The False Realities of Peter Walsh
Today in class, we discussed whether or not Peter is content in his life. It is my overall belief that he is not, in fact, content with his current situation. He feels regret. His head fills with 'what if's of the past. He quickly becomes faced with the realization that he is trapped in this fourth dimension of time and there is nothing he can do to halt it. Peter copes with this by using women and romance as an outlet/distraction from his problems. Peter has managed to get it into his head that he is in love with this woman from India, Daisy. Is he though? As mentioned in class, he scarcely even thinks of her while we are present in his mind. He doesn't love her for her, but he still thinks that getting married will solve his problems. He has this strange belief that Daisy will somehow save him from his insecurities and fragilities, and yet he can't even be bothered to think of her over Clarissa.
Even within the reading, he decides to follow this random, strange woman. He does not know her, nor does he have any business in walking after her, yet he creates this fantasy all his own that she is this perfect woman for him. She provides a distraction for him. When he focuses on her (or any other woman who catches his fancy or he deems 'pretty'), he no longer has to think about his own flaws and missed comings. He fabricates this interaction with her, dreaming of a different world. This is his coping mechanism, one I suspect he's used for several years. While daydreaming is a perfectly normal thing to do, there's something about the way Peter does it. Between his thought patterns (constant criticism of himself and others) and the way his consciousness always seems to wander back to Clarissa, he is not content at this stage of his life. I do not believe marrying Clarissa would have made him content. I do not believe marrying Daisy (or any other random woman) would fix his issues either. Peter needs to work on himself. He has not yet found a purpose in his life, and that is something everyone needs to do (come to think of it, Clarissa remains devoid of one too). Peter has yet to be content with his life, but I believe that he has the capability to make the change. He just needs to snap back to reality.
I definitely agree that Peter doesn't quite seem happy in his life, and it seems as if he has some sort of void he tries to fill, and has been doing so for years. I think the fact that he is so caught up on and bothered by Clarissas rejection of him shows his insecurity in himself and his desire to seem adequate, and perhaps even live up to the incredibly high standards he sets for others. I believe this comes through particularily strongly when we see him, during the sections with his point of view, switch rapidly between self-depracation and self-praise and entitlement, showing that he himself can't quite make up his mind and may be fooling himself about his own self-image.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that Peter doesn't seem content with his life, and that he doesn't seem to be in love with Daisy either, at least not over Clarissa. I also think you make a really good point that he has to work on himself and find a purpose for his life before chasing after another woman to distract himself. Unlike Clarissa, who we see introspecting on her life and actions all the time, We don't get a lot of that from Peter. There are some comments about himself and his life, yet I think most of the time in the book he's either thinking about Clarissa, or framing thoughts about himself from her perspective - thinking about how she sees him.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I think that because Peter is so worried about not being able to live up to certain standard, he tries to create meaning for himself through romantic pursuits and sees these pursuits as the only way he can be happy. I agree that his problems will never be solved by a woman who loves him back, and that he needs to work on himself.
ReplyDeletePeter's little "stalking" escapade was definitely a coping mechanism to deal with his own feelings of insecurity. I wonder if his insecurity is also the reason why he seems to enjoy taking digs at people constantly (Clarissa, Richard Dalloway, Hugh Whitbread, Clarissa's father, and the list goes on...) Peter has something to say about everyone except himself, because he's so busy masking his lack of confidence with, as you said, false realities.
ReplyDeleteYeah, throughout the book I felt like he was in some kind of illusion because of the stuff he thought was going on but he just needed to "snap back to reality" like you said.
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