St. Margaret's

"Ah, said St. Margaret's, like a hostess who comes into her drawing-room on the very stroke of the hour and finds her guest there already. I am not late. No, it is precisely half- past eleven" (Woolf, 49).

St. Margaret's is a church found next to Westminster Abbey in London, England. Virginia Woolf uses this allusion to serve two purposes. She uses personification so that it is treated more like a character and less like an object. This helps to show that the characters are obsessed with time. Secondly, this novel takes place in one day of Clarissa's life, and the constant reminders of time helps readers to remember this and to start thinking about the importance it holds to the greater meaning of this book.

Links:

http://www.touruk.co.uk/london_churches/stmargaretswestminster_church1.htm