A large amount of the comic relief in Mrs. Dalloway comes in the form of Hugh Whitbread. Although a relatively minor character, Hugh, who was a friend of Clarissa’s at Bourton and is now in the same social circle as she and Richard, has had two substantial appearances so far. Woolf has taken advantage of both of these to poke fun at “the admirable Hugh”. He is introduced as “Hugh Whitbread; her old friend Hugh--the admirable Hugh!”, and is described a having a “very well-covered, manly, extremely handsome, perfectly upholstered body”, and while not particularly intelligent or original, “a good sort in his own way” and “still not a positive imbecile”.
The mockery continues when Hugh and Mr. Dalloway attend a lunch at Lady Bruton’s. Hugh is reintroduced as he walks down the street, “ruminating” on a variety of topics he has in the past brushed the surface of (“dead languages, the living, life in Constantinople, Paris, Rome; riding shooting, tennis,”) without pursuing at any meaningful depth. When he arrives at Lady Bruton’s, he greets the secretary by asking, as he always has, if her brother is doing well in South Africa despite the fact that “for half a dozen years, he had been doing badly in Portsmouth”, and when Lady Bruton mentions that Peter is back in town “They all smiled. Peter Walsh! And Mr. Dalloway was genuinely glad, Milly Brush thought; and Mr. Whitbread thought only of his chicken.”
I could continue to catalog a list of Hugh’s funniest moments, but why does Woolf take this mockery to such an extent? And why even include a character like Hugh at all in a novel as serious and nostalgia-laden as Mrs. Dalloway in the first place? I think to Woolf, Hugh is another representation of the Edwardians she criticizes in her essays and of the English upper class and their culture in general. He has a vaguely described job in Parliament or Buckingham Palace, and is described by Peter, one of the most astute characters we have encountered so far as having “no heart, no brain, nothing but the manners and breeding of an English gentleman”. Despite having perfect manners, a job in government, and being well-off and part of an elite social circle, we see that on the inside Hugh is shallow, materialistic, less than intelligent, and so blundering it’s comical.
These criticisms also fit in with how Woolf critiques the people lining the streets and trying to catch a glimpse of the Queen (or maybe it’s the Prime Minister) during the motor car montage sequence. Again using irony and humor she undermines their reverence, patriotism, and awe with the fact that nobody has any idea who’s in the car, and by diverting the attention of the crowd with a toffee advertisement as the car finally enters Buckingham Palace. It will be interesting to see if Woolf continues to use humor and irony as methods of social criticism, and how the critiques she makes in Mrs. Dalloway connect to her identity as a modern writer and her ideas on how novels should be written.
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ReplyDeleteMy earlier comment was confused about the plot.
DeleteI like that you decided to write about Hugh! He's a minor character, but he exists for a reason like anything in a novel. All of the irony in Mrs. Dalloway is interesting and I'm excited to see the rest of it.
I found this really interesting, I never thought of Hugh as more than just a comedic effect. To think that (especially for the author) he seems to have a deeper, more significant meaning is very interesting, even if we can't relate to it much (being alive almost a century later). However, it still is seemingly quintessential to Woolf's discussion of "controversial" topics in the book (like septimus, shell shock, the rest cure, and perhaps homosexuality [although homosexuality was significantly less bluntly discussed]).
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your analysis of Hugh. I think that, for Woolf, he acts as a more comical example of the negative impact of being a true English gentleman. While Woolf uses other characters such as Clarissa and Septimus to point out the harmful effects of these strict molds that members of upperclass English society must fit into, I think that Hugh is an example of a person who is exactly what he is supposed to be. Unlike Clarissa and Septimus, he suffers no pain as a result of his conformity to his role, and yet it is through this lack of pain that we see the tragedy of Hugh Whitbread: there's nothing in him at all. Essentially, Woolf is saying that, in order for a person not to mind the rules, they must not be much of a person at all.
ReplyDeleteI like how you have brought up Woolf's use of Hugh as a comedic character. While reading the book, I always thought of Hugh as a sort of annoying character who no one really likes. However, now I can definitely see that he is provides some comedic relief to the book. I think especially with some of the darker topics in the book, like Septimus's suicide, it’s useful to have a comedic character. I completely agree that Woolf also uses him to make fun of the upper-class because he seems like a trivial character who doesn't really do many important things in his life.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading the novel I saw Hugh as oblivious and simple. I never thought of him as a caricature of the Edwardian generation but when you pointed it out it makes sense. I also can see the comedy is the continued sarcastic use of the admirable Hugh.
ReplyDeleteI'm really happy you wrote a post about Hugh Whitbread! Honestly I found him one of the more confusing characters of the novel, because of our rather limited information on him compared to the others in this work. The quotes that you brought forward from this book really highlighted the points you were making about Hugh, and they really supported your idea that he represented the shallowness of the a common upper-class Englishman that Woolf might have been implying.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying about Hugh being a sort of mockery of the English upper class. I think Woolf was quite successful, too – the fact that Hugh is such a hollow shell sort of character makes the jibes thrown at him all the more funny to me. I didn’t think about the idea that she is trying to mock the Edwardians using Hugh, though. I wonder if Hugh is the only element of the story that is meant to poke fun at them.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad someone decided to write on Hugh, I feel like he takes so much abuse from the other characters in the book. I think that your idea about Hugh being an exaggeration of Edwardian society is really insightful!
ReplyDeleteNice commentary on Hugh. I noticed in the book that the phrase 'The admirable Hugh' showed up so many times that it was obviously a joke. A few more words on the sheer repetition would be nice.
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