The New Dress: Storyboard Explanation

1	In this scene, Mabel is about to receive her invitation to the Dalloway party.  The mailman addresses Mabel as “Mrs. Hubert Waring”. This was meant to show the Patriarchy in the 20th century.
2	Mabel is very surprised that she received an invitation to the party. The Dalloway’s parties are considered to be very important events and everyone wants to go there. Mabel’s surprise is supposed to indicate that she rarely receives letters like these because of her social stand in society. This scene was meant to indicate the separation of economic segregation in the 20th century.
3	For this scene, Mabel is looking for a dress that would make her seem original. Mabel wants to look dignified, womanly, and classy. She sees all these characteristics in the yellow dress, so she chooses it. Miss Millan then goes on to create it and then after the lights out, Mabel is wearing the dress and she feels wonderful. Miss Millan’s heartfelt compliments make her feel even better.  In this scene we are finally introduced to the mirror. For this part, the mirror is an amicable object. It grants Mabel happiness, content, and a new sense of confidence. Here we are introduced to how women in the 20th century valued fashion and how in this century, clothes and fashion were a very important object because what you wear would indicate who you are and what you are.
4	Mabel is nervous to go inside the party. She is having this short moment of doubt but she immediately overcomes this, remembering how wonderful she looked at Miss Millan’s drawing room. She crushes these doubts she has and she goes on to knock the door, she is then greeted by a maid, Mrs. Barnet. Mabel immediately becomes self-conscious because of Mrs. Barnet’s attitude towards her; she again starts getting nervous and flustered. This becomes worse when Mrs. Barnet hands her a mirror, claiming that she thinks that Mabel would need it. This meeting though very short is what sparks the “return” of Mabel’s insecurities and what causes her to feel insecure the whole night. The mirror is seen once again but this time it will prove to be a terrible object that would evoke many negative thoughts from Mabel. This scene is also meant to showcase how some women viewed fellow women. Economic segregation is seen once again via Mrs. Barnet and her attitude towards Mabel. Though, she lower than Mabel in terms of economic stand, her attitude towards Mabel only signifies that people like Mabel are not accepted or just not usually invited to parties like these.
5	After her encounter with Mrs. Barnet, Mabel holds on to the mirror for the rest of the night. Her insecurities becoming more and more powerful as she interacts with the people in the party. They are all pretty polite with her but for her they are all just saying lies. Her breaking point is when Charles Burt actually said out loud that she was wearing a new dress. Again, this scene showed the constant power of the mirror over Mabel. Other than that, Rose Shaw and Mabel’s interaction with her, actually one again showcases how some women viewed fellow women and how people actually always tried to be at the height of fashion. Rose Shaw also emits the qualities of “the perfect woman” back in the 20th century.  Robert Haydon and Charles Burt, on the other hand, symbolize patriarchy. Their opinions, especially Charles’, had a huge effect on Mabel. This is to show how women valued men’s opinions because of the patriarchal system in the 20th century.
6	This is an imagination. In this scene, the effects of Charles Burt’s comment are seen. Mabel is bombarded with insults and chidings by other guests in the party. She begs for them to stop and she goes on about how she didn’t plan to live a life like this. In this scene, we are given a glimpse inside Mabel’s head. This is meant to show the effect of the comments she heard back in the fifth scene.
7	This is an imagination. Mabel is talking about how planned her life to be. She wanted to explore the world and travel to places like India and wanted to dance with heroes like Sir Lawrence. But all these dreams of her were not fulfilled. Her life was bombarded with misfortune after misfortune causing her to go safe and marry Hubert with an underling’s job and to stay at home with only simple things like bread and butter. But in this moment of negativity, she manages to remember the positive moments in her life and she then starts to get excited for tomorrow to get more of those moments. She becomes excited to leave the party. This scene is to show the lack of information the people had about India at that time. India in the 20th century was fighting for its Independence and as a result there were protests, massacres, and imprisonments almost everywhere. Other than that, this scene also goes to show to state of people with lower economic stands.
8	Mabel is now saying good bye to the host, Mrs. Dalloway. Mrs. Dalloway asks her to stay but Mabel insists that she already wants to leave. This scene shows how excited Mabel is after she came up with a plan to get those “moments” again. This is Mabel slowly breaking away again from her sadness and inferiority.
9	Mabel is already outside of the house and she is laughing. She holds her mirror up to look at her face and she starts to cry while she is laughing claiming that the fly is in the saucer once again and that it seems it never left anyways. This part is where we actually get to see how mad Mabel really is, how her insecurities are eating her up inside, and how her thoughts of positivity from earlier are nothing but just a lie. Again, the mirror proves to be a powerful force of negativity and sadness. All in all, Mabel symbolizes the people of Britain in the 20th century. She symbolizes the mad, the hurt, the insecure, the poor, the economic segregation, the broken, the desire to be fashionable, the depression, and the false positivity.

Social Issues Presented:
Patriarchy
Sexism
Classism
Gender and Class Restrictions
Economic Segregation

References:

1. 20^th Century London. (n.d.). Home and family. Retrieved March 6, 2016, from http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/theme/home-family.

2. Azad, A. (2011). The new dress. Retrieved February 2, 2016, from http://iranian.com/main/2011/dec/new-dress.html.

3. BBC. (2014). Everyday life in the 20^th century. Retrieved March 6, 2016, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/20th_century/life_20th_century/revision/5/.

4. Gresham College. (2010). Britain in the 20^th century – progress and decline: the character of twentieth        century Britain. Retrieved March 6, 2016, from http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain- in-the-20th-century-progress-and-decline-the-character-of-twentieth.

5. Lambert, T. (2014). A brief history of India. Retrieved March 6, 2016, from http://www.localhistories.org/india.html.

6. Lambert, T. (2015). Daily life in Britain in the 20^th century. Retrieved March 6, 2016, from http://www.localhistories.org/20thcent.html.

7. Mantex. (2016). The new dress. Retrieved February 2, 2016, from http://www.mantex.co.uk/2013/10/13/the-new-dress/.