Mrs Dalloway

            Both Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith are viewed superficially as two completely different people with no relation. However, after analyzing the behaviors and mannerisms of both, the reader discovers that both characters are more similar than they appear to be. Because both characters grow up under the same social rules, they both have very similar opinions about the society that set the guidelines for their lives. The thoughts and actions of both Septimus and Clarissa parallel each other throughout the novel, despite the fact that the two never meet. .
             Clarissa sees death through time. She is not scared of death itself but of time alone. She feels sadness all around her. She always keeps herself busy with routine and habit but yet she still remains dissatisfied. Her sense of happiness is obtained by simplicity. She can find happiness in things like throwing a party. Throwing parties is her way of escaping the sorrows of reality. "Every time she gave a party she had this feeling of being something not herself, and that everyone was unreal in one way; much more real in another ." Her parties were to unite people who would otherwise never speak to her. They were her way of finding some sort of light at the end of the long tunnel of time. .
             Septimus has gone through significant trauma throughout his life. He has seen the evils of war and has even had his best friend Evans die at war. His wife, Rezia, is the one who takes him away from that reality of war and has him focus on other things. Because of this, Septimus finds beauty in small, inert things. He sees beauty in a plane that writes in the sky. He needs to be nurtured and taken care of, but he doesn't allow that to happen because he pulls away from society when he becomes ill and has trouble dealing with the reality. Septimus feels frightened from the reality around him, " real things were too exciting. He must be cautious. He would not go mad.