Negative Effects of Free Indirect Discourse in Mrs. Dalloway

In my last blog post, I discussed benefits to the free indirect discourse used in Mrs. Dalloway. In this post, I would like to cover a disadvantage to using this type of point of view. Switching points of view creates a difficult to follow plot. In my opinion, an author should attempt to create a reasonably straight forward plot, or at least an easy to follow plot for the intended audience. However, in Mrs. Dalloway, it is difficult to determine what is happening because of the constant shift in point of view, which creates confusion as to who is thinking and saying what, and requires close analysis in order to understand the progression of the story. For example, when Mrs. Dalloway thinks: "For Lucy had her work cut out for her. The doors would be taken off their hinges; Rumpelmayer's men were coming. And then, thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning-fresh as if issued to children on a beach" (Woolf 3), it is difficult to understand which character's thoughts are being examined. Is a third person omniscient narrator, one who can see into the minds of all, speaking?  Will the story follow Lucy through a third person perspective? It is only after close reading and recognition of the phrase, "thought Clarissa Dalloway," that the reader can fully determine whose thoughts are being examined.