The Symbolism of Water in "The Hours"

     One of the themes in Cunningham's The Hours is water. Water, in many forms, is presented by the main characters in the novel. Fears or visions of submersion, overpowering tears and body fluids, visions of deep-sea creatures, aquatic death, and moistened qualities all seep into the pages of this sublime novel. At the same time, it carries a negative meaning. For instance, water creates a shuddering sensation as something clearly to be avoided such as Laura Brown's reluctance to stop reading and rejoin the real world. 

     In the case of Clarissa, when we first meet her she is stepping out of her home in the morning. We watch as she "pauses at the threshold as she would at the edge of a pool, watching the turquoise water lapping at the tiles, the liqued nets of sun wavering in the blue depths" (p. 9). And, as she surveys the streets of Greenwich Village, the metaphor continues: "As if standing at the edge of a pool she delays for a moment the plunge, the quick membrane of chill, the plain shock of immersion" (p. 9). Although this may be reminiscent of a time that the reader may have hesitated to jump into a pool or river on a chilled day, Clarissa is nowhere near an actual body of water. She is simply stepping onto the streets of Manhattan. It is the very world itself which causes this chillly, wet feeling. The water metaphor here symbolizes a lack of warmth and security, an exiting of the place where one belongs. 

      For Virginia Woolf, in the prologue, water is an exit too - even an escape. She walks to a river, fills a pocket of her large coat with a heavy stone, and takes her life by walking into the river to drown. In her final moment "the current wrpas itself around her and takes her with such sudden, muscular force it feels as if a strong man has risen up from the bottom, grabbed her legs and held them to his chest. It feels personal" (p. 5). The water is personified; the water takes life, and despite the fact that she is using it as an escape from the headaches, the voices in her head, the guilt of having failed and becoming a burden to her family; despite all of these things, the water's does not symbolize escape. It symbolizes a loss of presence from the place where she belongs. 

    Cunningham majestically uses these symbolism and meanings in the novel to finally tell us that there was much less water in the life of Clarissa than there was in Virginia's.

Classmates, what do you think of this symbolism? Can you give more examples of water inside the novel? How are the meanings of these other examples? I'm looking forward to read your comments!

Source: http://www.oocities.org/writingryan/cunningham2.html