Making connections between Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus
was difficult at first but, at the end of the novel I understand the role of
Septimus in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
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He was an ordinary man who went to the war, which has
changed his life forever. He suffers from shell-shock because during the war he
witnessed his friend die. This episode from the war is coming over and over
again and torments him to the extent that he has expressed that he wanted to
kill himself. At the end of the novel he finally accomplishes his goal and
finds liberation in death. The horrors and the trauma of the war will never disturb
him anymore and he cannot longer be a survival of the war since his life will
never be the same. 
Even though I understand that Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus
represent a binary opposition, the strongest connection to my mind is presented
at the end of the novel.
Mrs. Dalloway is in her party when suddenly Lady Bradshaw says
that her husband’s patient has killed himself. From that moment Mrs. Dalloway
start to think about death and asking to herself, why does this woman start
talking about death in her party.
Finally her thought
take another road, she start thinking that she does not fell petty for the man,
she start embracing life. Septimus’ plunge into death leads to the plunge into
life of Mrs. Dalloway.
It seems that
Virginia Woolf is telling us that to embrace life, we have to be in contact to death.
Why do you think that to appreciate life, death is needed?
Sources:
-http://classiclit.about.com/od/mrsdalloway/fr/aa_mrsdalloway.htm
-http://www.uah.edu/woolf/lecture3_04.htm#Clarissa/Septimus_
-Representations of Clarissa and Septimus in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:518707/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Right, I also thought about this connection, and from my perspective they both suffer from the same illness in a way, because both are constantly traveling to their pasts, it is the ghost of their past what does not leave them in peace in their present. And I also realize about the importance of the relation between these two characters at the end of the novel in the moment in which Mrs. Dalloway reevaluates her life due to Septimus’ decision and she decides to live, so agree with you when you say that Virginia Woolf is telling us that to embrace life, we have to be in contact to death, because we only appreciate things when we face a loss. And I understood this as way of representing the options that we have in our lives, without knowing that our acts influence other people’s decisions too, but we always have to two paths and we have to decide only one.
ResponderEliminarI would like to complement you view with my vision: I believe that the role of Septimus has to do with accept your decisions in life, and more than embrace death, to embrace your decision. At the end of the novel, Mrs. Dalloway thinks on killing herself, until she accepts all her decisions in the past. Septimus' death helps Mrs. Dalloway to understand that every decision in past must be embrace in life. Septimus embraces his decisions that make him have visions of the war. He knew that if he wanted to reject what happened in the past (going to war) he was going to be forced to live watched by doctors. So, instead of denying what happened in the battlefield, he accepts his decision in order to die free instead of living as a prisoner. When Mrs. Dalloway understands this idea behind Septimus' death, she does not reject her past and feels happy.
ResponderEliminarI would like to use your phrase: Septimus’ plunge into death leads to the plunge into life of Mrs. Dalloway" but in connection with The Hours. As it was difficult for you to make a connection between Mrs Dalloway and Septimus, it was difficult for me to understand the bird's death in The hours. When I read it for the first time I understood nothing to be honest, but then I realized that the death of that bird meant the "plunge into death that leads to a plunge into life. In the case of The Hours was the sensation of seeing that we are so insignificant after death that leads to appreciate life. Finally I would like to say that I believe that this rule applies for our life in general because only when we are facing specific situations we appreciate other ones.
ResponderEliminar