Religion in Mrs. Dalloway

Clarissa in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, is a very spiritual, yet not religious woman.  Although, "not for a moment did she believe in God," Clarissa loves life and feels she is blessed (Woolf 29).  However, ever since she and her husband, Richard, began sleeping in separate beds, Clarissa finds herself feeling like a nun.  She feels as if she still has "a virginity preserved through childbirth," even though she has children and is therefore not a virgin (31).  Since Clarissa feels her marriage has always lacked passion and sex may not have lived up to her expectations, she feels as if she has retained her spiritual, not physical, virginity, and is as abstinent as a nun.  Shortly, after, she discusses her relationship with Sally Seton, for to Clarissa, only someone as passionate as Sally Seton could take away her purity.  Clarissa does not condone organized religion, especially in her own family, for she does not approve of her daughter, Elizabeth, attending church and reading prayer books with her tutor, Miss Kilman.  Clarissa even suspects that Elizabeth is only interested in religion because she is in love with Miss Kilman.  Although Clarissa herself is attracted to women, she has no pity for Elizabeth's relationship with her tutor.  As a result of both her daughter's and her own experiences, Clarissa  connects religious devotion with lesbian tendencies.