First of all, I’d like to point out that my post will not refer to specifics features or characters’ performances in The Hours, but more to the effects it may have in our perspective of literature, or how we may interpret a book.

Then, I’d like you to ask yourselves: What is the point of reading a book?

Sometimes, at first, the only purpose of reading a book is to entertain ourselves because someone else recommended us to read it saying that we would like it. But the thing is that, when we finally finish reading the book, it is not rare to find ourselves thinking “I would like to be the protagonist of the story”, “I wish this book was based on my life”, or even “This book tells the exact story of my life”.

You may be wondering why I am saying this if I am supposed to say something about The Hours. Well, I have presented this question to you because, somehow, in The Hours we can find a representation of those thoughts. Do not forget the three main characters: Woolf, Dalloway and Brown (the writer, the protagonist of Woolf’s novel, and the reader respectively). Now, think of Mrs. Brown as you while reading a book, Mrs Dalloway as the protagonist of the book you are reading, and Woolf as the author of your book.  As in The hours is clearly shown a relationship between those three characters, have you ever found a similar relationship between you, the main character, and the author of your favourite book? Of course you have! And then, when you have finished your book is when you find the real purpose of literature: it is not only to entertain us, but also (and more relevant) to present us a fictitious reality that will eventually establish a notorious influence in our reality, whether it is because we feel represented by the characters in it, or because we would like to be like those characters.

Then, we find an answer to the question presented above: the point of laying on your bed reading a book for ours, is to let the author’s fictitious reality influence our own reality in such a way that we feel connected to the author, someone who we may never know.