Septimus Death

War is hell. There is no other human event in which there is bloodshed even comparable to that of war. Murder, mass graves, raping, razing, looting and torture are all gears in the war machine. Unfortunately, soldiers are the engine. Soldiers who have morals, families and consciences. A soldier is trained to take orders, to obey without thought. The soldiers mind and soul, on the other hand, are not so well equipped to deal with the horrors of military combat. Even after the soldier has fired his last bullet, put away his gun and returned home, he may still be at war in his head. Shell shock is the name of the disease which is known to have stricken a plethora of WWI veterans. In Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, the character Septimus suffers
80,000 young men suffered from a range of symptoms, everything from tics to neuroses to full blown schizophrenia. Certain soldiers who had stabbed their adversaries in say, the leg, would get leg cramps. Others would relive the scenes of their murders whenever they would close their eyes. Sometimes a feeling of numbness would accompany returning home from the war. Veterans would seem distant from friends, family and they sometimes came to resent the very society they had killed to protect. Others would turn the resentment inwards, and feel intense guilt for having survived the war, while so many others suffered and died.
In Mrs. Dalloway, Septimus plays the role of the misunderstood soldier, while his doctors, Holmes and Bradshaw are the ignorant professionals. Septimus is a misunderstood victim. He also suffers from vivid hallucinations and flashbacks of his friend Evans who was blown up in a battle. He feels alone and numb, thinking that human nature and society are punishing him for his crimes against humanity. When Septimus seeks help, he goes to Holmes, his general practitioner. Holmes quickly dismisses Septimus' claims and says that nothing is wrong with him. This angers Septimus, and makes him feel as though Holmes is his karma, a way for human nature to punish him. Holmes is an unaware, stereotypical general practitioner, symbolizing society's abandon towards shell shock victims. He refers Septimus to a psychologist, named Bradshaw. Bradshaw, who is slightly better than Holmes, is still a far cry from an ideal doctor. He sees Septimus' trauma as a lack of proportion. Demonstrating that era's backwards medical treatments, Bradshaw recommends separating Septimus from his wife, Lucrezia, and isolating him in a mental institution in the country side. His justification for this is that Septimus has had a mental breakdown. Septimus needs support and understanding to work through his problems, and Woolf depicts the healthcare professionals as inadequate, irresponsible and uncaring. The doctors see a man complaining, not