exploration of human-environment relationships is not only present but integral to interpreting the text fully. Drawing from textual close readings, scholarship on Woolf, and environmental humanities frameworks, Evans demonstrates how Woolf utilizes the Big Ben and a beggar woman to symbolize human-nature relationships. Evans’ ecocritical reading of Mrs. Dalloway repositions the 1925 novel within contemporary discussions about humans’ evolving relationship with the natural world. This reading offers a model for integrating perspectives of the Anthropocene into literary analysis to deepen social discourse about gender, class, trauma, and urbanity.