Author(s): Hani Oudah Neamah & Ayat Dhumad Najm
Paper Details: Volume 2, Issue 5
Citation: IJLSSS 2(5) 8
Page No: 66 – 79
ABSTRACT
The dissertation critically engages with Virginia Woolf’s image of postwar trauma and mental illness in her character, Septimus Warren Smith, in Mrs. Dalloway. The main theme is what the psychic destruction that war inflicts on a soldier is as portrayed through the character Septimus Warren Smith, a World War I soldier suffering from shell shock, now commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Woolf communicates the deterioration of Septimus’ mental state through innovative use of stream-of-consciousness narration and fragmented narrative structure while softly critiquing current society and medical treatments to mental illness. It was against the pains of Septimus that the novelist placed Clarissa Dalloway’s existence, hence zooming in on an investigation into the interaction between human trauma and cultural expectations, especially those around emotional suppression and constructions of masculinity. This work argues that Woolf’s treatment of mental illness both condemned the then lack of adequate treatment of psychiatric disorders in early twentieth century society and epitomizes a larger society’s silence over mental health, especially after war. This article focuses on the increasing role of the novel in the comment on the psychic effects of war and, closely related, the urgent need for sympathetic understanding of mental illness both in literature and society by close examination of Woolf’s narrative strategies and thematic concerns.
Keywords: Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, Mental health, World War I, Psychological scars, Society’s indifference, Stream-of-consciousness, Emotional isolation, Social pressure, Compassion, Mental illness, Empathy, Human suffering.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway is a seminal work of modernist literature on the human mind, time, and memory. On its face, this book of Woolf, which came right after World War I, contains her interests in how the war affected society psychologically and emotionally. London is the setting for this novel, which tells the inner lives of its two main protagonists over the course of a single day, mainly through the eyes of middle-aged society woman Clarissa Dalloway and shell-shocked World War I veteran Septimus Warren Smith. Woolf used stream-of-consciousness narration to enable the reader to get to know the inner, disjointed, and often confused musings of the characters; using the thoughts as a mirror with which to question identity, trauma, and time slipping by.
What really pervades the text is Woolf’s image of the post-war hurt, more so concerning the mental disease. Septimus is one character that manifests the psychological annihilation wrought by the war. His being an officer plus the immense misfortune his friend Evans experienced at hand-to-hand combat, left him spiritually crippled from ever re-cinching a place in society. His battle with what we currently understand to be post-traumatic force disarray PTSD reflects the better survival of some veterans from the Great War, who even came home only to face a society not prepared to get it or treat their mental wellbeing needs. Woolf puts into the employment Septimus’s account not so much to evaluate the inadequacies of early 20th-century mental wellbeing care but also to comment upon the societal pressures to live by strict standards of masculinity, productivity, and sexual abstinence. The fact that his fate is atrocious—he might well attempt to kill himself—puts greater emphasis on the disappointment that society and the therapeutic center fail to provide with serious care and support those afflicted by invisible wounds.
One of the key distinctions between Septimus and Clarissa Dalloway is that the latter is, at face value, the epitome of privilege and security. A high-born aristocrat, she devotes herself to arranging a party she will host later that evening. But beneath this mask of social triumph, Clarissa also wrestles with profound emotion and questions about existence. As the day unfolds Clarissa recalls the choices she made, including her marriage to Richard Dalloway and her brief affair with Quip Seton. This interior monologue brings out that deep-seated feeling of loneliness Clarissa cannot even claim to have reached nearly matured fears, or distracted by passing. Where Septimus’s wars are so peculiar to Clarissa’s, Woolf draws noteworthy parallels between the two characters, suggesting that injury and passionate restraint are not restricted to those overtly affected by the war. Or perhaps, they are a widespread view of modern life, cutting across sex, class, and personal history.
Woolf’s treatment of mental ailment and injury in Mrs. Dalloway is educated not as it were by the verifiable setting of World War I but too by her possess individual encounters. Woolf herself battled with mental wellbeing issues all through her life, and her insinuate understanding of mental trouble is apparent in her depiction of Septimus. His faculties of imagination, his sense of alienation from life and his inability to express his conclusion mirror Woolf’s subtle understanding of the complexity of mental illness. At second place, Woolf’s critique of the medical profession, especially via the figures of Dr Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw, demonstrates her anger at the treatment methods which existed for those, like herself, struggling with mental wellbeing disorders at the dawn of the twentieth century in Britain. The novel experts represent a system that prioritizes control and sameness to the exclusion of compassion and empathy further isolates those who suffer from mental illness.
The way that the novel structure flows easily between scene and past through the stream-of-consciousness process further solidifies Woolf’s exploration of injury as an experience that violates time and memory. Through their histories both Septimus and Clarissa are haunted, and in their musings over lost loves, lost friends, and lost opportunities it becomes clear how pain lingers, waiting to produce exhibitionist relationships. It is through Woolf’s innovative style of narrative that one gains an experience of fractured consciousness, echoing the interior turmoil of characters such as Septimus, whose pain has broken up the ability of any meaning in the world around him to cohere.
Ultimately, Mrs. Dalloway is a book that goes deep into the grave psychic consequences of trauma, especially as they affect the effects of war. Woolf’s Septimus symbolizes what untreated mental illness does in its annihilating effect and how the society fails to care for those who are affected by unconscious wounds. Meanwhile, Clarissa’s storyline reveals that trauma and emotional repression are phenomena not uniquely confined to the battlefield. Although the society continues rapidly changing during the post-war period, Woolf presents an essence of individuals from all walks of life being under the pressures brought about by the rigidity of modern presence-and its foreboding subconscious fears of death and disaster. Mrs. Dalloway is a story of conflict in which Woolf spreads to the reader a hidden struggle that lies deep beneath the mound of daily living and makes the novel an ageless reflection on the complexity of the human intellect and the long-lasting shadow of injury.
1.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) has become one of the most important figures in 20th-century innovative writing. Her experiment story techniques, including stream-of-consciousness and free indirect speech, made her works focus on questions of identity, time, memory, and even interior mental life about the characters she wrote with. Born to a very visible astute family in London, Woolf was, by nature, part of the Bloomsbury Group; this group of writers, intellectuals, and intellectuals was striving to go against conventional models in art and society. Her novels like Mrs. Dalloway, 1925, To the Beacon, 1927, and The Waves, 1931, have made her known for mental depth and for studying the prohibitive social structures, more especially regarding sex parts and mental wellbeing. Woolf battled with mental illness-which is documented in her journals and letters-and learned much from that, enabling her to write with empathy and understanding of the experiences of those suffering from mental disarranges. Her influential essay A Room of One’s Possess (1929) is still considered a canonical text in women’s studies scholarly critique, demanding women’s mental pliability and financial independence. Although she died less than ideally in 1941, Woolf’s contribution to academic studies and feminist thought has cemented her position as a pioneering figure who transformed the landscape of modern literature.
1.3 SUMMARY
Virginia Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway, takes place over the course of one day in post-World War I London, following the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a member of the wealthy upper class, as much of the novel is set in direct connection to her experiences. The novel begins with Clarissa leaving her home and reflecting on her life and choices made. As she walks through town, she reflects on her colored youth, particularly the time she spent in Bourton, with which she had been so profoundly intimate with Banter Seton. Clarissa is at war with her feelings; she is aware that she is only Mrs. Richard Dalloway, Member of Parliament. Despite her social victory, she is under a deep feeling of estrangement and starts reflecting over the meaning of her existence. She realizes that human life was but a transient phenomenon.
Often intersecting with the story of Clarissa is the war veteran, Septimus Warren Smith, who comes to bear the psychological effects of war. Tortured by memories of service in the trenches and by the dying of his friend Evans, Septimus undergoes deep psychological torment and alienation from reality. He and his wife, Rezia, walk the streets of London with him consumed by despair and a sense of estrangement. Septimus’s psychological condition is evaluated through odd visual images and an intense existential crisis emphasizing the ravaging effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. Rezia, the caretaker to Septimus, cannot understand the pain of her patient while helplessly watching him sink into hopelessness. Their consultation with Dr. Bradshaw, a notable physician, underscores the deficiencies inherent in the early 20th-century mental health system, as he prescribes a treatment plan centered on rest that prioritizes isolation over compassion.
As the day unfolds, Clarissa’s story merges slowly with that of Septimus. Through the evening spread of Clarissa’s preparation for a gathering of friends, Septimus is precipitated into profound thoughts of life and death and how he cannot return to the society in which he feels alienated. The epiphany climaxes to his final, devastating conclusion: to throw himself out of the window of their apartment because he was unable to express the complexity of his pain, recognizing that the world, which cannot understand his pain, has failed. This act of desperation will haunt the silent trauma of many veterans after the war.
Night is falling, and Clarissa’s group is in full swing, full of friends, acquaintances, and London’s nobility. Engaging with her guests-the husband, Richard, and former boyfriend, Peter Walsh-her evening meal becomes a social setting in which tensions are implicit and separations more overt. The complexities of her relationships will confuse and trouble Clarissa as she faces the choices she made and, more poignantly, the feelings with which she lives. Peter’s proximity evokes the emotions connected to Clarissa’s past, and memories of their love that was felt but not achieved come into her mind. Amidst the jests and the conversation, news of Septimus suicide struck Clarissa, jolting her to reconsider her personal thoughts on death and what constitutes living.
After the gathering, Clarissa withdraws to reflect on what had happened on that day and what indeed Septimus’ death signifies. This information makes her rethink some of the decisions she had made in life, the roles she had taken up, and the relationships she had established. Through this process of self-reflection, Clarissa connects with the emotions of emptiness and the impermanence of happiness, culminating in a moment of insight and better enlightenment of herself.
Woolf’s analysis reveals that both Septimus and Clarissa are interlinked by the mutual experience of restraint and the struggle for authenticity in a society governed according to established conventions. Mrs. Dalloway portrays both complexities in human consciousness and experience through the realities of time by weaving together the two stories of Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith, showcasing memorial elements. Woolf narrates with respect to trauma, individuality, and the extreme effects of societal aspirations impacting personal lives. It is a thoughtful reflection on the lingering echoes of trauma amidst a post-war landscape and a very general human desire for connection and understanding.
Indeed, Woolf’s extraordinary portrayal of people emerges to recreate in the reader’s mind a semblance of life with all that is mysterious and elusive hidden beneath the facade of quotidian reality. Woolf conveys the disintegration of Septimus’s mental condition through her creative application of stream-of-consciousness, a narrative method that lets readers feel what is going on in his broken thoughts, hallucinations, and feelings of alienation. That, of course, is a pretty powerful method of driving home the point that the decay of Septimus’s mind reveals social unawareness and inability to fathom the depth of suffering he is feeling.
The character very often faces rejection from psychiatrists, such as Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw, who symbolize the cold, unsympathetic attitude of mental health in post-war Britain. It is here that their failure to understand or offer effective support for Septimus forms a scathing attack on the medical milieu of that day and its paradigm of treatment regarding mental illness. The novel also engages in the critique of the social aspirations through gender and masculinity. Woolf highlights the force imposed upon men like Septimus to be within bounds of emotional constraints that worsen their psychological suffering. This is in contrast to the repressive tendencies in the emotions and self-constraints that Clarissa processes regarding herself and her social class positionality.
In discussing these two accounts with each other, Woolf draws attention to all-inclusiveness of passionate battle, regardless of sex or social status.
This paper undertakes a close reading of Woolf’s narrative techniques to demonstrate that Mrs. Dalloway is an incisive critique of post-war British society’s lack of attention towards the psychological effects of war. As the novel ends with needing consideration, understanding, and a better mind towards psychology, it thus calls for a reevaluation concerning trauma treatment and mental illness in clinical jargon and in society as well.
CHAPTER TWO
2.1 THE MAIN THEMES IN MRS. DALLOWAY BY VIRGINIA WOOLF
2.1.1 Mental Illness and Trauma
Mrs. Dalloway focuses on the psychological issue, which is PTSD. Woolf’s character, Septimus Warren Smith, analyzes the impact of the war on psychological issues, but more generally, Woolf shows a cultural way to handle psychological illness. Shell shock as an affliction on Septimus points to the extent of the war, and for how long World War I left such scars, depicting the shortcomings of the medical profession as well as a society that could not cope or empathize with mental disorders. Woolf criticizes an impersonal and oppressive handling of mental illness, mainly with a cold condescension expressed in people like Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw, who are very vivid examples of the tolerant attitudes present then.
2.1.2 Time and Memory
One of the most typical characteristics of Woolf’s novel is how she implements time. While Mrs Dalloway develops over just one day, the reader is taken to both a past and a present through which the characters tell their accounts and make comments. By being flexible on time and allowing the complete analysis by which past events go on creating contemporary identities, the characters are able to give this account. Clarissa Dalloway, for example, is obsessed with her childhood, lost loves, and choices, while Septimus is tormented by memories of the war. Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness style mirrors this fluidity as she focuses on the idea that time is subjective and can never be separated from memory and identity.
2.1.3 Identity and Self-Perception
The work basically deals with the issue of identity, or how individuals are perceived and how people conceive themselves. Clarissa Dalloway is in continuous re-evaluation with what she had chosen, even her marriage, and even as a social status icon for high society. This tension between public image, what she represents, and inside self which feels an imaginary existence without any concern related to the real will behind her wishes. Septimus, on the other hand, suffers from identity disintegration as a result of his mental condition; he feels himself completely alienated from the surroundings. The two characters experience fragmentation and alienation of feelings, so profound are these questions about how identity is formed and how it survives against social expectations and personal pain.
2.1.4 Social Class and Gender Roles
Woolf attacks the rigidity of the postwar British society’s social systems, of which assumptions about gender and socioeconomic status are prime candidates. Clarissa’s vocation as a wife and hostess is determined by the requirements of her elite social class, where looking good and being well entrenched in social practices is all-important. The novel portrays how women, especially, are limited by such roles; they cannot live their identities or engage in activities that interest them according to their wishes outside conventional norms. Clarissa’s reminiscence of her former relationship with Sally Seton depicts her desire for freedom and passion, but societal constraints have limited her to a conventional life. Woolf also criticizes the treatment of males like Septimus: “whose emotional repression and conformity to conventional norms of masculinity lead to a kind of psychiatric breakdown.”.
2.1.5 Death and Existentialism
The theme of death features the entire work, for both Clarissa and Septimus are obsessed with thoughts of mortality. Septimus, scarred by battle, sees suicide as the way out of the heavy load of existence. Suicide for him becomes a heartbreaking but necessary response to his anguish. For Clarissa, death enters her mind regularly, specifically at the approach of aging and losing youth. Her thoughts on death are replete with philosophical searching as she contemplates what she is living for, what choices she has made, and with what certainty she will die. Septimus’ final suicidal act at the end of the novel brings all of this to a head for her to question her attitudes on life and death.
2.1.6 Isolation and Communication
It centers on the theme of loneliness, both physical and emotional. Even amidst the constant din of London and their own social relationships, most of them feel strongly isolated. Clarissa is alienated from her own life and longs for stronger emotional bondings, while Septimus is entirely cut off from society because of his state of mind. Woolf also explores the reaches of language and imagination, where meaning or intent has slipped further down into obscurity, pointing even to a profounder challenge than many of the characters themselves appear powerless to explain themselves or to understand inner lives of each other. Solitude is here the defining characteristic of modern life in its disintegrated condition where genuine emotional relation is so frequently difficult to attain.
2.2 VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS. DALLOWAY
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway is an innovator’s magnum opus, unique for its imaginative story strategies, investigations into complex mental states, and its profound engagement with subjects of time, memory, injury, and personality. This novel takes place in post-World War I London and unfolds over a single day in June; it examines the lives of its characters as they explore individual and societal expectations.
At the very heart of this novel lies Clarissa Dalloway, a middle-aged woman of the upper class, preparing to host a party that evening. Clarissa’s day-long activities-small time-killer activities such as buying flowers and making party plans-all provide a backdrop from which Woolf explores her inner life. The reader can now gain access to the thoughts, memories, and reflections of Clarissa as Woolf employs her signature stream-of-consciousness strategy while she is thinking about her choices and the changing moments of time. She reflects on her marriage to Richard Dalloway and her former suitor Diminish Walsh and the first relationship she was in with Banter Seton about how those relationships have helped build her.
In contrast to Clarissa’s narrative, Woolf develops the character of Septimus Warren Smith, a World War I veteran suffering from severe shell shock, or what is today diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Septimus’s narrative runs concurrently with Clarissa’s, although the two characters never encounter one another. While the issues of Clarissa appear to be defined within social wants and her battle with growing old, Septimus speaks to an infinitely darker, more visceral battle with mental illness and psychological effects of war. The visions and hysterical thoughts almost passing and blame the huge psychic damage that war inflicts on people.
One of the central issues of the novel is the fragility of the mind and the ways in which people cope with damage. Clarissa and Septimus, despite the fact that they are extremely different in their experiences, both grapple with feelings of alienation and emotional disconnection. Clarissa, for example, experiences a strong feeling of existential emptiness, despite her apparent triumph and social status. Woolf uses the issue of passing repeatedly in the narrative of Clarissa as it relates to death, time and the tragedy of youth
Septimus, on the other hand, has been irreversibly damaged by the obscenities of war. His narrative is Woolf’s exploration of how society, above all the healing profession sees and treats mental illness. The experts in Mrs. Dalloway are Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw, who embody the condescending and dictatorial attitudes of the era. Dr. Holmes, who insists “nothing is wrong” with Septimus, and Sir William, who advocates rest cures and institutionalization, represent how society fails to get it or care for those suffering from mental trauma.
This book also remarkably highlights the vision of Woolf in regard to time. The structure of the novel, encompassing one day, highlights Woolf’s concern with the subjective experience of time. Flashbacks, memories and internal monologues seamlessly connect Woolf from past to the present, and the characters can recall pivotal instances in their lives. This alludes to pioneer themes of flow in time and the notion that the past still manages the present.
To that extent, the parallel between Clarissa and Septimus extends Woolf’s exploration of character. Despite her social triumph, Clarissa hooks with emotions of invisibility and doubts the value of her existence. A battle of Septimus against the devastating effects of repressed emotions and lack of expression of inner endurance, Woolf hooked with too, in light of her evident encounters with mental illness. Both of them are in confinement, but they react differently: whereas Septimus commits suicide under the weight of his wound, Clarissa learns to appreciate life more, though it breaks easily.
The novel’s ending at Clarissa’s party ties up with the topical issues of the novel. Clarissa hears news about Septimus’s suicide and briefly considers his decision, thinking both about its shocking nature and its nobility. This minute is a nexus of the two stories of these two narrators, which underlines Woolf’s study of this thin line between rational soundness and frenzy, between life and death. Clarissa’s last thoughts suggest a form of acceptance of the impermanence of life and her very personality, despite her incessant existential questions.
Thus, Mrs. Dalloway is a novel that digs deep into the human mind, touting a complex examination of the internal lives of her characters. Woolf’s use of stream-of-consciousness, her evaluation of social mores regarding mental illness, and her study of time and memory make the novel a point of interest in pioneering writing. Woolf forces the reader to look into the depths of human experience, “how people explore misery and memory,” and the subtle, often invisible forces that shape character and consciousness. In Clarissa and Septimus, Woolf presents two contrasting but deeply intertwined visions of the human struggle to find sense in a world shaped by war, social needs, and private loss.
2.3 ECHOES OF TRAUMA POST-WAR MENTAL ILLNESS IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S MRS. DALLOWAY
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925) probes very deep into the psychological and emotional after-effect of World War I with regard to trauma and mental illness. The central character of the novel is Septimus Warren Smith, who happens to be a war veteran with symptoms now described as post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, which describes psychic wounds brought about by the war. Woolf examines the social, emotional, and philosophical consequences of post-war trauma through his own story and tragic end.
2.3.1 Septimus Warren Smith: A Symbol of War Trauma
Septimus portrays the silent suffering of the countless warriors returning from the World War with a solid body but with shattered brains. His encounter with war, with the death of his dear friend Evans in war, empties him with guilt that crashes him, makes him emotionless, and provides visions. Woolf utilizes the fragmented state of mind of Septimus to introduce the waiting and misleading after effects of war injury, where the pain lingers long after the struggle has lost its meaning. His mental excursions, particularly of Evans, and his conspicuous deliberations almost bring to mind the frantic chaos that war has set loose in his mind.
The personal battle of falling into madness is portrayed not as an individual failure but also as part of a greater social failure to achieve it or deal with the psychological effects of war. Woolf portrays Septimus as a victim not only of war but also of a society that is unable to cope with mental illness. The condescending attitude of the restorative experts he is treated by, especially Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw, underlines the rigid and inadequate treatment of mental wellbeing issues in early 20th-century Britain. Dr. Holmes, who asks Septimus to “go out and appreciate life,” epitomizes society’s failure to identify or understand invisible wounds. At the same time, Sir William Bradshaw’s call to rest cures and belief in “extent” as a guiding principle reveals a very dehumanizing attitude toward mental illness, where emotional complexity is rendered as something that needs to be “settled” or silenced.
2.3.2 Post-War Society’s Indifference and Failure
Woolf employments Septimus’s story to evaluate the British society of the 1920s, which was profoundly formed by the injury of the Extraordinary War however regularly unwilling to go up against its enduring mental affect. In spite of the tall perceivability of physical wounds from the war, mental sicknesses like PTSD (at that point alluded to as “shell stun”) were stigmatized, misjudged, and regularly ignored by both the open and restorative educate. In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf appears how the societal weights to “move on” after the war, both for people and for the country, contribute to the confinement and lose hope experienced by traumatized veterans like Septimus.
Woolf contrasts Septimus’s mental breakdown with Clarissa Dalloway’s apparently favored life, however both characters hook with sentiments of enthusiastic segregation and fracture. The novel seems to establish that the wound of war does not exist in a vacuum but rather reverberates through the entire society. Although Septimus’s injury is more apparent, Clarissa’s have existential reflections and feelings of invisibility that suggest the psychological effects of war and social needs transcend the war front to affect even those excluded from the immediate violence of combat.
2.3.3 Woolf’s Stream of Consciousness: A Reflection of Fragmented Psyche
One of the ways Woolf effectively conveys the experience of injury is through her creative use of stream-of-consciousness narrative. She enters the heads of her characters, detailing the fractured, non-linear thoughts of people coping with complex emotional states. Septimus’s divided and frequently disorienting inward monolog mirrors the chaos of his mental state, permitting perusers to encounter his sense of distance and disengagement from reality. This method reflects Woolf’s understanding of injury as something that disturbs the ordinary stream of time and memory, taking off people caught in a circle of past repulsions that cannot effortlessly be accommodated with the present.
Through Septimus’s viewpoint, we see how injury misshapes reality, causing him to see unremarkable encounters in London—like seeing a plane in the sky—as noteworthy or prophetically catastrophic occasions. His failure to separate between the show and his recollections of the war symbolizes the persevering nature of injury, which avoids those who endure from it from completely returning to ordinary life. His awful suicide closes the conclusion of the novel is both an act of lose hope and a dismissal of the society that has fizzled him, speaking to the extreme result of untreated mental illness.
2.3.4 The Echo of Trauma in Clarissa Dalloway’s Life
In spite of the fact that Clarissa Dalloway’s encounters are unfathomably diverse from Septimus’s, Woolf draws inconspicuous parallels between them. Clarissa, as well, is frequented by contemplations of passing and the entry of time. She as often as possible reflects on her past, especially her youth and misplaced adores, as she plans for her evening party. Whereas Clarissa’s injury is not as obvious as Septimus’s, she encounters a frame of passionate suppression molded by societal desires, especially those encompassing sex parts and lesson. Clarissa’s battle to discover meaning and association in her life recommends that the injury of present-day existence—exacerbated by the war—is felt indeed by those who are distant expelled from its physical devastation.
When Clarissa learns of Septimus’s suicide at the conclusion of the novel, she feels a profound association to him, in spite of never having met him. His passing powers her to stand up to her sentiments approximately life, passing, and the esteem of human presence. In this minute, Woolf joins together the apparently dissimilar encounters of Clarissa and Septimus, emphasizing the all-inclusiveness of injury and enthusiastic enduring in the post-war world.
2.3.5 Conclusion: The Lasting Impact of War on the Human Psyche
In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf magnificently depicts the echoes of injury that resound through both people and society after the annihilation of World War I. Septimus’s story is a capable commentary on the long-lasting mental impacts of war and the disappointment of post-war society to give satisfactory care and understanding for those enduring from mental ailment. His awful destiny serves as a caution of the perils of passionate restraint and societal impassion, whereas Clarissa’s reflections on life and passing offer a more nuanced investigation of trauma’s persevering nearness in regular life. Woolf’s novel eventually calls for more prominent sympathy, mindfulness, and acknowledgment of the quiet enduring that frequently goes with injury, whether it emerges from the war zone or the complex weights of present day presence.
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
In Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf does a critical analysis of the post-war psychological illness, with Septimus Warren Smith as an especially potent icon of the psychic ruin left in the wake of World War I. Woolf’s portrayal of the fight Septimus conducts against his injury and against society’s failure to comprehend him or deal with him adequately functions as both an analysis of the therapeutic foundation and a more profound critique of societal callousness to the invisible scars of war. It is through stream-of-consciousness use that the reader can penetrate the fragmented minds of both Septimus and Clarissa Dalloway, then be able to draw subtle yet important parallels between their experiences of emotional alienation and existential introspection.
Even with the accounts of Septimus and Clarissa, Woolf focuses on the inclusiveness of passionate and mental endurance by laying down how trauma, whether it be from the war or the pressure of society, echoes over everything in life.At the end of the novel, it asks for much more sympathy and understanding over how we approach mental wellbeing, pushing society towards leniency that unlocks not unbending and reductive medications of mental sickness but rather a more compassionate approach that recognizes the complexities of the human mind. Without even judging post-war British society through Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf rather projects an ageless reflection of the dolorous impact hurt sometimes has and the need for sympathy amidst human suffering.
REFERENCES
PRIMARY SOURCE:
- Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Harcourt, 1925.
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