on Septimus and Woolf
Septimus Warren Smith is an enigmatic character within Mrs. Dalloway that serves as the twisted funhouse mirror reflection of the modest and charming Clarissa. A portrait of the eponymous main character but placed a world apart, Septimus represents everything that Woolf views Clarissa as lacking, and frames his choices and eventual suicide as anything but ignoble. What is depicted is instead Septimus's rise above all the norms of Victorian England, beyond all convention to a point of what is to him enlightenment, and to those around him madness.
Septimus and Clarissa's narratives include countless parallels, despite them being fundamentally opposed: they are both described as having hook-like noses, they share a love for Shakespeare, and formative to the core of each are repressed homosexual experiences. In Septimus's case, it is tied in with his trauma that leaves him back in London, a shell of a man who married in a fruitless attempt at the conformity Clarissa is so skilled at. Both of them, despite loving and caring for their respective partners lack the depth of connection to truly feel as though their lives are somehow more fulfilled by holy matrimony than the purely utilitarian benefits of marriage. However, Clarissa tries her hardest to lean into this role that she has essentially forced herself into, whereas to Septimus he finds his marriage as a whole to be more of an afterthought, with the predominant reason for his initial proposal being that he felt he was losing his ability to feel emotion. To Septimus, the world of Victorian England is one without sense. His poetic sensibilities are hamstrung by oppressive conformity, and try as he might the depths of his soul are far too deep for England to cover with the lid of conformity. Clarissa, conversely, has spent her whole life clad in conformity. After Sally Seton, she no longer has any desire to break out of the societal chains that keep her grounded as Mrs. Dalloway.
This is telling of a larger point that Woolf seems to be making: it is better to find yourself internally fulfilled, even if the whole world can't understand you than it is to lose yourself to the pressures of conformity. Septimus's condition is never portrayed as particularly harmful. In fact, he seems much happier than most of the characters we see up until he met with the doctors. He is able to find meaning and wonder in phenomena that the everyday Englishman would find banal and mundane, while Mrs. Dalloway seems to struggle with that exact problem. Never once does Septimus question his actions, Woolf portrays him as an honorable and dignified character that represents what Clarissa, and by extension Victorian England as a whole is missing. Septimus's suicide is the keystone element in this argument: he chooses that instead of succumbing to the absolute hell that he sees as being Mrs. Dalloway, he can instead escape the confines of existence altogether. This last act of true agency brings a pitiful closure to the story of Mrs. Dalloway, and reflects upon his choice but realizes she will never escape conformity and returns to the safety of being the perfect hostess.
David, 9/30
I do see what you're saying here about the quasi-noble or "heroic" aspects of Woolf's depiction of Septimus's madness--and Clarissa even seems to intuit something of this when she ponders with something close to envy how he "threw it all away." You take seriously Woolf's identification of Septumus as "the artist" in her notes and manuscripts (which I mentioned in class), and in this view, his artistic sensibility puts him at odds with the "sane" conformists of England, with Clarissa as the prime example in the novel.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with romanticizing Septimus-the-artist-and-enlightened-visionary theme is that Woolf treats his pre-war artistic ambitions with palpable irony and even condescension, and she only depicts his poetry in the context of his teacher, Miss Isabel Pole, ignoring the love-letter aspects of his work (awkward!) and taking a red pen to all his mistakes. Then after the war--when, according to the standard mythology, he will emerge as a fully fledged mature man ready to transform his character-building experience into immortal art--he is utterly incapable of articulating any of his big ideas. The housekeeper finds his writings and laughs at them. Lucrezia thinks some of them are beautiful, but others are confusing and disturbing. When Sir William asks him to share his "message," Septimus can't remember what it was. He may have an artistic or visionary sensibility, and this is a very important part of how Woolf draws his character, he is also incapacitated as a practicing artist.
I sometimes think of Septimus as an early example of an "outsider artist"--someone who is removed from the mainstream artistic schools and movements, often with little or no formal training, who work on tremendous and sprawling projects, often lifelong, in complete isolation. Lucrezia has preserved his writings, which he has insisted she burn--in this way, he resembles Franz Kafka insisting that Max Brod burn HIS writings. Kafka's works seemed "crazy" to the few readers he had during his lifetime; they are now viewed as cornerstone works of modernism. Would we view Septimus's work in the same way? Woolf leaves it open--maybe.
I like the structure of this blog post; how you deconstructed the story to get to the main theme of the story, and that is about internal thoughts. Septimus and Clarissa are indeed very similar with the kinds of thoughts that they have, but Septimus, I feel, is the extreme of the two when it comes to the more depressive thoughts, ultimately leading to his suicide. After all, Septimus was a war veteran, and he was undergoing shell shock, so that must've played a factor in his mental condition being a lot worse than Clarissa's.
ReplyDeleteGreat post David! I like how you contrast Clarissa and Septimus through their willingness to conform. In this conformity aspect, I believe Sally Seton is a good example of a middle ground between Clarissa and Septimus. At Bourton, Sally lives free, unrestrained, and unbothered by the social and gender norms at the time. However, as seen at Clarissa's party, she conforms after her marriage and motherhood, but not fully. She still ocassionally banters with Peter and other friends, highlighting her outspoken nature. Thus, Sally Seton sits in this middle ground between Clarissa's conformity and Septimus's nonconformity.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Septimus' struggles with PTSD undoubtedly form a critique against English societal expectations, I would dispute your claim that Woolf portrays Septimus as happy within his unsound mental state. Even prior to his first encounters with doctors, Septimus urges Lucrezia to participate in a double suicide with him (in fact that is the primary reason they are seeing doctors). While he does express various positive, poetic sentiments, he also carries an equal number of cynical, paranoid beliefs.
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