Virginia Woolf is famous for taking apart the wide range of human emotions and experiences and displaying them in her elaborate stories. In her short story “The New Dress” she has yet again put to paper emotions and a stream of consciousness, but this time, it is done to depict what it means to be a woman in society. Through the eyes of a young woman Mabel Waring, we see what it means to be cast into the role that society has dealt for each one of us. More importantly, we get to see what it means when one does not fit into the role that we were given, or when one does not fit flawlessly.
For Mabel everyone else around her seems to be flawless, especially Clarissa Dalloway who is seen dressed to the nines in the latest fashion. In this story Mabel internalizes a woman’s place in society as being graceful, dignified, and well groomed, to be anything other than this is an absolute failure in society. Looking at this story through a feminist theory point of view we can see that Mabel seems to exhibit the signs of a patriarchal woman, which Tyson describes as a “woman who has internalized the norms and values of patriarchy”. A patriarchy being a culture that places the value of men as higher than that of woman through the use of traditional gender roles. Traditional gender roles being that the men are expected to be “strong, protective, and decisive” and women are expected to be “weak, nurturing, and submissive”.
In French Feminism, there are two terms that are used to analyze pieces of literature, one of these terms can be used to analyze Mabel in this story perfectly, that term is psychoanalytic feminism. This branch of feminism focuses primarily on the individual and their psychological reaction to being exposed to the patriarchy. One could easily see how Mabel has had a negative experience as she often is seen comparing herself to that of a fly. She states, “We are all like flies trying to crawl over the edge of the saucer”. At first one might assume that Mabel is talking about all woman when she says “we are all flies” but then she amends her statement by saying “she saw herself like that- she was a fly, but the others were dragonflies, butterflies, beautiful insects, dancing, fluttering, skimming, while she alone dragged herself up out of the saucer.”
There are many things we could take from this from a feminist point of view. One view could be that it's interesting that Mabel refers to all the other woman as insects, even though they are more beautiful that the fly she compares herself too, they are still depicted as things which are more likely to be crushed. Insects are also fragile, and extremely delicate just like the traditional gender roles for woman on display throughout the story. Another way you can look at it is that Mabel has been so damaged by society’s expectations that she is now displaying a tarnished self-esteem. She is comparing herself to a fly, an insect that is associated with many things in literature including death, flight, and wandering, none of which are very pleasant to be associated with. From the feminist view, we can see how Mabel wearing her new dress as her way of trying to fit into the mold society had created. And when she couldn’t fit into that mold she rejected herself instead of rejecting the society that made her feel that way in the first place. For instance instead of comparing herself to a fly, and stating that the dress she was wearing was “just not right” she should have rejected the society that instilled the need for her to be “right” in the first place.Considering "The New Dress" was written in 1924, this short story by Virginia Woolf is quite progressive. Although the main character, Mabel, is quite flawed from a feminist POV, her behavior shows just how important feminism was in the 1920s, and is even in present day. This short story would be a great read for anyone, but particularly those interested in the history of feminism.
