Clarissa and Septimus: Two Characters in the Same World

 Aakash Vasireddy | 20th Century Blog Post #3 | October 2nd, 2020

Today's post: Clarissa and Septimus: Two Characters in the Same World

In today's post, I want to go kind of extend my thoughts and opinions about the notebook prompt we did today and Woolf's decision of incorporating Septimus's narrative into Mrs. Dalloway which originally was without him and more based on Clarissa. This discussion that we had during class as well as just the topic in general is pretty interesting and fascinating to us as readers because it is a very important aspect of the novel. I'm willing to be a little bit messy when it comes to sharing my thoughts here because I think there are a lot of things at play that I would like to mention.

Throughout Mrs. Dalloway, we as readers see the perspectives of all these different characters that flow through Clarissa's narrative: our title character Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway as well as Peter Walsh, Sally Seton, Richard Dalloway, and more. However, one of our most important characters Septimus, along with his storyline throughout the novel, doesn't directly interact with Clarissa's plotline. However, Woolf still makes it clear to us that they still are two people living in the same world and even that they indirectly influence each other (more so Septimus influencing Clarissa near the end of the novel). There are some similarities between Clarissa and Septimus. It's easy to recollect during our summary of the book that Septimus has been scarred by all these traumatic war events rom his past and that he is deeply  affected by all these terrible things in the present which lead him up to his suicide. However, it's also easy to forget that Clarissa does also have a very traumatic experience in her past. When she was much younger, she saw, in front of her eyes, her sister get killed by a falling tree. To this day, both characters were struggling with traumatic experiences from their past which shaped their present, but in no way were those tragic events related. 

Towards the end of the novel, Clarissa overhears Sir William Bradshaw and her husband Richard Dalloway talking about Septimus. After hearing this information on Septimus, in the midst of this great party around her, we see Clarissa go into a dark room by herself, thinking about the news that she has just discovered. The only thing that Clarissa really overhears is that that someone - a man - had taken his own life and that he was in the war. However, we get this extremely powerful, dramatic, and sudden mood and tone change from Clarissa as she reflects on this information. She ends up going into this deep inner discussion about life and death too, still while the party is happening outside of the door. It doesn't necessarily make her appreciate life more, but it still brings on this notion of how fragile life and how all these great things in life can come to an end very abruptly. In the novel, Woolf writes "Oh! thought Clarissa, in the middle of my party, here's death, she thought." 

Almost immediately Woolf brings on this very intense sensation of darkness into Clarissa's narrative. I was taken aback as a reader by how real she was really picturing and imaging this suicide in her head. It's very vivid and she can see the details as it plays out and we really haven't seen this from Clarissa's narrative yet in this darker, more disrupting sense. This is really how Septimus's narrative influence Clarissa's emotions.

On a side note, I think it's interesting how Woolf chose not to have these two storylines intersect and this idea goes deeper into the fact that she originally, according to her diaries, wanted Clarissa's storyline to end with a suicide which would have totally surprised us as readers. I think that by using these two different storylines and really putting what she wants the reader to see in two separate characters who live in the same time period is really meaningful and effective. Kind of retracing ideas from my notebook prompt for today, instead of putting the life of Clarissa and her experiences thus far as a woman living in this time period with mental illness by herself, she creates another character called Septimus who is more grounded in the time period's paradigm of mental illness which was not really knowing what it was, as shown by Dr. Holmes, the general practitioner, and along those same lines, just the general feel of the time period coming off a war. 

When we were discussing, we were able to discuss Clarissa's plot and character - whether or not she was happy, what it was like being a woman in a much more prominent male-dominated society, what life choices she made - but then we were able to turn right around and discuss Septimus's plot, character and backstory - his experience with PTSD and shell-shock from the war, his experiences with the doctors, what these details and events from the story tell us about mental illness at this point. I feel like these aspects of being able to go more in-depth into two different characters rather than showing one character is much more powerful and resonating to us as readers. Having Clarissa and Septimus live in the same world and time period but have much different plots is what in my opinion makes the relationship between Clarissa's storyline and Septimus's storyline much more meaningful and also what allows Woolf to give more detailed descriptions of her experiences in her reading.

So. That's it. It's a bit all over the place so take what you want from it :)

~Aakash V.