Quote 1
[…] he was an adventurer, reckless, he thought, swift, daring, indeed (landed as he was last night from India) a romantic buccaneer, careless of all these damned proprieties, yellow dressing-gowns, pipes, fishing-rods, in the shop windows; and respectability and evening parties and spruce old men wearing white slips beneath their waistcoats. He was a buccaneer. (3.13)
To make himself feel better, Peter likes to think of himself as something of a wild man. Knowing that he’ll never be a member of British high society, Peter defines himself as being <em>against</em> conformity, and so thinks of himself as much more interesting than stiffs like Hugh.
Quote 2
Such are the visions which ceaselessly float up, pace beside, put their faces in front of, the actual thing; often overpowering the solitary traveller and taking away from him the sense of the earth, the wish to return, and giving him for substitute a general peace […]. (4.4)
As he drifts off on the park bench, Peter imagines himself as the "solitary traveler." He has visions, and feels a sense of loneliness and peace at the same time. Are loneliness and peace often found together in <em>Mrs Dalloway</em>?
Quote 3
Boys in uniform, carrying guns, marched with their eyes ahead of them, marched, their arms stiff, and on their faces an expression like the letters of a legend written round the base of a statue praising duty, gratitude, fidelity, love of England. (3.5)
Peter admires the soldiers walking down the street. These young men bring up feelings of pride in the British Empire even in cynical Peter.