Hidden Efforts

                Mrs. Dalloway’s party is a sophisticated and seemingly effortless affair. The effort is not non-existent, but rather it is hidden in the lower levels of the house. While the upper levels of the house are filled with relaxed spirits and “laughter,” the staff works frantically to prepare the numerous delicacies (Woolf 166).  The “saucepans, cullenders, frying pan,” and “pudding basins” all appear to be “on top” of them and over powering them (165). Even the upper class’s possessions, exceed the lower class in superiority.

                Woolf makes the stress and toil of the servants known. Their anxiety filled preparations and serving is directly contrasted by the relaxed atmosphere in the party room. There is not a sliver of equality present. The staff sole purpose is to give, while the partygoers sole purpose is to take. Take the time, effort, energy, and happiness. Only giving a tiny fraction of their income back. An income earned by doing equally demanding work.

                This blatant form of inequality might appear to be an atrocity that has been buried by the passing of time. However, it has not vanished. Take a look at your clothes tag. Where was it made? Mine was made in Bangladesh. A country whose economy is dependent on the clothing industry. People probably made it, or they ran the threatening machine that did. They probably don't experience the same financial ease that I and many people in my society are blessed with. They probably have to work in a dirty and possibly inhumane factory. They are probably pressured to work “faster and faster” to provide for their incredibly wealthier consumer (166). A consumer who wears the clothes without realizing the barley bearable work sewn into each stitch. In return for all their hard work to provide the upper class luxuries that are taken for granted, they receive a pay so low, it is outlawed in the countries they are selling to.

                It is hard to understand the stress the laborers  are placed under, but the scene describing the staffs experience in Mrs. Dalloway gives an idea to the amount of work that goes into our everyday pleasures. The pressure increases with each word. The work load is so big it over powers the workers. As this intense struggle is occurring, happiness is rampant on the floor above. Happiness that is dependent on another's suffering. It is so easy to forget that our ordinary luxuries are composed with a hidden effort.