War is
portrayed in a strange way in Mrs. Dalloway. While five years have passed since
the official endpoint of the war, the shadows of the war still loom over London
and this is especially evident through the scenes in Mrs. Dalloway. The most
obvious implication of the war is how it changed Septimus, but this is far from
the only time it is mentioned. Despite the actual portrayal of Septimus being
at war lasts one paragraph which mostly depicts his relationship with Evans,
its’ clear that in the aftermath of the war, it affects everyone in different
ways. From the very beginning of the book, Clarissa thinks about all of those
she knows who had lost family and friends in the war, and we are introduced to
Septimus quite early as well. When we first meet Septimus, he seemed to be a
character who was mentioned just to represent the many veterans who had returned
from the war but still had not managed to integrate themselves back into their
daily lives.
Clarissa seems to think about
the war in the past tense. While she acknowledges the loss that it created, she
also seems willing to dismiss it as something that happened in the past and not
something that continues to impact their daily lives. I think Septimus as a
character shows that London as a whole is still impacted every day, and despite
the high society families like the Dalloways who were relatively unaffected by
the war, there is still an undercurrent of people recovering from the greatest
conflict in human history to that point. Even Mrs. Kilman’s identity is partially
defined by the war. Her German ancestry leads her to get fired from her
original teaching job and maybe contributes to why she is poor and envious of
Clarissa.
It is interesting to note that Virginia Woolf committed suicide in 1941. That time period was filled with warfare, including the Blitz which involved German planes bombing London and other British cities for the better part of 3 years as part of WWII. While this is obviously not the only reason she decided to take her own life, I think that the war may have affected her in much the same way it affected her characters. I think we can see Virginia Woolf critiquing the idealism that many went to war for by giving us the example of Septimus. He went to war to save Shakespeare’s England and came back scarred mentally. Instead of a returning hero, he is simply a crazy citizen, and according to many in that time such as Holmes, even cowardly. One message the book seems to give is that being patriotic doesn’t necessarily mean going to war for your country, and Woolf seems to constantly criticize the notion of young men going to war for the ideals of the nation by representing the realities of what war does to different people.
It is interesting to note that Virginia Woolf committed suicide in 1941. That time period was filled with warfare, including the Blitz which involved German planes bombing London and other British cities for the better part of 3 years as part of WWII. While this is obviously not the only reason she decided to take her own life, I think that the war may have affected her in much the same way it affected her characters. I think we can see Virginia Woolf critiquing the idealism that many went to war for by giving us the example of Septimus. He went to war to save Shakespeare’s England and came back scarred mentally. Instead of a returning hero, he is simply a crazy citizen, and according to many in that time such as Holmes, even cowardly. One message the book seems to give is that being patriotic doesn’t necessarily mean going to war for your country, and Woolf seems to constantly criticize the notion of young men going to war for the ideals of the nation by representing the realities of what war does to different people.
The way Virginia Woolf writes about war in Mrs. Dalloway kind of leaves a gap of events that the reader has to fill in in their own mind. We get two snapshots of Septimus that don't really correlate: shell-shocked Septimus going into a post-traumatic trance and needing to be led by his wife after seeing the skywriting, and Septimus in the midst of warfare with Evans having an experience more like "boy scout camp" than horrifying trench warfare. It makes you wonder where the terrible wartime experiences were that sent Septimus into his disturbed post-traumatic state in the years following.
ReplyDeleteI think it's implied that it was a pretty sudden thing. During the war he had been internalizing the suffering around him unconsciously. After returning to society, he finally had time to consider the events of the last few years, including his lack of guilt after the death of his closest friend.
DeleteI find it very interesting how Woolf depicts how differently the social classes of London were affected by the war. Like you said, Clarissa seems to think that, although many were affected by the war, it is in the past. In a sense, she could be seen as progressive; trying to bring the people back together with various social gatherings (such as a party). But then you have Septimus, who has been greatly affected by the war, and can't seem (for obvious medical reasons) to move on from his devistating military experience. In a way, Septimus could be seen as being stuck in the past (which it not totally his fault). But, all in all, it comes to show that, like you said, war can affect different people in different ways and it can be very hard to move past it.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that you noticed the reoccurring theme here. It's possible that Woolf's suicide in 1941 did connect with the war. To me it seems that Woolf's experience with war may have been like Clarissa's. Perhaps, she knew some men who died during the war. But not only that, she seems to really connect with the feelings that the veterans like Septimus, had. Her description of Septimus shows me that she sometimes felt that she was out of her mind. That she didn't possess any control over her own feelings. In this way she is able to empathize with these veterans and may be the reason the looming of the war affects her so much.
ReplyDeleteSuicide never has a single explanation, and Woolf's case is as complicated as they come. But from what I've read it does seem clear that the looming war in Europe contributed powerfully to her overwhelming sense of despair. She was familiar with the symptoms of her breakdown, and she felt them coming on again and felt that she couldn't endure this again. But the sense that the world was becoming an increasingly hostile and out-of-control, brutal place did, I think, contribute to her sense of futility.
DeleteBut before her death Woolf did manage to write eloquently on behalf of pacifism and against the war in a book-length essay called "Three Guineas," where she associates war and militaristic impulses with masculine cultural values--a pacifist-feminist argument that continues to be relevant today. A big part of her despair had to do with the feeling that she was losing her ability to write due to her psychological condition, to respond to the brutality of the world with intelligence and critical insight.
I find myself struggling to understand the attitude towards veterans that the general population of Britain had around the time of World War I. They seem to not understand that this first World War was full of much more traumatic experiences than previous wars, and thus they have a difficult time recognizing the effects that the war had on its survivors. People like Clarissa, who were not directly impacted by the events of the war, act like it wasn't a big deal, and fail to realize that the aftermath of this war still has an impact in other peoples lives.
ReplyDeletePatriotism in Mrs. Dalloway isn't that prevalent, but when it comes up, I almost feel like Woolf is poking a bit of fun at the pomp of the British government with Hugh, but other than that, empire is portrayed in a rather positive light through Peter, who touts the virtues of the British India he was able to be a part of.
ReplyDelete