The Age Crisis and Imaginary Identification of Old Age in Mrs.Dalloway
Woolf extensively portrays the ageing process and experiences of Mrs.Dalloway,presenting the character's age crisis and her imaginary identification with the mirror image of old age and demonstrating a positive imagination of ageing,if studied from the perspective of literary gerontology.Due to ageism and double gender standards in post-war British so-ciety,the 50-year-old Mrs.Dalloway is filled with fear of impending old age.Afflicted with"gerontophobia,"she refuses to identify with the mirror image of old age,regarding it as the other and insisting that only the body,not the soul,ages.This denial is,in fact,a rebuttal of the ageing discourse including the"decline narrative"and the"burden narrative".Instead,she reimagines the mirror image of old age through her imagination of an elderly neighbor,a seemingly socially isolated old woman who finds solace in her solitude and independent life in old age and seeks value in her life from collective culture,while maintaining a semi-retired identification with London society symbolized by Big Ben.Inspired by her,Mrs.Dalloway explores positive ways of aging in the attic,a symbol of old age,and reinterprets the wisdom and freedom brought by ageing.
Mrs.Dallowayliterary gerontologythe mirror stage of old ageprogressive ageing
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