of the novel, Mrs Dalloway has already expressed the strong necessity of solitude in one's life and the importance of privacy and independence in a marriage: “And there is a dignity in people; a solitude; even between husband and wife a gulf; and that one must respect, thought Clarissa...for one would not part with it oneself, or take it, against his will, from one's husband, without losing one's independence, one's self-respect--something, after all, priceless.” (93) For Mrs Dalloway, solitude is