Hugh Whitbred

     Ms. Dalloway has very few characters. There are main characters: Clarissa, Richard, Peter, Lucricia, Septimus, and Sally and there are more supporting characters like Elizabeth and Ms. Kilman and then there are the one off characters like the guy who observes Clarissa on the corner and gives us a general description of her. For all of these characters we spend time in their head and hear their inner thoughts and get there view on the world. One character we meet in this book that doesn't fit this central aspect of the novel is Hugh. unlike most characters we spend this much time with and hearing about we don't get to see things from his perspective.
   
     We don't even know that much about Hugh. For other characters that seem flat like Richard we get insight that makes him much more interesting and three dimensional. For Hugh all we get is this impression of an arrogant self obsessed wealthy English man. When reading I kept expecting a Richard Dalloway type moment where we see him as more than just the plain boring character portrayed by his "friends" from Bourton but we don't get that. Like all of the characters in Ms. Dalloway help enrich the world and provide depth and insight to the world that these characters inhabit. 

     I don't have a concrete answer for why Hugh's character is the way it is. I thought it might be a critique on the self involved upper class of English society and his one-dimensional character, snotty behavior and truly disgusting treatment of Sally might be jabs against the society of the time. While you could argue a lot of the characters serve as critiques against Clarissa and her life style Hugh's complete lack of redeemable traits make him stand out more than Kilman dissing Clarissa's parties and life. 

Comments

  1. Nicole SoutheySeptember 14, 2018 at 6:41 PM

    That is a very interesting and accurate observation. Hugh may just be some form of comic relief he is someone everyone can just kind of bond over hating. Hugh is also one of the things that hasn't changed since Bourton, like how Peter still plays with a pocket knife. Hugh is someone who no one liked back at Bourton and has either not changed or changed for the worse.

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  2. Geoffrey DingSeptember 14, 2018 at 8:30 PM

    Very interesting idea. It is very well a possibility that Hugh is just a character to be a character. Hugh just seems to be there, something very flat for a book that enjoy to round out characters and build onto them. Perhaps a book this size simply can't do into detail on all the characters the main characters meets or it would be on huge novel. Cool post!

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  3. 1000gamesSeptember 14, 2018 at 8:31 PM

    That is actually interesting why Wolfe would single out this character. I personally think that maybe that he is truly one dimensional like some people are in the real world. Hugh is kind of that one guy you have in your life that makes you insecure because he seems confident and well-dressed which makes you feel insecure about yourself. Wolfe might be trying to stereotype him? maybe?

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    Replies
    1. GrantSeptember 14, 2018 at 9:41 PM

      I think I see what you're saying but I think that one theme in Ms. Dalloway is that Woolf has selected one of the most unassuming people who you wouldn't glance twice at and showing us she has so much under the surface. This leads me to think that no one truly has nothing going on below the surface. But then again this might be a comment about the superficiality of high British society

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    2. 1000gamesSeptember 14, 2018 at 11:52 PM

      I see what you are saying but could it also be a possibility that he isn't a 1D character even though we don't explore deep into his subconsciousness like the other character? Wolfe might have intentionally left him blank for the reader to speculate what could potentially fill this fabulous man's mind.

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    3. AnnaSeptember 26, 2018 at 6:52 AM

      Woolf seems to be making the point that everyone is deeper beneath the surface. That there are "cave" systems to everyone. However there are some characters she completely skips over (we don't ever explore their mind). Like Hugh, the doctors are never fully explored in their own right. It's pretty unfair because Woolf really rails against these characters. Everyone around keeps saying how terrible they are but none of them can defend themselves. Similarly to what you said, it seems like these are Woolf's personal vendettas are being represented in her book so she is stereotyping her characters.

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  4. Massive PeanutbrainSeptember 15, 2018 at 8:04 AM

    I think that Hugh is very important because originally Clarissa was supposed to commit suicide in the novel. But maybe having someone that everyone disses is a reason for Clarissa to live.

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  5. Jenna LeeSeptember 15, 2018 at 10:05 AM

    I think that Hugh is an example of how you can know a person through the eyes of others. While we get very little, if any, narrative through they eyes of Hugh, we get a lot of other people's views of Hugh during their narratives. To me, this is Woolf showing the reader how there are people we know on a personal level, but there are also people we hear about from others and that shapes our opinions of them. Like you said, Hugh seems like an arrogant, rich Englishman, but perhaps if we got more time in his head, we would see something else.

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  6. Nic RamkumarSeptember 15, 2018 at 5:40 PM

    I think Hugh could be seen as a representation of what Woolf was criticizing about other authors in her essays. As you said, Hugh is probably the least interesting character in the novel, despite the reader actually knowing a fair bit about him. Hugh's dullness could be seen as a product of us never getting to go into his head and delve into his own individual complexities. Instead, all we get is other people's perceptions of him and objective things about him that don't make him any more interesting.

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  7. AlexSeptember 15, 2018 at 6:02 PM

    I doubt that Hugh is really as one-dimensional and dull is he is portrayed as being, but that he is intended to be dull, and part of how Woolf emphasizes his dullness is to never really give us a window into his thoughts. We might all think Clarissa rather dull also if we never got to see in side of her head. Part of how Woolf forms characters is by deciding what aspects of them she will allow us to see.

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  8. MartinSeptember 15, 2018 at 9:48 PM

    I think that Woolf did this on purpose as kind of a contrast and to mix it up a bit. Woolf intentionally doesn't dive into his thoughts as she didn't intend for him to be that important but still creates some character for him because that's part of Woolf's main criticism with other authors, lack of focus in characters. He's kind of there as just an example of a dull character and nothing more.

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  9. Robert NagelSeptember 21, 2018 at 6:19 PM

    Over the course of reading the book, something I found interesting was how the meaning of 'Admirable Hugh' shifted. At first, we know almost nothing of him, so we are inclined to read the appellation as being honest. Later, as we see more and more of the Bourton Gang's PoVs, 'Admirable' becomes and more inaccurate, even ironic by the end of the book, for Hugh is someone no one should seek to admire.

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