In Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway seeks to establish a sense of identity and purpose in her world by separating herself from social structures and breaking away from social norms, in hopes to create a singular self. She seeks freedom of independent thought, and the luxury to live without verbatim imitations or repetition; however, she is engulfed by her surroundings and an ever-changing world, which forces societal roles upon her, and makes it almost impossible for her to develop an identity. Woolf’s novel exhibits the struggles of agency development in a changing and oppressive society; Clarissa is defined by a set of decaying Victorian era ideals while trying to live as a modernist. Through changing societal ideals the protagonist
