Happily ever after?

         At one point in one of our class discussions, the question of whether the ending of Mrs. Dalloway was a happy or a sad one was raised. There were several different answers given to this questions, and off of it branched other topics, as often happens in class discussions. Some people said that it was a happy ending since Clarissa shared a connection with Septimus and didn't end up killing herself. I don't recall if anyone firmly took the sad-ending stance, but it is likely that someone did. 

          I don't believe that it is applicable to put a happy or sad label on the ending of Mrs. Dalloway. It is true that Woolf avoids a tragic ending by having Clarissa return to the party instead of killing herself, but can this really count as happy? In my opinion, it doesn't. Just because she doesn't kill herself, doesn't mean that she's happy putting on her Mrs. Dalloway face and going back into the fray. Speaking in terms of a more longterm standpoint, we don't necessarily know that Clarissa is totally happy with her marriage to Richard, either. We don't know what is going to happen to Clarissa in the future. She might spend the rest of her life contemplating what things would've been like if she'd married Peter, being totally dissatisfied with her marriage. She might even do something as extreme as have a break down/go crazy and kill herself later on. She does seem to have some similarities with Septimus, and as far-fetched as it might seem, it is a very possible future for Clarissa. 

          We can safely conclude that the ending of Mrs. Dalloway isn't necessarily tragic, but we can't say that it's good because of it's vague nature and lack of resolution. The only thing we can sort of consider a resolution is Clarissa not killing herself, but because of the event itself as well as the context, we can by no means insert that this is a happy ending. We don't know what Clarissa has in store for her beyond this one day in her life where she throws a party.