Clarissa and Septimus

  

Clarissa Dalloway is a character in the Mrs. Dalloway that struggles with her internal state of mind, while tries to present herself as someone who is happy on the outside. She is a character that really struggles to reconcile the outside world with her internal state of mind. For example, she constantly wonders about death in the novel, but tries to live so perfectly and appear happy on the outside. She throws these pretty parties as a way to affirm her life and her happiness. Clarissa also conflicts her past with her present and future. Despite constantly fearing death, she also does things like buying flowers, which seems like an affirmation of life. She constantly thinks about Peter, and her decision to marry Richard instead of Peter. She realizes that Richard gave her many things, such as the comfort of a high English society and the finances to throw parties, but also acknowledges that life with Peter had more passion. As she considers Peter’s failure to accomplish his dreams, she says:

“She would say of any one in the world now that they were this or were that. She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged. She sliced like a through everything; at the same time was outside, looking on. She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day” (200).

I think this quote embodies many of the conflicts that are later shown in the novel. Clarissa feels many things in the quote that are paradoxical, and this shows how conflicted she is with herself. She says later, “She would not say of herself, I am this, I am that.” She already finds it futile to label herself as something she doesn’t really understand. She should be happy. She is married to a wealthy man who cares about her, but is she happy? And, if living just one day is so dangerous, has she ever done it? I think that is the question that Clarissa explores throughout the novel.

Septimus, on the other hand, is somebody who has already been killed by the society he fought to defend. We get a sense that Septimus is already lost. While Clarissa still has hope, Septimus has already lost his mind, and firmly lives his life through internal thoughts. He no longer exists in the outside world, as his wife laments, “I am alone; I am alone” (214). While Clarissa throws parties to hide her inner dissatisfaction with her life, Septimus throws himself into solitude and the comforts of insanity to escape a world that Woolf portrays as insane. Septimus ultimately escapes the world by committing suicide, and this Clarissa deal with this world, which she still must live in.

Ultimately, she must find ways to reconcile herself with her past, present, future, internal consciousness, and external actions. Everyone has his own way. Woolf states this in a beautiful quote in the beginning, as Clarissa muses about the Big Ben:

“For Heaven only knows why one loves it so, how one sees it so, making it up, building it round one, tumbling it, creating it every moment afresh; but the veriest frumps, the most dejected of miseries sitting on doorsteps (drink their downfall) do the same; can’t be dealt with, she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for that very reason: they love life” (196).

Human beings create the meaning in the things they experience, and see in the world. So, in a way, happiness can be attained simply by a change of perspective. Happiness is not to be found in the society you belong in, or can be “decreed” by the Parliament. Even the “most dejected of miseries” can be happy.

Works Cited:

Woolf, Virginia, and Francine Prose. The Mrs. Dalloway Reader. Orlando: Harvest Book/Harcourt, 2004. Print.