Woolf employs a rather cinematic narrative technique to Mrs. Dalloway by including flashbacks, rapid cuts, and panning between various characters, all of which mimic what Seymour Chatman calls "the abruptness and speed of the urban experience." When we inspect Mrs. Dalloway much more closely, readers can see that Woolf punctuates these transitions from character to character with noise. Technological sound such as the chimes of Big Ben and the motor car backfiring link together the isolated, inner thoughts of the novel's many characters.
EXAMPLE BELOW:
"In people’s eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and the uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June." (Woolf 4)
Woolf’s aural portrait of the English cityscape brims with life, and Clarissa’s enthusiastic embrace of London’s sights as well as its sounds affirms her strong connection to the city. Rife with commas and semicolons, Woolf’s staccato depiction of the London soundscape syntactically imitates the technological cacophony of the city, which Clarissa relishes in. She marvels at the “uproar” of “carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, [and] vans”; finds the people “in the swing, tramp, and trudge” of big-city streets endearing; and is reminded by “the strange high singing of some aeroplane” of “what she loved.” Technological sound emphasizes the vibrancy of urban life, allowing Clarissa to detach herself from thoughts of her own death and ignite her passion for living in London.
Works Cited:Showalter, Elaine. “Mrs. Dalloway: Exploring Consciousness and the Modern World.” The British Library, The British Library, 23 Dec. 2015, www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/exploring-consciousness-and-the-modern-an-introduction-to-mrs-dalloway.