'Fears of failure, ageing and loneliness are presented as dominating women's lives.' Explore how you have far you have found this to be true in 'Mrs Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf

Throughout 'Mrs Dalloway', women are presented as being restricted by the dominating fears of failure, ageing and loneliness. The text is set in a post-war world (1923) where political turbulence has tested the roles of women and their relationships with men, causing them to question their purpose and place within a changing society.Clarissa Dalloway lived a pre-determined life; her social stance, gender and age created a path for her into motherhood and eventually into the role of the housewife. As a young woman growing up in the late 1800's, there will have been little to no lee-way surrounding her future, however, with the rise of the feminist movement and changing attitudes towards the roles of women, her future seems less tangible. Fears of failure present themselves in the overwhelming pressure she feels for her party to go well, she must play the imposed role of the 'perfect hostess', a title she feels great pressure to live up to. She also fears her loss of youth and beauty, as she becomes 'shriveled, aged and breastless'; alongside this, she is increasingly aware of her decreased sexuality, the 'narrow single bed' she sleeps in almost mocking her for being susceptible to the symptoms of time. This is made all the more poignant by the repetition of the 'leaden circles' from the chimes of Big Ben dissipating their way across London, reminding the reader of the constant passing of time, and its effects. Finally, whether or not Clarissa fears loneliness is unclear. When she sees the old woman in the window 'quite quietly going to bed alone', the reader feels that Clarissa is both fascinated and scared by this isolation at the end of life, as she has been so dependent on the judgement of others. It is almost as if she is weighing up whether loneliness will set her free from the dominating fears surrounding what a woman should be in the early 20th century, or whether she will be anchored and without purpose. Despite the uncertainty over her true attitudes towards her future isolation, it can be concluded that fears of failure, ageing and loneliness are presented as dominating women's lives in the case of Clarissa.