What Are The Two Characters In The Hours

In the novel The Hours by Michael Cunningham, the main characters of the novel are comparable in some ways. Some of them may not even bump into one another in their lives, though they can be closely related. In this novel, the characters of Laura Brown and Virginia Woolf choose different direction of life (one of them is a full-time housewife whereas another is a writer plus housewife), however, they both have struggles in it. The likenesses and differences of them relates to the theme of mortality.
Laura Brown and Virginia Woolf are two different people in different eras. Laura is a full-time housewife. She chooses to marry a guy whom she does not love. She marries him out of obligation. She gives up her own life, which may have so much fun
On the day she tries to suicide and the day she finally leaves her family, she hides her feelings so good that her family cannot even expect. On the contrary, Virginia expresses herself a lot more through talking and writing. She always says something like “It’s time for us to move back to London. Don’t you think?”(172). She misses life in London. She is having a hard time living in Richmond, but at least Leonard knows about it. Nevertheless, Virginia feels disgusted with the anguish. She is not able to go through the suicidal thoughts compared to Laura. Finally, she drowns in the
Laura and Virginia suffer from depression. Virginia even has some eating disorder. Just having a family will not be enough for Laura. She feels trapped in this American life. The feeling of imprisonment causes Laura to have some odd behaviors. She touches her lips with Kitty’s. “They touch their lips together, but do not quite kiss.”(110). Likewise, Virginia kisses her sister Vanessa. Besides, she refuses to eat. “She reminds herself: food is not sinister. Do not think of putrefaction or feces; do not think of the face in the mirror.”(85). She does not like her life in Richmond. It is just similar to Laura. They both do not like their own life. This raises the desire to escape life, which is death.
One of the significant themes in this book is mortality. In this book, the main characters are fascinated with the idea of ending their lives to escape oppressions in life. Beside Laura and Virginia, Richard tries to end his life too by falling from the window. Firstly, from the side of their likenesses, it shows that their struggles in life worsen their mental illness. Because of their failure of being a successful housewife, this gives them pressures. Under the burden of dissatisfactions with life, they come up with the thought of suicide as a possible