Aging

"...she still looks all right, handsome now instead of pretty-- when will the crepe and gauntness, the shriveled lips, of her old woman's face begin to emerge?"

Just like Mrs. Dalloway, age and death are both important themes in The Hours. In looking at all three of the women portrayed by Cunningham, death is a common thread between them. With Virginia, she fears she will wither away to death living in the country, a place characterized by its natural "life" but she feels the city is far more alive. In the end, of course, Virginia gives into suicide because she feels she cannot go on ruining others' lives (Leonard) or through another war, something tied heavily to thousands of deaths. With Clarissa, death and age surround her. She is constantly thinking of how she has aged and even how her feelings have aged and changed. She fears that in aging she has lost much of who she was (a young woman with "life") and settled for a more boring existence.