The Death of a Poet

The film The Hours tackles the question that many readers may have after reading Mrs. Dalloway, namely “Why was Septimus included in the novel?” In the film, Virginia Woolf spends much of the movie contemplating the death of the protagonist in her newest novel. In one of the final scenes, her husband asks her “Why must someone die?,” to which she answers “Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.” When her husband asks, “Who will die?,” she responds “the poet.” This is clearly meant to reflect Woolf’s depressed and suicidal nature when she was writing Mrs. Dalloway. Through her writing, Woolf was expressing her own will to die “so that the rest of us will value life more.”

            In the film, our modern Clarissa Dalloway is planning a party at her apartment later that night. During the day she gets emotional when she begins to consider that the best days of her life are past her. However, at the climax of the film she visits her terminally ill friend Richard to take him to the party in his honor, and during her visit he commits suicide by jumping out of the window.

            Initially, Clarissa is in shock over Richard's death. But after a conversation with Richard’s mother, Clarissa finds new love for her partner and her daughter. While obviously she is still shaken from her friend’s death, in her final scene she seems to be already looking at life with a newfound appreciation. This expands upon Woolf’s reasoning concerning the death of a character. In the novel, Clarissa does not actually know Septimus (unlike the relation between her movie persona and Richard), but she hears of his death at her party and it affects her deeply. In this sense, Mrs. Dalloway is also changed by the death of “the poet” and perhaps the she, too, would go on to appreciate life more fully.

Ernest Hemingway and the President of China, and an Interesting Photograph

The President of China, Xi Jinping, told 650 business executives and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea "left a deep impression" on him. "When I visited Cuba … I visited the pub Hemingway often went to and ordered his favorite drink - rum mixed with mint and ice."

While this has little to do with The Sun Also Rises, I just saw this headline referring to Hemingway and I figured I'd share it. 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/09/23/world/asia/xi-jinping-china-us-house-of-cards.html

I also recently saw a New York Times article about a new exhibition on Hemingway. In the article there was a picture that caught my interest as perhaps a real life counterpart to the events of The Sun Also Rises.

This picture shows Hemingway (left) at a table in Pamplona during the 1925 Fiesta of San Fermin. This picture makes me wonder if the others sitting at the table with him inspired characters in the novel.  Visit the exhibition online at: http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/ernest-hemingway

The Voice of Clarissa Dalloway

Today I stumbled across the only surviving recording of Virgina Woolf's voice. When I heard it, my mind conjured up an image of Clarissa Dalloway speaking. Her accent sounds insufferably uppercrust. In fact, though what she is saying about the English language is very interesting, it's actually hard to follow because the accent is so annoyingly aristocratic. The images in this slideshow also reflect the world of Clarissa Dalloway-- several of them show Woolf at parties and social gatherings much like those detailed in Mrs. Dalloway.

For There She Was

The conclusion of Mrs. Dalloway takes place at Clarissa’s party, an inevitable climax as the book is completely set on the day of the event and largely concerned with the planning  that leads up to it.  Not long before, the story of Septimus Smith concluded tragically with his suicide, an expected resolution, though sad.  I found the ending of the story revolving around Clarissa Dalloway to end more abruptly, however, with the dramatic last line, “For there she was,” as Peter sees her in the doorway. This ending provoked in me a feeling that there could perhaps be happiness in the future for Clarissa, despite the wholly depressing subject matter of the rest of the novel.

            When he sees her in the doorway (a metaphor for a new beginning?), Peter’s internal questioning, “What is this terror? what is this ecstasy?”(p. 190) is answered in the next sentence. “It is Clarissa.” This obviously suggests that he is still in love with Clarissa, and throughout the book we have been exposed to Clarissa’s complex feelings towards Peter.

            Does this mean that a sequel to Mrs. Dalloway would consist of Peter and Clarissa eloping and living happily ever after? My answer would be an unequivocal no. Mrs. Dalloway is a novel about one day in the life of a deeply troubled woman (with a parallel story the last day in the life of a war veteran.) While the novel may end on a hopeful note, for Clarissa this is just another day, another party, with its ups and downs, drama and despair. Peter Walsh will marry the woman in India and Clarissa will continue to ponder the “what ifs” of life.  If this story were to be continued, would Clarissa eventually act upon her view that “death was defiance” (p. 180) and follow in the footsteps of Septimus?  Or, as I think, would she continue going about her frivolous party-going life, thinking of Peter Walsh, Sally Seton, Bourton, and what her life could or should have been?   And which path would be the greater tragedy?

Septimus Smith and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the Early 20th Century

             PTSD is not a new phenomenon. It has probably been around as long as there have been wars.  After World War I, those suffering from PTSD were often called "shell shocked.” One of the main characters in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Septimus Smith, is a war veteran suffering from depression and PTSD who ultimately commits suicide. He experienced the trauma of losing a good friend in the war, which drove him over the edge of sanity. This is clear each time the narrator takes on the perspective of Septimus. One such passage appears on page 15, soon after we are introduced to him during the “motorcar montage” scene: “The world wavered and quivered and threatened to burst into flames. It is I who am blocking the way, he thought. Was he not being looked at and pointed at; was he not weighted there, rooted to the pavement, for a purpose? But for what purpose?” (Woolf, 15).  This passage not only illustrates Septimus’ nihilistic world-view (“for what purpose?”) but also shows how his illness has damaged his ability to interact with the world around him in a regular way. He seems disoriented standing on the pavement among the crowd of excited car-watchers.

            Septimus’ wife, Lucrezia, has sought the help of doctors to try to alleviate her husband’s suffering (Woolf, 21).  She expresses frustration that Dr. Holmes has told her nothing is the matter with Septimus (Woolf, 22-3). PTSD or “shell-shock” was not considered to be a real condition in early 20^th-century England. Veterans suffering from mental health issues were often branded as weak and cowardly. We discussed this issue—and the injustice of it—in class.

            Woolf’s novel served as both an anti-war statement and a challenge to those who questioned the legitimacy of “shell-shock.” The character she creates in Septimus is a tortured man who is a living testament to the horrors of war and its effect on the human psyche. Unfortunately, these same issues remain with us today, and more soldiers than ever are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from PTSD. The article linked below from the National Center for Biotechnology Information discusses the evolving understanding of PTSD both in society and in the medical world. Woolf’s journey inside the mind of Septimus in a sense signals her support of the countless World War I veterans who suffered from this disease. When we see the world from Septimus’ eyes, it is clear that he is not a coward, but instead a man who has experienced a traumatic event that greatly damaged him. Woolf's novel is as pertinent today as it was in 1925 when it was written. 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1569621/