24 pages • 48 minutes read
Virginia WoolfThe New Dress
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1927A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The New Dress
The new dress is the central symbol of Woolf’s story and represents the pressure on women of Mabel’s time and class to concentrate on their appearance. While the plot revolves around a woman who receives an invitation to and then attends a party, the focus shifts to the woman’s obsessive thoughts about her dress and whether it’s suitable or not. Throughout the story, the reader has access to Mabel’s interior monologue. In preparation for the party, she chooses a dress design from a book of her mother’s and finds herself with warm feelings for the seamstress. The reader sees Mabel’s identity as strong and centered. Upon arrival at the party, however, Mabel’s anxious thoughts center on her new dress. Not only does she incessantly wonder if the dress is up to par, but she also centers all her interactions with the other guests on the dress. Her identity is usurped by her appearance. The dress represents the social pressure on women to appear a certain way.
The Fly
The fly is a symbol that has two functions. It represents people who feel trapped in a social setting and are required to say things they don’t believe. The fly also represents the unappealing qualities that Mabel imagines embodying in distinction to the other partygoers, whom she compares to beautiful insects—though still insects, nonetheless. As she struggles to express her true thoughts to those at the party, Mabel conjures detailed images of flies that are trying to escape from saucers with their wings stuck together. She also thinks of the flies when she feels disgust for her dress. The obsessive return to this metaphor reflects Mabel’s disturbed mental state and illustrates the kind of trapped feelings that come up in social settings where one is expected to posture and deceive. While the metaphor exposes the kind of self-judgment and isolation Mabel is experiencing, it also shows her sense of creative detail and imagination.
The Saucer
While the fly metaphor stands out for its descriptive detail and grotesque imagery, the saucer in the fly metaphor should not be overlooked. When Mabel is at her most anxious, the fly is not just a symbol of her feeling of being a social pariah in a bad dress. The fly becomes, more specifically, a prisoner. The fly’s prison is a saucer of milk. The significance of this prison is twofold. First, the saucer, perhaps under a teacup, is a symbol of cultivated social activities. It represents manners, social niceties, and events such as the Dalloways’ party. The saucer also represents money, status, and domestic success. The nicer one’s tea service, the more money one has and the richer the husband the wife has procured. The social structures represented by the saucer offer a perfect setting for a struggling fly. While a saucer is meant to be used in a meal that offers sustenance, it becomes a prison for one who struggles with expression and connection, as in the case of Mabel.
Related Titles
By Virginia Woolf
