First reading (10 minutes)
The teacher reads aloud the passage. During this first reading the students reflect on these questions:

1. What happens?
2. Who are the characters involved?
3. How does the heroine seem?
4. Would you define her a thoughtful woman or not?

Second reading and text analysis (30 minutes)
The teacher asks the students to read the text aloud. Every student reads one or two sentences.
The analysis is carried out in pairs. The class looks for some specific information through the following guided reading:

1. According to Clarissa, what was Peter really interested in?
   
2. In Peter’s view, who was the man that Clarissa had to marry? How did Peter define Clarissa?
   
3. Clarissa reflects on marriage and cannot avoid comparing her husband with Peter. Find reference in the text.
   
4. “Where was he this morning, for instance? Some committee, she never asked what”. Through these sentences can you imagine what type of job Clarissa’s husband does? Does Clarissa seem interested in Richard’s job?
   
   
5. Focus on Clarissa and Peter. Look for the adjectives and the nouns through which the two characters are defined and their reactions are shown. Fill in the following chart with the missing information.
   
   

   CLARISSA	PETER

   
   From whose point of view are these descriptions provided?
   
   
6. At some point Clarissa mentions “the grief”, “the anguish” and then “the horror” in a sort of climax.
   What are these feelings related to? Are Clarissa’s thoughts in contrast with the breaking of her past love affair? Has she really forgotten her past love?
   
   
7. What type of narrator can you find in this passage? What kind of mode of thought presentation is used by Virginia Woolf? Say what this technique reveals about the character’s relationship with Peter in youth.

Exercises check (25 minutes)
The exercises are checked orally.

Contextualization and discussion (35 minutes)
The teacher explains the plot and underlines the importance of the world of feeling and memory. The text focuses on Clarissa, a London society lady of fifty-one, the wife of a politician, Richard, who holds extremely conventional views on politics and women’s rights.

Clarissa is characterized by opposing feelings: her need for freedom and independence and her class consciousness. Her life appears an effort towards order and peace. In fact, her home is perfect and her social position glitters. This is an attempt to overcome her weakness and sense of failure.

She imposes severe restrictions on her spontaneous feelings and she is conscious of her inability to abandon herself. She has refused her genuine love for Peter Walsh, a man who would have forced her to share everything. However, she shows contradictory feelings. At fifty-one she does not seem completely satisfied with her choice.

All these aspects lead to a discussion with the students about the position of women in British society after the first World War. The teacher could widen the perspective by focussing on the historical background: what about women’s demands for emancipation and the right to vote? (the class could be asked to answer this question).

Production (homework)
Composition: Compare the two heroines and their attitude towards love. (350 words)