Richard's Not Going To Party
Richard tells Clarissa that he isn't coming to the party. This is a metaphor for his decision to kill himself and is his way of earning her about it.
Flowers Metaphor
Sally realizes that she has been leaving Larissa out a great deal and so stops to buy her flowers on the way home. This is a metaphor for the "bourgeoise@ nature of their relationship and also a metaphor for her role of the self-absorbed husband apologizing for his behavior by taking his wife flowers.
Cake Metaphor
Remaking the birthday cake is a metaphor for making different decisions and trying to alter the course of her life from Laura's perspective. The cake is Laura's so-called perfect life and her baking another is a metaphor for her desire to live her life differently.
Fictional Suicides
The suicidal feelings that Virginia gives the characters in her novel are a metaphor for her own feelings of suicide, and she hides behind the fictional characters instead of dealing with her own feelings head on.
Metaphor of the "Human Condition"
The fact that the characters all feel the same tortured feelings and all have a fascination with the possibility of suicide is a metaphor for the fact that nothing really changes within individuals even though the outside, and what society looks like, develops and changes. Although the women have difference societies to live in their internal situation does not change.
