Septimus looked.as if some horror had come almost to the surface and was about to burst into flames, terrified him" (21). Septimus experiences this as Clarissa is standing at the florist's window. Similarly, in the scene where the airplane is skywriting, we are again introduced to both of their psyches through their respective streams of consciousness. .
Literary techniques are constantly used to relate Clarissa and Septimus in the novel. Big Ben is a sound image of great symbolic importance linking the activities of the two. Throughout the day, it counts out the hours, marking the progress of Clarissa and Septimus: "It was precisely twelve o'clock, twelve by Big Ben.twelve o'clock struck as Clarissa Dalloway laid her green dress on her bed, and the Warren Smiths walked down Harley Street. Twelve was their hour of their appointment" (142). Towards the evening, the strikes of Big Ben mark the climax of their journeys. Clarissa's party is about to begin as Septimus engages into a nervous breakdown and eventually commits suicide. Woolf's use of water also proves to be symbolic. Water is something that cannot be contained, therefore it suggests irregularity. Despite that Clarissa is being seen as a realist by the others, she identifies herself strongly with different images of water, and these indicate the irrationality in her characters. Standing on the street, Clarissa suddenly feels "herself being out, out, far out to the sea"(11). Sea appears as a dangerous element and the individuals are likely to be carried away by it. These irrational thoughts interplay with her physical illness, pulling her closer to the insane double of her, Septimus. He pictures himself as "a drowned sailor on a rock" (103-104) when his sense of alienation and indifference becomes all but intolerable. Before committing suicide, he allows his madness to pour like water on him by imagining "the sound of water was in the room.
The names used when referring to Clarissa Dalloway in this novel signifies different things. Mrs. Dalloway is used in the novel to signify a lady of class. Somebody that is distinguished, who has responsibilities and power. It is also used so the reader sees her as Mrs.Dalloway the other half of...
The Failures of Life in a Modern Society A common theme in many novels is for the protagonist to come to some sort of realization about life, therefore enriching and fulfilling some goal or desire in his own life. Most of the time he will learn a lesson, realize some truth, or derive some meaning ...
In Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway, she portrays numerous complicating and intriguing passages in which she presents the readers with many questions and confusing scenarios. One particular section that I feel is very problematic and controversial, but also very interesting, is the passage in w...
Upon viewing "Mrs. Dalloway" I was not impressed. The movie seemed to jump from the present to the past. The character Septimus didn't appear to have any purpose in the storyline. Clarrisa also seemed to be tightly bound by the Victorian lifestyle of the day to make her interesting to me. The plot j...
Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway-. ... And "Mrs Dalloway- is a typical work dealing with women's difference from men. (If we already might go into detailed examples, one such but not the only is Mrs Dalloway's relationship with Sally. When she recalling it, Mrs Clarissa Dalloway admits to herself: "It was not like one's feeling for a man. ... The problem in "Mrs Dalloway- is that actually it is rather hard to state to whom and what belongs the voice of the narrator. ...
1 Everyone passes strangers throughout life. Each stranger has a life completely different than the people we pass each day. But every now and again we are similar in thought. Although we know not what each thinks, our thoughts converge in similar fashions. Whether it be something in the sky...
Virginia Woolf attaches great importance to this phenomenon in her novel Mrs. Dalloway, and throws the reader into a storyline consisting of accounts and thoughts of characters. ... Being published in 1925, Virginia Woolf´s novel Mrs. ... Such a connecting device is presented when Clarissa Dalloway is at the flower shop, when suddenly a car backfires in front of the flower shop. ... So the car serves as a connection point insofar as the narrator shifts between the minds of Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus, allowing the reader an insight of how both of them experience this situation. ...
Septimus Warren Smith and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway Works Cited Dowling, David. Mrs. Dalloway: Mapping Streams of Consciousness. Boston, MA: Twayne Publishing, 1991. Gilbert, Martin. The First World War: A Complete History. New York, NY: Henry Ho...
Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" is an account of one day in the life of an upper class British woman, her husband, her daughter and her circle of friends. Woolf's narration of Clarissa Dalloway's day begins with her protagonist's preparations for a party she is holding at her house that evening, an...
