Sally Seton from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway provides one of the best examples of a character being transformed by society. The years following World War One in England were marked by adherence to old Victorian age ideas of society. The only rebel Clarissa Dalloway encountered to this idea of life was her childhood friend Sally Seton. However, when Clarissa meets her later in life she finds her to have taken firm roots in British society.
England during this time can be characterized as a society controlled by old world ideas with a strong class system. Adherence to the refinement of society was especially important for the young aristocrat Clarissa Dalloway. All of the people surrounding Clarissa at this time seem to be very superficial in that they seem to have no sense of themselves. For the most part the people around her seem to only care for being seen in society. Clarissa has assumed her role in society as we see by the party for the aristocrats she throws at the end of the novel.
The one exception to this rule is the young Sally Seton. Clarissa instantly becomes fascinated with her after seeing her engaged in something that girls just didn’t do at that time, smoking. Sally speaks about sex and the problem with having so much money in the hands of so few at the top. She goes so far as to propose making a serious attempt to divide up the wealth of the land. The very relationship between the young Sally and Clarissa has very strong lesbian overtones.
Years later all of this has changed when Clarissa meets Sally again. Sally became a small cog in British society when the reader is introduced to her again at middle age. She has a husband and children which now occupy the time that she use to spend dreaming. The brief encounter between Sally and Clarissa implies that Sally is at the party mostly to be seen by the other guests.
Sally Seton’s experience shows how British society can tame even the most wild of children. Sally went from being a young idealist to just another housewife. She shows just how hard the pressure to conform is to resist.

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