Richard Dalloway

Character Analysis

Mr Dalloway is around in part to give Mrs Dalloway an identity. After all, without him, she's just Clarissa, and that certainly won't do. Although he's a loving father and husband, Richard has a lot of trouble expressing it: he can't even bring himself to say "I love you" to his wife (though he very much feels it). For the most part, Mr Dalloway in incredibly conservative (he works for the government, in fact) and like many of the villains of the book, he believes very strongly in the traditions of Britain. But he himself is not a villain: he appreciates his daughter, he greatly admires his wife, and he can see right through men like Hugh Whitbread.