Relationship status: It's complicated

The relationships between the characters in "The Hours" and Mrs. Dalloway are complicated but fascinating. 
(Click to enlarge and get a better picture)

The one thing that I thought the movie "The Hours" did an amazing job with was connecting all the characters to create both a new story while still alluding to the themes and ideas from Mrs. Dalloway. The story was so interesting because it took bits and pieces from many different characters and then melded them all together to make a powerful story.

 The film also did this through the way it was filmed and edited to make jumps in time between the stories. I loved the opening sequence where you see all the characters waking up and getting ready for the day with parallels such as the vases of flowers and washing their faces.

After today's fascinating discussion about characters in "The Hours" and Mrs. Dalloway and how they relate to each other, I drew up this weird diagram to illustrate the various connections going on between the film and the book. (Yeah, I'm that nerd that has to color-code everything educational.)

The circles are the four stories that are woven together by the movie "The Hours," and the main characters of these stories are placed around their respective circles (check the key for the color coding). The arrows drawn all over the diagram look messy at first glance, but they actually do mean something. The arrows connect the characters from the different stories based on how the characters are variations of the original Mrs. Dalloway characters. 

For example, the arrows coming from Virginia Woolf point to both Septimus and Clarissa Dalloway. This is because Woolf was similar to Septimus in that she had mental problems and struggled with depression--eventually taking her own life like Septimus did. She's also connected to Clarissa Dalloway because Clarissa's character's thoughts could be similar to how Woolf thinks when she isn't struggling with mental issues like Septimus. Also, Woolf's marriage with Leonard is much like Clarissa and Richard's relationship. 

I'll spare you the long-winded explanation of each and every character's connections, and instead I'll just give you explanations of the ones I find most interesting.

Laura --> Rezia 

Laura connects to Rezia because they are both trophies from the war. In both cases, their husbands married them immediately after the war, and it seems that they weren't necessarily wed out of love for each other but instead out of a desperation to return to civilian life. Septimus marries Rezia because he's trying to get back the human emotions that he lost when he got PTSD in WWI. Dan married Laura because the thought of having the perfect little wife and a perfect middle class life had haunted him all throughout the war, and Laura was the first woman to come to his mind after the war. 

Dan Brown --> Holmes

Dan is similar to Holmes in the way that they both have no clue what depression is. Both are just happily leading their lives, and if anyone is struggling with issues such as depression they don't understand it. In Mrs. Dalloway this leads to Holmes giving Septimus some bad advice on how to cope with PTSD, and in "The Hours" Dan can't even tell that his own wife is extremely depressed.

Vanessa Bell --> Holmes

Vanessa Bell is clueless about her sister's depression--like Holmes was clueless about Septimus--and is almost scared of her sister. Instead of letting Virginia talk about her problems, Vanessa ignores her and skirts around the subject of Virginia's mental issues until she is finally confronted in the dramatic kissing scene. 

Louis --> Peter

The scene between Louis and Clarissa Vaughn has many parallels to the scene in Mrs. Dalloway between Peter and Clarissa Dalloway. Louis barges in way too early for the party, and when Clarissa V. is asking about his life he says that he has found true love once more. Later, Clarissa breaks down crying once they start talking about Richard. This is very similar to the scene in Mrs. Dalloway where Peter comes in declaring his love for someone in India, and then he starts crying as Clarissa D. awkwardly sits next to him fixing her dress.