In “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf, what event preoccupies Mrs. Dalloway in the opening sequence of the novel? What does this reveal about her social class and character?

Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway is a novel which conveys a range of information about its protagonist, Clarissa, while being ostensibly set over the course of only one day. Its famous opening line states that Mrs Dalloway intended "to buy the flowers herself" for a party she will be throwing that evening. This line alone gives us some indication of where in society Clarissa fits, as a woman for whom it might be remarkable for her to buy her own flowers. Clarissa is a member of London's high society—but not confidently so. She is a woman who has lived in Westminster for over twenty years, and yet, knows her neighbors only in the passing sense of Westminster inhabitants; Clarissa is a woman who was once said to eventually marry a Prime Minister and who also yearns for a lost love. As such, because these things have not happened to her, little things such as throwing a party become immensely important. Clarissa does not need to buy her own flowers, but she does need to feel as if she is justifying her own existence as part of a society which, she fears, has forgotten her.