the theme of madness in mrs dalloway
Madness in Mrs Dalloway
Madness is a prevalent theme in ‘Mrs Dallway’ and is expressed primarily, and perhaps most obviously through the characters Septimus Warren Smith and Clarissa Dalloway – however the theme is also explored more subtly in more minor characters such as Lucrezia and Mrs Kilman. Virgina Woolf’s own issues inspired her greatly, as she herself suffered her first mental breakdown at the tender age of thirteen and was prescribed ‘rest cure’ – just as Septimus is; Woolf is often described as a ‘mad genius’ as she was declared mentally ill at an early stage in her life -- this intense and troubling lifestyle of erratic nervous breakdowns coupled with her substantial involvement in the Bloomsbury group in ‘the early manifestations of the Freudian psychiatry’ led to a close scrutiny and new way of looking at the issue of madness. The novel, in Virginias own words, attempts to present ‘the world seen by the sane and the insane side by side’ through the characters of the ‘sane’ protagonist Mrs Clarissa Dalloway and the ‘insane’ World War veteran Septimus Warren Smith, she intended for Clarissa to speak the sane truth and Septimus the insane truth, and indeed Septimus’s detachment enables him to judge other people more harshly than Clarissa is capable of. The world outside of Septimus is threatening, and the way Septimus sees that world offers little hope.
Septimus’s troubles stem from the war, and the memories of combat and the death of his best friend still haunt him. We can see how serious these issues are as the novel progresses, even when looking at something as ordinary as a motor car, Septimus is quick to scare – he becomes terrified at simple things because everyday life is now just as frightening as his memories of war. We see this when he notes ‘and there the motor car stood, with drawn blinds, and upon them a curious pattern like a tree’ he goes on to say that ‘this gradual drawing together of everything to one centre before his eyes, as if
Madness is a prevalent theme in ‘Mrs Dallway’ and is expressed primarily, and perhaps most obviously through the characters Septimus Warren Smith and Clarissa Dalloway – however the theme is also explored more subtly in more minor characters such as Lucrezia and Mrs Kilman. Virgina Woolf’s own issues inspired her greatly, as she herself suffered her first mental breakdown at the tender age of thirteen and was prescribed ‘rest cure’ – just as Septimus is; Woolf is often described as a ‘mad genius’ as she was declared mentally ill at an early stage in her life -- this intense and troubling lifestyle of erratic nervous breakdowns coupled with her substantial involvement in the Bloomsbury group in ‘the early manifestations of the Freudian psychiatry’ led to a close scrutiny and new way of looking at the issue of madness. The novel, in Virginias own words, attempts to present ‘the world seen by the sane and the insane side by side’ through the characters of the ‘sane’ protagonist Mrs Clarissa Dalloway and the ‘insane’ World War veteran Septimus Warren Smith, she intended for Clarissa to speak the sane truth and Septimus the insane truth, and indeed Septimus’s detachment enables him to judge other people more harshly than Clarissa is capable of. The world outside of Septimus is threatening, and the way Septimus sees that world offers little hope.
Septimus’s troubles stem from the war, and the memories of combat and the death of his best friend still haunt him. We can see how serious these issues are as the novel progresses, even when looking at something as ordinary as a motor car, Septimus is quick to scare – he becomes terrified at simple things because everyday life is now just as frightening as his memories of war. We see this when he notes ‘and there the motor car stood, with drawn blinds, and upon them a curious pattern like a tree’ he goes on to say that ‘this gradual drawing together of everything to one centre before his eyes, as if