“Those Uncontrollable Forces”: Intersubjective Affect in Mrs. Dalloway
Haley Campbell
In a description of Peter, the narrator of Mrs. Dalloway notes that when “… suddenly thrown by those uncontrollable forces thrown through the air, he burst into tears” (Woolf 34, emphasis added). Those uncontrollable forces are what I seek to explore; I want to know not only how they are transmitted but why, and what results from that transmission. In a brief summarization of the novel, Mrs. Dalloway takes place in a single day. The titular character, Clarissa Dalloway, is a middle-aged woman preparing for a party. She reunites with an old acquaintance, a once romantic interest, Peter, and tension ensues. The characters were close in their youth, their intimacy extending into their unconscious minds. However, Clarissa felt trapped by this intimacy, resulting in her rejection of his proposal. Now, in the story’s present, years later, Peter has returned, resulting in the unconventional scene I will explore in-depth momentarily.
My goal in this article is to shed light on how emotions and physiological responses can be transmitted between individuals, even unconsciously, and its implications for social support and communication in maintaining mental well-being. It emphasizes the impact of connections and relationships on affect and highlights the potential benefits of positive social interactions, including the ability to influence and be influenced by others positively. Particularly in a world where social distancing and isolation have become increasingly prevalent, understanding the impact of social connections on affect is more critical than ever. Furthermore, this article’s focus on the distinction between affect and emotion provides valuable insight into the physiological aspects of emotions. It can be beneficial in developing strategies for managing emotional responses to external stimuli. Finally, I want to show the potential benefits of positive social interactions, as struggles with social communication have only increased in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Returning to the text, I will examine specifically intersubjective affect. I define affect broadly as the physiological feelings that characters are aware of and perceive through the sensory changes in their body. I characterize affect as distinct from emotion because of these physiological manifestations. While we can describe these physical changes, we can’t ascribe an “emotion” word (happy, sad, etc.) to them. The intersubjective nature of affect is evident when examining affect’s etymology: the classical Latin affectus, or a mental or emotional state or reaction (especially a temporary one), physical state or condition (especially a pathological one), or influence or impression, as laid out in the Oxford English Dictionary. Through this configuration of affect, I argue for its inherent intersubjectivity, as these occurrences are brought about by an external stimulus apart from the subject “I.” Intersubjective affect differs from both individual and collective affect, and exists unconsciously through conscious minds. As such, in intersubjective affect, a relationship exists where two people influence each other, though the affect felt might not result in the same outward expression of emotion or action.
My theory of affect most closely aligns with that of Teresa Brennan. Like Brennan, I am interested in how affects move between people, and how another’s presence can shape someone’s affective state. Brennan delineates the subject, “I,” and the “Other,” and then describes how affect moves between them unconsciously in a process called the “transmission of affect.” As Brennan argues, the subject is not self-contained, which is the opposite of how modern schools of psychology deem it (Introduction 2). Instead, the subject has affects and the “enhancing” or “depressing” energies, or physiological shifts, associated with them. Then, these can enter into the body of another (Introduction 3). Brennan deems that this process occurs through pheromones, and the subject is unaware of the impact of another’s presence. Diverting from her theories, I argue Peter and Clarissa are aware (through their senses) of how the other’s presence impacts their body. Additionally, their affectual bond is so strong they need not be in each other’s company to transmit affect.
Overall, I claim that the intersubjective affect Clarissa and Peter experience, distinguishes their relationship from the other relationships in their lives; for both Clarissa and Peter, the resulting physiological changes of such affect cause personal reflection and criticism. Through a lens of affect, intersubjective transmission clarifies what Woolf conveys about the self and selves existing in others.
The first passage in which Peter and Clarissa interact is primarily a communication of their interior selves and is a moment of narratological ambiguity and uncertainty. Notably, they are both wielding tools of violence: Clarissa holds the scissors, and Peter holds the knife, as if their biting emotions have become physically embodied in their hands. In the diegesis, following Peter’s admittance of his love for his young fiancee in India, he is riddled with self-doubt over the Dalloways’ perceived opinion of him. He bursts into tears:
I know all that, Peter thought; I know what I’m up against, he thought, running his finger along the blade of his knife, Clarissa and Dalloway and all the rest of them; but I’ll show Clarissa—and then to his utter surprise, suddenly thrown by those uncontrollable forces thrown through the air, he burst into tears; wept; wept without the least shame, sitting on the sofa, the tears running down his cheeks (Woolf 34, emphasis added).
This quote explicitly names the traveling of affect from Clarissa to Peter as “uncontrollable forces.” I read this as intersubjective specifically because Clarissa is the catalyst for Peter’s abrupt emoting, evidencing his lack of self-control. Peter’s uncontrolled outward expression, crying, indicates the physiological response of affect. Consequently, this impacts Peter by forcing him to show a glimpse of vulnerability; in their previous conversation, he had built up his love for another, yet his crying indicates to Clarissa that he has underlying, unnamable feelings that she brings about. This disparity between inward and outward expression continues to mark Peter’s passages.
After weeping in Clarissa’s presence, Peter attempts to distance himself from her to be more in control of his affective vulnerability. Here, another instance of intersubjective affect occurs, though slightly different from the first, in which Peter leaves Clarissa, ending the conversation but not ending the affectual tension:
‘Peter! Peter!’ cried Clarissa, following him out on to the landing. ‘My party to-night! Remember my party to-night!’ she cried, having to raise her voice against the roar of the open air, and, overwhelmed by the traffic and the sound of all the clocks striking, her voice crying ‘Remember my party to-night!’ sounded frail and thin and very far away as Peter Walsh shut the door (35).
In the latter part of this quote, which focuses on Peter’s perspective, there exists intersubjective affect between Clarissa and himself. Again, Peter attempts to distance himself from Clarissa to control his emotions more. The street’s external roar drowns out Clarissa’s affectual pull, allowing him to shut the door. By describing her words as “frail and thin,” Peter associates them with Clarissa’s character, though not describing the body, but describing her influence on him. However, as their earlier encounter shows, this association is far from true; they have an elevated bodily susceptibility to each other. Only through suppressing his feelings can Peter walk away from Clarissa to feel some semblance of his body becoming his own again. Notably, following this quote is a section break, which also signifies their direct transmission of affect coming to an end.
However, the following section still opens with Peter very much ruminating on Clarissa.I deem this as lingering affect. This is to say that intersubjective affect exists between the two characters to the extent that Peter must physically distance himself from Clarissa to halt the transmission of affect, even though this attempt is unsuccessful. This necessity for space emphasizes the characters’ bodily impact on each other when together. For Peter, submitting his mind and body to another results in losing agency and self-control. Peter and Clarissa, as a pair, resemble a mutualistic relationship and, by depicting their relationship in this way, Woolf emphasizes the interplay of each character in the other’s mind, making the audience aware that their relationship is exceptional.
The final quote I will examine from Peter’s point of view occurs when he is not close to Clarissa, but the resonant affect lingers. Because they have a past of interconnectedness, they can profoundly impact each other. He looks back on their history:
They had always this queer power of communicating without words. She knew directly he criticised her. Then she would do something quite obvious to defend herself, like this fuss with the dog—but it never took him in, he always saw through Clarissa. Not that he said anything, of course; just sat looking glum. It was the way their quarrels often began. […] That was the devilish part of her—this coldness, this woodenness, something very profound in her, which he had felt again this morning talking to her; an impenetrability. Yet Heaven knows he loved her. She had some queer power of fiddling on one’s nerves, turning one’s nerves to fiddle-strings, yes. (Woolf 43–44)
From the first line of this passage, Woolf acknowledges the pair’s exceptional relationship, of their existing in and out of each other’s minds. This selection is then bookended with a similar idea, that Clarissa had the power to impact his nerves, which directly links to their affectual relationship. First, the quote provides an example of how they influence each other, giving background to the reader of why their prior textual interaction was imbued so heavily with affect. The quote explains their past relationship, but it also is critical in setting up their current feelings for each other. After giving more description of their quarrel, the narrator again ends by emphasizing their correlated affect. The narrator focalizes through Peter when saying, “Yet Heaven knows he loved her.” This “yet” resembling a poetic volta, marking a turn in Peter’s thoughts, from reacting to his memory with malice to responding with honesty.
This quote is another marked by intersubjective affect; yet again, it lacks the presence of Clarissa to initiate physiological changes. In Brennan’s terms, the “Other” is absent, and without passing pheromones, there is no transmission of affect. However, I diverge again, as Clarissa’s company is still very much alive in Peter’s unconscious, proving the resonant impact of her existence. By resonance, I mean an instance of corresponding, sympathetic response or the power of evoking emotions, such resonance exists between the two characters, causing their relationship to be deemed exceptional. Consequently, this impacts Peter and his characterization by marking his feelings with realism. By doing so, Woolf increases sympathy for him. Still, more importantly, Woolf reinforces the affectual bond between Peter and Clarissa, which does not necessitate proximity to feel the emotions and bodily changes resulting from affect.
Conversely, I now focus on Clarissa’s perspective and how Peter influences her. Following Peter’s irruption onto the scene and into Clarissa’s thoughts, the narrator says, “She looked at Peter Walsh; her look, passing through all that time and that emotion, reached him doubtfully; settled on him tearfully; and rose and fluttered away, as a bird touches a branch and rises and flutters away. Quite simply she wiped her eyes” (Woolf 31, emphasis added). In analyzing this quote, the word “passing” primarily draws my attention as it attempts to name the unnamable transmission of affect. Also, “[Clarissa’s] look” is passing, not herself. It is as if her gaze carries the affect within it. A disparity exists between the characters’ inward thoughts and outward expressions. Much of their dialogue occurs through free indirect discourse rather than markedly separated by quotations. When Clarissa looks upon Peter, she sees his faults that led to her declining his proposal, but love and longing also fill her gaze. The urge is not lustful; instead, she wishes to emulate his positive qualities, such as feeling comfortable standing on his own.
This quote should be read as intersubjective affect because Peter’s presence significantly shifts Clarissa’s narrativization. Before his entrance, Clarissa is enveloped in her thoughts, and the narrative is aligned directly with her perspective. With Peter’s entrance, however, Clarissa is forced to outwardly express the resulting affect of her thoughts, seen here through the metaphors ascribed to her gaze. This results in the sharing of affect, though this affect is markedly different from other affectual relationships in the text. For instance, at the end of this scene, Elizabeth appears, breaking a tension that I deem an affectual pull, though the child interrupts that affect. By making Peter and Clarissa’s relationship unique, Woolf’s resulting narrative is imbued with passion and lingering feelings and, again, with resonance.
This affect influences Clarissa by drawing out the inward expression of her thoughts, in contrast to her previous lines of inward reflection. By adding a second energy to the room, Woolf forces Clarissa to give an active presence to her feelings instead of being able to maintain composure through simply internal dialogue. Peter is the energy added, which is significant because of their extraordinary relationship. Because of their past, Clarissa can feel with Peter and reflect on herself in a way she could not have with Elizabeth or Richard. In a way, Clarissa’s interaction with Peter is her first genuine outward expression of self because his affectual pull has tugged on her buried emotions and brought them to the surface.
Clarissa’s resulting affect slightly differs from Peter’s because the implied audience is granted her thoughts before their exchange. This preestablished character-audience relationship does not necessarily mean Clarissa is more sympathetic as a character; instead, the narrator sets up the audience’s alignment with her to increase her autonomy. In the conversation, Clarissa appears the more steady of the two, but this subverts the implied audience’s previous inclination that the opposite would occur. This subversion characterizes Peter immediately and gives Clarissa freedom to control her narrative, unlike Peter, who must distance himself from her to gain mental clarity.
Overall, through my research, I have found an extraordinary relationship between Clarissa and Peter, as shown through their intersubjective affect. This relationship results in an underlying current between the characters that resonates even when they are no longer in each other’s presence. This affect characterizes Clarissa and Peter and heightens their realist presence within the novel. The study of emotions and their effects on mental and physical health has gained increasing attention in modern society. This article’s focus on intersubjective affect in Mrs. Dalloway sheds light on how emotions and physiological responses can be transmitted between individuals, even unconsciously. Intersubjective affect has implications for the importance of social support and communication in maintaining mental well-being. This article’s emphasis on the impact of connections and relationships on affect highlights the potential benefits of positive social interactions, including the ability to influence and be influenced by others positively. In a world where social distancing and isolation have become increasingly prevalent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the impact of social connections on affect is more critical than ever. This article’s exploration of affectual bonds that persist despite physical proximity highlights the potential for social support to be maintained even in times of physical separation. Furthermore, my article’s focus on the distinction between affect and emotion provides valuable insight into the physiological aspects of emotions. Understanding the physical manifestations of emotions can be beneficial in developing strategies for managing emotional responses to external stimuli.
In sum, “those uncontrollable forces thrown through the air” are affect, and if affect is thrown, perhaps it can be caught. That caught affect lingers through resonance in both Peter and Clarissa.
Bibliography
Brennan, Teresa. Introduction. Cornell University Press, 2004, p. 1, https://doi.org/10.7591/j.ctt5hh05z.4.
—. Transmission in Groups. Cornell University Press, 2019, pp. 51–73, https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801471377-004.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. Edited by Anne E. Fernald, First edition., W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2021.
