Clarissa chose this lifestyle, so her defense of Hugh is a defense of her own life. Clarissa later laments her limited education, a subtle acknowledgment of the accusation of brainlessness that Peter leveled at the upper class sensibilities.
The next character that is introduced also relates to the theme of failure, Septimus Warren Smith, a young English veteran suffering from the delayed effects of shell shock. Septimus" life and condition is regarded as a failure by Lucrezia, his wife, and by society that should be concealed. His threats of suicide are not "manly." She cannot reconcile his bravery in the war with his current state. .
During the time that Hugh Whitbread and Richard Dalloway have lunch with Lady Bruton is probably the part that shows the most about the theme of failure. This chapter is overloaded with bittersweet tones. It represents the inevitable failure of people to fulfill all their possibilities, but it also represents the ability of people to transcend their shortcomings as well. Richard embodies this. His journey to Clarissa, his revelation, and his epiphany about his life and the nature of human relations puts Peter and Sally's estimation of his character to shame. When Clarissa found out that Lady Bruton had not invited her to lunch, but had invited Richard, she feels that she failed her husband because she lacks something that "rippled the cold contact of man and woman, or of women together." .
In this part of the novel we also see Richard and Clairissa's failure to communicate, when it says that neither of them of said the world "love" to one another for years. This failure to communicate is not just between Clarissa and Richard, but between Septimus and Rezia, and Peter and Clarissa. Septimus, being the way he is cannot truly communicate his feelings to Lucriezia. Although she is dying for him to do so, or to show some kind of improvement from his normal self.
