The Hours Literary Elements

The Hours Literary Elements

Genre

Fiction

Setting and Context

Early twentieth century, London. Just after the end of WW2, California, present day New York

Narrator and Point of View

Third person narrator who alternates between the points of view of each of the three female protagonists

Tone and Mood

Depressing and foreboding

Protagonist and Antagonist

The three women are the protagonists and society is the antagonist to each of them

Major Conflict

Conflict within each of the characters specifically within Virginia as she tries to decipher her feelings about suicide

Climax

The climax of the novel is discovering that Laura is actually Richard's mother and that he is "Richie" her little boy, linking Laura and Clarissa in a way we had not expected

Foreshadowing

Richard tells Clarissa that he is not going to make it to his party which foreshadows the fact he is planning on killing himself

Understatement

Leonard calls Virginia "troubled" which understates her fragile and fluctuating emotional and mental condition

Allusions

Throughout the novel all of the characters allude to the Mrs Dalloway character in the novel of the same name

Imagery

The image of Virginia walking into the water is an image that seems Biblical like a christening in water

Paradox

At first it seems as if Richard was deceiving Clarissa by being in a marriage with her when he is gay but the paradox is that she was doing the same thing

Parallelism

There is a parallel between Clarissa Vaughn going out to get flowers for a party and the original Clarissa (Dalloway) going out to buy flowers for a party

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Siciety is used consistently throughout the novel to represent all of the individual rule makers within it whose expectations put parameters on what the women can and cannot do

Personification

The health of Richard's chair is described which gives a piece of furniture the capacity to have health and wellness as an animate object would

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