Towards the end of the novel, Clarissa is in the process of hosting her party when she learns from her guests, the Bradshaws, of a man having jumped from a window earlier that day Prior to this Clarissa had been feeling off about her party when it's described "she did think it mattered, her party, and it made her feel quite sick to know that it was all going wrong, all falling flat."(164) After hearing of Dr. Bradshaw's patient, Clarissa goes into an empty room and thinks "what business had the Bradshaws to talk of death at her party?" (179)
The next few pages show that Clarissa is really affected by the death of this stranger, who we know to be Septimus. "Always her body went through it first, when she was told, suddenly, of an accident;" (179)-- "They went on living (she would have to go back; the rooms were still crowded; people kept on coming). They (all day she had been thinking of Bourton, of Peter, of Sally), they would grow old."--Clarissa articulates the otherwise unspoken fact that this young man will stay young forever but life goes on as usual for others. (180) Clarissa and the other people around her will continue to get older but Septimus won't. In the next few sentences she then establishes that "death is defiance" and also an "attempt to communicate." She wonders if Septimus "plunged holding his treasure", which I take to mean if he killed himself while still feeling content with life.
I don't articulate well what they mean but these are a lot of thoughts coming from just a brief mention of suicide. I think Clarissa's focus on Septimus' death stems from her love of life, the reason why she values her parties. "Defiance" of living is so different from how Clarissa approaches the world around her that she tries to imagine what Septimus' thought process (communication, treasure) was that led him to his end. She then has many thoughts about her own life with the topic of death in mind.
Septimus' death being an impetus for Clarissa to examine her mortality was discussed in class, and the language such as that on page 182 fit with this idea well. "He made her feel the beauty; made her feel the fun." (182) The paragraph this line is from suggests to me that Septimus' interruption of Clarissa's focus on personal and relationship-related events makes her realize that life altogether is precious and that she should appreciate what she gets to experience, even if she has regrets and doubts. Her earlier rumination on her party being a failure isn't ever returned to, and the novel ends with Clarissa returning to the party and seeing Peter Walsh. Presumably they can now talk to each other more in depth.
It seems that you and I picked up on a similar idea. I just created a post about the relationship between Septimus and Clarissa. We both picked up on the contrast between Septimus' death and the beauty and fun that Clarissa experiences with this contrast. The connection helps us understand the reason Septimus is in this book in the first place. By adding contrast to Clarissa she becomes a more fully developed character. Woolf in the process of developing Clarissa also expresses her personal traumas in the form of Septimus' character.
ReplyDeleteIt is tantalizing to imagine how Clarissa and Peter's conversation will go, once she reappears at the end: will she return with her "game face" on, in "perfect hostess" mode? Or has this moment alone wrestling with her soul made her more inclined to go "deep" with him? The party is winding down, and it's easy to imagine Sally, Peter, and Clarissa going off to a corner by themselves and having a much more "real" conversation than has been possible up to this point. Or, given how much Clarissa loves "life" and affirms life and living at the end of her solitary scene, perhaps she'll stick with her charming surface, and engage in a more light form of banter (than would leave Peter, no doubt, discontented).
ReplyDeleteWoolf leaves the question open, which some readers find fascinating, and some find really irritating.
I think that Clarissa definitely used the instance of Septimus' suicide to evaluate her own life and its worth. She felt a connection to Septimus, even though she didn't even know of his existence/significance until he was mentioned at the party. I do think it's important to note that Clarissa's view of Septimus is totally elevated and romanticized--if we look at the scene where Septimus commits suicide, all of these notions of clutching his "treasure" and trying to leave while being content don't make any sense. Septimus himself says that he doesn't want to die, and that life was good. Even though Clarissa does use Septimus to find the strength, if you will, to go on, it's built on a false perception.
ReplyDeleteI think that Virginia Woolf uses the mention of Septimus's suicide at Clarissa's party and Clarissa's resulting thoughts as an outlet for her own thoughts about happiness and suicide. From watching the movie The Hours, we learned that Woolf committed suicide after writing Mrs. Dalloway, so perhaps as throwing parties brings Mrs. Dalloway happiness, writing bring Woof joy and is her reason to hang on to life. Woolf could also be indicating in her book that no one truly knows the struggle of someone who is suicidal and can sympathize with them and help them ( at least in the 1920s). Dr. Holmes and Bradshaw did nothing for Septimus and tormented him to the point of killing himself, which can be taken as a commentary on the rest cure and doctors which were inflicted on Woolf. Even Rezia, Septimus's wife could not help him, just as Mr. Woolf couldn't save Virginia.
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