Peter Walsh's Pocket Knife ( Imagery )

 Peter Walsh's Pocket Knife ( Imagery )

Mrs Dalloway, novel by Virginia Woolf published in 1995. It examines one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in this novel there were very symbols mentioned that depict the aura of that age.

Peter Walsh plays constantly with his pocket knife , and the opening-closing and fiddling with the knife suggest his flightiness and inability to make decisions. he cannot decide what he feels and does not know whether he abhors English tradition and wants to fight it, or whether he accepts English Civilization just as it is. 

The pocket knife reveals peter's defensiveness.he  is armed with the knife, in a sense, when he plays an unexpected visit to Clarissa, while she is armed with her sewing scissors. their weapons are also phallic symbols. hinting at sexuality and power Peter cannot define his own identity and his constant fidgeting with the knife suggests how comfortable he is with his masculinity. 

Characters fall into two groups, those who are armed and those who are not. Ellie Henderson, for example, is weaponless because she is poor and has not been trained for any career. her ambiguous relationship with her friend Edith also puts her at a disadvantage in society, leaving her even less able to defend herself . Septimus ,psychologically crippled by the literal weapons of  War, commits suicide by impaling himself on a metal tence, showing the danger lurking behind man-made boundaries.