Gender Roles In Michael Cunningham's Novel 'The Hours'

Cunningham 's objective in his novel The Hours is to show how relationships are not fulfilling when they are constructed from conventional gender roles. Cunningham uses three different women who have lived at different times to show their mutual dissatisfaction in their lives. Michael Cunningham successfully portrays this dissatisfaction in his novel just as Stephen Daldry successfully portrays it in his film. Daldry exemplifies these unfulfilling relationships by portraying the female characters as more confrontational and outwardly emotional than they were in the novel.

For example, the scene where Virginia buys a train ticket in hopes to escape Richmond Daldry changes the scene and portrays it quite differently than how Cunningham wrote it. In the novel when Virginia buys her train ticket and plans to flee to London, she leaves the station to take a walk around the town when she runs into Mr. Woolf. Whereas in the movie Mr.Woolf finds her at the train station. In the novel, Mr.Woolf does not know Virginia had plans to flee. However in the movie, this is the emotional climax of the film, Mr. Woolf catches her in the act. The director changing the scenes setting makes the movies scene more confrontational. However, I do not find that this drastically alters the storyline. Daldry wants the viewers to see why Virginia so desperately

In the three stories of the three parallel women, we see them all trying to take control of their own lives. All three are suffering from putting the men in their life about their own self-interest. Leonard gives Virginia his all, he lives in constant fear she will end her life. His love and the rules that are built on this love are just not enough for Virginia. Which lies parallel with all the characters, Mrs.Dalloway and Richard, and also - Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown. Daldry does an excellent job in presenting the limitations on