Just about a month ago, many of us celebrated Valentine's day: a consumer driven holiday where flower shops and chocolate stores get immense revenue in one day's time. And in that one day, many parties are thrown and flowers are gifted without people recognizing these objects of love as anything more than that.
However, flowers can mean so much more than that. Typically, they are portrayed as an object of femininity; no one in their right mind would give a man flowers for valentine's day, right? However, society has begun to warp the idea of this feminine object into a symbol for different emotional states. For example, in the movie The Hours, flowers are used as a motif to signify different emotional states in each of the character's stories.
For Virginia Woolf, the flowers symbolize the solemnity of death. Because Virginia's life is so loud, so full of events, she finds happiness in the quiet things in the world. With the death of the bird, she takes pleasure in putting it to rest, placing roses at its grave. Her sister, Nessa, is the only one in woman in her story who doesnt wear flowers. The white dress she wears gives Virginia something to be attracted to, something that symbolizes a blank slate that Virginia desires, a trivial life with no distress.
For Clarissa Vaughn, these flowers symbolize domesticity. She proceeds through her daily life with flowers on her table, by planning parties that require flowers as centerpieces, and by bringing flowers to Richard's apartment on a regular basis.
Finally, for Laura Brown, these flowers fill the void between her own blank emotional state and the happy appearance she must display for her husband and family. The perfection of the flowers and the cake on her table connect her perfectionist yet emotionless personality with the false beauty of her household.
However, flowers can mean so much more than that. Typically, they are portrayed as an object of femininity; no one in their right mind would give a man flowers for valentine's day, right? However, society has begun to warp the idea of this feminine object into a symbol for different emotional states. For example, in the movie The Hours, flowers are used as a motif to signify different emotional states in each of the character's stories.
For Virginia Woolf, the flowers symbolize the solemnity of death. Because Virginia's life is so loud, so full of events, she finds happiness in the quiet things in the world. With the death of the bird, she takes pleasure in putting it to rest, placing roses at its grave. Her sister, Nessa, is the only one in woman in her story who doesnt wear flowers. The white dress she wears gives Virginia something to be attracted to, something that symbolizes a blank slate that Virginia desires, a trivial life with no distress.
For Clarissa Vaughn, these flowers symbolize domesticity. She proceeds through her daily life with flowers on her table, by planning parties that require flowers as centerpieces, and by bringing flowers to Richard's apartment on a regular basis.
Finally, for Laura Brown, these flowers fill the void between her own blank emotional state and the happy appearance she must display for her husband and family. The perfection of the flowers and the cake on her table connect her perfectionist yet emotionless personality with the false beauty of her household.
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