Mrs. Dalloway Allusion

"She straightens her shoulders as she stands at the corner of Eight Street and Fifth Avenue, waiting for the light. There she is, thinks Willie Bass, who passes her on some mornings . . . The light changes and he walks on." (pg. 13)

This lengthily paragraph written from the point of view of someone other than Clarissa Vaughn echoes the paragraph within Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf-- "She stiffened a little on the kerb, waiting for Durtnall's van to pass. A charming woman, Scrope Purvis thought her . . . There she perched, never seeing him, waiting to cross, very upright." (Woolf, pg. 5) Since Clarissa Vauhgn is playing the "part" of a modern Mrs. Dalloway, it is fitting that Cunningham chose to almost exactly parallel this small scene from Mrs. Dalloway in his own novel. It shows the comparisions between Clarissa Dalloway and Clarissa Vaughn and also serves as an intelligent aside to the readers familiar with Woolf's novel.