Books as Education

In class I recall talking about how Mrs. Dalloway lacked an education, and that in a way she wished that she was more like the lady that Virginia Woolf was, educated and scholarly. However, after re-reading sections of the novel, I believe that although she lacks a formal education, the knowledge that she has about life in general and the knowledge that she has gained through the reading of books has allowed her to become educated in a different sense. When the narrator says, “The candle was half burnt down and she had read deep in Baron Marbot’s Memoirs. She had read late at night of the retreat from Moscow” (Woolf 31), it becomes clear that Clarissa Dalloway is an individual who reads often and enjoys reading. I believe that if a person wishes to become educated, that they do not need to have it done in the formal sense. Rather, a person who does not have access to the tools of education, such as a school, either due to gender restrictions or economic restriction, can still become educated through self-learning. In this way, although Clarissa Dalloway did not receive any formal education, she still was able to educate herself through the books that she read and the lessons that she learned about history and herself through her readings.