I. Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, was published on May 14, 1925 in London, England. The novel follows Clarissa Dalloway and a variety of other characters over the course of one day in their lives in 1923 London. Woolf uses a narrative writing method. With the structure of the novel, the narrator possesses the ability to move within a character's mind and immediately compose their thoughts and emotions as events occur throughout the day. The protagonist of the novel, Clarissa, is a middle-aged woman who belongs to the upper-middle class of society and is well married to a Member of Parliament, Richard Dalloway. Clarissa's day is full of preparations for the dinner she intends to host that evening. Throughout the novel, numerous other characters such as Peter Walsh, Septimus Smith, Miss Kilman, Sally Seton, and Hugh Whitbread are introduced and characterized by their inner thoughts and dialogues. Not all characters maintain a social connection, but all remain linked through time and events each uniquely witnessed. Woolf included her purpose for writing the novel in her diary, stating that she wanted to "show the despicability of people like Ott (Wilson 10)." (Lady Ottoline Morrell, an English aristocrat and hostess, was a rival of Woolf in the Bloomsbury Group.) Many critics often compare Mrs. Dalloway to Joyce's Ulysses. The novel was read by Woolf in 1922, before starting her novel, at the request of TS Eliot. The similarity lies in Clarissa Dalloway's walk through London with Leopold Bloom's walk through Dublin. However, commonalities remain due to parallel characteristics, rather than direct influence (10). The character of Septimus Smith allowed Woolf to include mental stories... in the center of a sheet of paper... natural metaphors to symbolize a social hierarchy. Woolf challenges the accepted fact that a woman's place in society is her destiny, predetermined before her birth by the dispositions of previous generations. Even in the span of one day, Clarissa Dalloway reflects on the choices in her past and their effects on her current situation. She is forced to determine whether mundane events and decisions can dramatically affect a person's life. Through her internal conflict, she realizes that the appearances of herself and society do not always reveal the reality of the condition in question. Despite the fact that time only goes forward, we must all recognize that time is unlimited in the extent of our mind and is never limited to just the present. It is what we decide to build with our present that defines who we are in the past and who we will become in the future.