Exploring Connections Between Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith

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    Mrs. Dalloway, while primarily focusing on its namesake main character, Clarissa Dalloway, makes the seemingly questionable decision to also focus on Septimus Smith’s tragic story. The reader gets a look inside Septimus’ troubled mind, receiving a unqiue persepctive that we otherwise would be deprived of. The lives of these two individuals seem as different as they could possibly get, with Clarissa constantly hosting elaborate house parties to satisfy her hunger for social interaction (the climax of the book, in fact, takes place during one of these parties). Whereas Septimus seems to be constantly brooding about his life during the war, a shell of the person he once was. However much these two characters seem to differ from each other, I believe that Virginia Woolf very purposefully placed these two storylines so closely together, sprinkling key similarities to interweave their character arcs and generate this idea of a collective societal experience. 

    The first example of Clarissa’s and Septimus’ similarities is how deeply affected they are with the thought of death. Septimus seems to have lost a part of his soul during the war, the narrator commenting ironically that he has finally became the (shell of) man that people expected from him. The apparent driving reason for Septimus’ endless mental torment is the loss of his wartime companion and commanding officer, Evans, for which he claims to have “felt nothing” (Woolf 84). Septimus is quite literally haunted by the ghost of Evans, shown when the narrator describes Septimus’ point of view “He sang. Evans answered from behind the tree. The dead were in Thessaly, Evans sang, among the orchids” (Woolf 68). Septimus lives a very difficult and hallucinatory life, bearing the weight of his trauma from the war, and often thinks about death. Using floral imagery and song, death is depicted as peaceful and comforting. The passage is put into perspective when eventually Septimus takes his own life at the end of the novel, choosing to relent to death rather than face the torture of his out-of-touch therapists. When word of his final act reached Clarissa, she was severely affected by his choice, and retreats to a room to contemplate death and what it really means in a similar fashion to how Septimus was constantly thinking about death. Although Clarissa is initially offended that death was brought up at ther party, she begins to spiral, as if Septimus’ act had opened up something in her that she had been pushing down for years. She ultimately questions if she would be happy with her life if she were to die soon (Woolf 180).

    Another example of their similarities is how isolated these two characters feel from the people they are supposed to be closest to. They are constantly surrounded by people yet feel alone. For Clarissa, it is her inability to connect with her husband Richard. The couple never had any outstanding conflicts or hatred for each other, but the marriage itself was emotionally non-existent and lackluster, stemming from their inability to communicate. On page 31, Richard attempts to quietly move through the house as to not wake Clarissa, who is lying down. Clarissa, hearing his futile attempts, laughs pitifully (Baker). Her reaction, while harmless in itself, points at the broader issue with the marriage. The couple is kind to each other in their actions but lacks the deeper intimacy and emotional availability that defines a healthy marriage. In the same way, Septimus does not seem to connect with his wife Lucrezia until moments before his death, even speculating that their marriage was over from seeing Lucrezia without her ring (Woolf 66). It is interesting to think about what point Woolf is trying to make with the couple only growing close when death was around the corner, perhaps subconsciously appreciating each others company as time grew short. This ties back to Clarissa’s spiral about death, where she wonders if she would be happy if she died where she stood. 

    Finally, both characters struggle, or at least grapple with fitting into the expectations of society. Clarissa more successfully fits in when compared to Septimus. Clarissa chooses to marry the more conventional man (Richard) over the impulsive, unorthodox Peter Walsh. Clarissa marries Richard over Peter Walsh because for his stability and financial and social security. While one could very reasonably make the case that Clarissa makes this choice out of self-interest, making a compromise between her conflicting interests, she nevertheless conforms to the more conventional marriage. Septimus, on the other hand, was encouraged to enlist for World War I to supposedly affirm his masculinity more effectively. He instead leaves the war with extreme PTSD, developing to such a point where Lucrezia takes care of him constantly. Both characters are in unhappy positions due to societal pressures, and Virginia Woolf interconnects their fates by placing their stories so close to each other.  I think she does this to suggest that Clarissa escaped Septimus’ fate simply through her ability to adapt, finding joy in life through socialization during her house parties. During her retreat from the house party, it is explicitly highlighted how similar she is to Septimus when the author says “She felt somehow very like him–the young man who had killed himself. She felt glad that he hand done it; thrown it away.” She thinks about this point after thinking about how wonderful the night of socializing was, and she is not quite ready to return until she finishes her train of thought, showing the opposing sides of her personality (Woolf 181-182). 

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway. Annotated and with an introduction by Bonnie Kime Scott, Mariner Books, 1990.