Literary Comparison

"Musing among the vegetables?"

A comparative analysis of Mrs. Dalloway to Shrek, by someone who has neither watched nor read either in their entirety. 

As I read Mrs. Dalloway, something began to tug at my mind. There was an odd sort of quality about Peter Walsh that reminded me of someone else, and I wracked my brains trying to pinpoint what my subconscious was trying to get through to me. When I broke his character down to its barest essentials, I realized that his angry internal monologue and borderline incel behavior (despite his many wives), were directly reminiscent of Lord Farquaad from the iconic 2001 film, Shrek. His snide judgement of those around him, as well as insistent claim upon a woman that he is repeatedly quite unpleasant to, solidified the comparison in my mind. (This is not to say that I dislike Peter, he’s quite a fun character - but for the sake of the comparison we’ll be focusing on his more negative traits and how those cause him to play a similar role in the story to Farquaad).

On pages 61 and 62 of Mrs. Dalloway, Peter claims, “ …he had a feeling that they were all gathered together in a conspiracy against him – laughing and talking – behind his back”, and “For himself, he was absurd… he made terrible scenes”. These passages show that Peter often has a negative self view of himself and may compensate for that in conversation by being judgmental and having extremely high standards for others. Similarly, Lord Farquaad also faces his insecurity of being short by filling the void with vanity and control. 

Soon after this I realized that the comparison extends to the rest of the cast of main characters. Clarissa Dalloway, of course, fills the role of Fiona, as the woman choosing between male characters in the story. For instance, she is frustrated with Peter at times yet still has some sort of emotional connection to him, just as Fiona agrees to marry Lord Farquaad in a time of emotional turmoil despite being in love with Shrek. It’s time now to introduce our main character, Shrek. The analogous character in Mrs. Dalloway would be Richard Dalloway, as he, just like Shrek, steals away a woman from a man who views himself as more deserving. In fact, the similarity is particularly striking in a passage where Peter explains how he believed that Clarissa would be corrupted, in a way, by Richard’s boring and banal nature clearly thinking that he, the more interesting one of the two of them, would be better for her. Peter even called Clarissa "the perfect hostess" as an insult to the socialite life he believed Richard would have her living. This can be directly compared to the way that Shrek, an ogre, “corrupts” Fiona to becoming like him by turning her permanently into an ogre, despite Farquaad wanting her for himself and undoubtedly believing that he could have made her better (or human).

Some more minor roles that loosely fit with other characters are Hugh Whitman, as Donkey, as he is similarly found annoying by many other characters, and generally an unbothered and happy seeming person. Sally Seaton fits with the character of the dragon, as she too is a sort of barrier holding Clarissa from her male love interests. This is because, while she doesn’t exactly guard Clarissa as the dragon does Fiona, at multiple times in the book Sally catches more of Clarissa’s attention than the men do and has Clarissa consider her feelings for Sally love. This is a distraction of sorts for Richard to overcome and secure his relationship with Clarissa, just as Shrek must think of a way around the dragon guarding Fiona's tower.

The conclusion that we can draw from this analysis is up for debate but I do think that it’s interesting that such a specific dynamic has been repeated multiple times in media through the ages, and it makes me gaze upon Mrs. Dalloway with a newfound appreciation. 

Works Cited:

Smith, Erin. Shrek knowledge, Instant messenger interview. 18 Sept. 2020.