The Hours by Michael Cunningham occurs in a timeframe of three days in total—one for each main female character. The three women, Virginia Woolf, Clarissa Vaughan, and Laura Brown, spend the day in a seemingly insignificant way in three separate storylines. Yet, their detailed inner thoughts demonstrate the utmost vitality and importance of the day’s incidents to the characters: In one day, they feel the helplessness and societal pressures of being middle-aged women, and more importantly, they seek a way out of their suffering and pursue a way to adapt to their current life.

       Thoughts and reflections of the three women make up a considerable proportion of the novel—sometimes, several pages are used to show a complex reflection. This is the case when Laura checks into a hotel room and lies down, thinking about her relationship with Kitty (a friend whom Laura kissed that morning) and the pressure to support her family as a wife and mother. The incidents that occurred that morning trouble her, and she starts considering the possibility of suicide: “It was possible to die. Laura thinks, suddenly, of how she—how anyone—can make the choice like that.” Seeing the copy of Mrs. Dalloway she brought, Laura starts comparing herself to Virginia Woolf, who sunk into a river with rocks in her pocket. And through her actions, Woolf left behind all the chores of life—similar to what Laura wants. This conflicting emotion—her wish to leave everything behind and her will to live—is highly emphasized, covering the span of four pages to show the emotions Laura encounters in her middle age. It is also a commentary more broadly on middle-aged humans, as they are often confronted with the greatest troubles and challenges in their lifespans: they need to take care of their children, support their husband/wife, and tend to their parents while struggling in their own jobs. Continuous pressures and responsibilities fall on them, yet they are to keep these troubles to themselves so that the rest of the family can lead happier lives. Such a situation can be poignantly depressing and stressful for anyone.

Adding to the pressures of societal expectations, being middle-aged also affects people mentally. In the storyline of Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa and Richard both suffer from the thought that they are no longer as young, no longer energetic, and courageous as they once were. They have been dearest friends to each other for a long time. At the end of the day, as Richard dies of AIDS, they both realize that the climax of their life was when they were young and together. This is shown through Richard’s words moments before his death: “I don’t think two people can be as happy as we’ve been.” Through Clarissa and Richard’s thoughts and reflections, Cunningham conveys to readers the message that the ambitions of youth are often discarded as more pressures and worries pile up in middle age. The thought of “I’m no longer young” often haunts people constantly as days go by. This theme is presented thoroughly and insightfully in all three storylines, yet the three women respond to this situation in starkly different ways.

       Virginia Woolf is dissatisfied with her boring life, so she decides to escape—leaving the house without informing others. If her husband had not found her near the railway stations, she would have arrived in London later that night. Eighteen years later, she makes another, more permanent, escape—the tragic and famous suicide of this literary master is perhaps her ultimate solution to her suffering from middle-aged pressures and mental weariness. On the other hand, the two original characters Cunningham creates in The Hours, Clarissa and Laura, reflect Woolf’s titular character in Mrs. Dalloway. Both Clarissa and Laura do not relinquish their lives, though they face similar depression and disappointment in their middle age. Laura Brown leaves her husband and children after an attempted suicide. This, meanwhile, caused a loss of mother and maternal love for young Richard Brown. Just as Clarissa later describes Laura: she is “the lost mother; the thwarted suicide; the woman who walked away.”—she mostly gets this impression from Richard when he describes his mother and how the loss of his mother haunts him. The reason why Laura leaves her young children and husband is simple: she feels a loss of herself after marriage. She is constrained to the boring and stressful life of supporting a family. Leaving all the stress and burdens behind is her way to freedom and self-actualization. For Clarissa, she has an epiphany after Richards’ death. Seeing Richard falling down the window makes her realize that individuals will all be slowly transported towards the end of life. We have an hour to spend for the time being, and another will follow with either more challenges or more consolations. What we need to do is to “live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep—it’s as simple and ordinary as that.” We must move on with our ordinary lives and face what comes in our way.

Yet Cunningham is not asking readers to accept their life no matter how stressful and disappointing life can be. Despite the foretold tragic deaths of Virginia Woolf and Richard Brown, along with the lifelong separation of Laura Brown from her family, Cunningham tells us to always seek hope—to look for motivation and happiness in every hour we spend using a hopeful and optimistic tone: “There’s just this for consolation, and hour here or there when our lives see, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we’ve ever imagined.”

Cunningham conveys, through Laura and Clarissa’s attitudes and resolutions, a reflection of what the majority of people hold towards life: we are always faced with another hour to spend, and we should carry on with our lives with hope, optimism, and expectations for the best.