Scarica Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway: Exploring the Theme of Death and Suicide e più Tesine di Maturità in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Elaborato di inglese: The Death “death is an act of defiance”, this is what Virginia Woolf says in her novel “Mrs. Dalloway”. Virginia Woolf was born in London in 1882 and she was the daughter of the founder of the Dictionary of National Biography. She couldn't go to university as a woman; but, however, she received a very fine home education and was surrounded by artists and writers, and this allowed her to become an intellectual and a prolific writer herself. She used the stream of consciousness technique in her novels and she pushed it in differents directions, because Woolf's novels are like mental voyages which centre around the contrast between inner life and external reality. One of her most remarkable novel is “Mrs. Dalloway” which tells a day like any others of the protagonist's life, Clarissa Dalloway, London high society lady married to conservative Richard Dalloway. The novel begins on a day in June 1923 when, around ten in the morning, Clarissa Dalloway heads to the Bond Street market to buy flowers for the party she is planning in the evening. Along the way, Clarissa relives many memories like the encounter with her husband Richard and her rival in love, Peter Walsh. While she is busy buying flowers, Clarissa is distracted by the noise of a car that stops right in front o her, and she realizes that he's Septimus Smith, a former World War | fighter, walking with his wife Lucrezia. The gentleman, after witnessing the death of his best friend during the war, suffers from shell shock, a post stress trauma that causes frequent and indecipherable hallucinations. For this reason, he is accompanied daily by the psychologist, Dr. William Bradshaw, of which, however, he does not appreciate the assistance. On returning home, Mrs Dalloway receives a visit from Peter Walsh (the man she decided not to marry because she was less reliable than her husband) back from India, where he had moved. Even Peter, after meeting Clarissa, heading towards Regent's Park, finds Septimius and Lucrezia: the gentleman was back from a last session by the psychologist who had declared him sick and destined to be locked up in a psychiatric clinic. In the evening, Septimius Smith kills himself and, during the party organized by Clarissa Dalloway, it is the family of psychologist William Bradshaw who brings the news. Strangely, Mrs Dalloway, although she does not know Septimius, feels restless and very close to the suicide. Septimus is the character closest to the concept of "death" in this novel, he's a mental patient which, because of his participation in the war, he remains pathologically shaken. In the movement of the trees and in the singing of the birds, he sees a sort of apocalyptic message, he feels himself predestined to carry out a religious mission; he even sees himself as a Christ, a martyr, a scapegoat destined to renew society. In his tormented visions, he also feels the presence of the dead, and in particular he seems to recognize his comrades in war, first of all a certain Evans. The tragedy of Septimus is basically that of not being understood by doctors, who treat it simply as a clinical case, and It will be from this fear of Human Nature (represented by doctors) that Septimus will mature the decision to commit suicide. He is convinced that the trees have a message that he will have to communicate even to the Prime Minister, namely "No crime" (which is almost an attempt to self- absolve for not having felt pain at the death of Evans during the war). The grief at the loss of his officer only appears later, in the form of remorse, guilt, and fear of not being able to feel any more: that's why Septimus decided to marry Lucrezia, that with its cheerfulness and frivolity was a protection against its panic. The only time Septimus seems to be sane is just before his suicide, when the visions leave him and manages to laugh and joke quietly with his wife, to the point that this is convinced that it is no longer necessary to intern him in a madhouse. But when Dr Holmes arrives to pick him up, Septimus, realizing that the Human Nature was coming for revenge, decides to throw himself out of the window going to stick on the railings of the gate below. When Clarissa is announced the death of Septimus is almost shocked by this news, and she must seclude for a moment to recover: we thus understand that she feels a deep fear towards life, and therefore feels some affinity with Septimus. Even Clarissa
