In Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf certainly “gets the utmost out” of the one day in which the novel is set. She has filled her book that is nominally about a woman getting ready for a party during a single day in London with experiences, emotions, and expression with such breadth and depth. In a span of a day in Clarissa Dalloway’s life, the story has touched upon life, death, love, marriage, parenthood, the present and the past, memory, London, war, reason and unreason, loyalty, medicine, social structure, friendship, and human nature.(Goldman) Though all of these topics are essential and connect to Virginia Woolf in a personal way, perhaps at the heart of Mrs. Dalloway is the process of Woolf’s quest to uncover the reason behind her own manic-depressive illness, her analysis and exploration of the prevalent mental health issues in the British society after World War 1 that was given little attention, and her criticism towards the medical system that was incapable of providing appropriate care and treatment for psychiatric patients.
Born in a privileged British household in 1882, Virginia Woolf was well-educated in Greek, Latin, German and was immersed in books in her family Victorian library. Life for Woolf was ordinary and peaceful until her teenage years when she was sexually abused by her half-brothers. At the age of 13, the death of her mother from rheumatic fever, along with the trauma of sexual abuse, led her to her first mental breakdown.(Goldman) Two years after, the death of her half-sister Stella followed. Just as she was slowly recovering from the loses, her father died from stomach cancer in the year 1904, pushing her deeper into the abyss of mental instability. As a result, she was institutionalized for a brief period of time, marking the start of her dance between literary expression and personal desolation that continued for the rest of her life.(Goldman)
Virginia Woolf wanted to “give life and death, sanity and insanity” to Mrs. Dalloway.(Woolf and Prose) According to Woolf’s diary, she wanted to dig out and expose in daylight the hidden insanity and suicidal inclination prevalent in the British society. She wanted to tear apart the facade of peace and prosperity presented by the upper class. Septimus– the war veteran– could been seen as a breach into the mirage of the British elites.
“Septimus Warren Smith, aged about thirty, pale-faced, beak-nosed, wearing brown shoes and a shabby overcoat, with hazel eyes which had that look of apprehension in them which makes complete strangers apprehensive too. The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?” (Woolf 32) In this sentence, Virginia Woolf formally introduces Septimus– the shell-shocked veteran who struggles with PTSD. Although he has no apparent personal relationship to the main character Clarissa Dalloway and the only intersection between their lives in at Clarissa’s party when the news of Septimus’ suicide arrives, they present many similarities in terms of the oppression that they feel from their surroundings.
Septimus is no doubt the most direct embodiment of the traumas suffered by the commoners in the Great War from 1914 to 1918. The fear, grief, and sorrow caused by the death of loved ones overwhelmed the patriotic thrill and righteous ardor. Clearly, it must have been painful for Woolf to write about Septimus, for his suffering was chillingly close to the agonies that she has experienced. She wanted to give voice to those who were struggling to live with the tragedies from World War 1 by writing about the world that Septimus sees and experiences.(Woolf and Prose)
Septimus’ mental illness is far more than just the superficial representation of the prevalence of Shellshock– what we might easily identify today as PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder)– in British society in the 1920s. The distorted reality that he sees is an allusion to the phenomenon caused by the disillusionment and disappointment towards the “Great British Empire” after the Great War.(Ghalandari and Jamili) Though the War ended with the victory of the Allies and the collapse of the Central Powers after the signing of the Armistice and eventually after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the long-lasting influence of the War was impossible to be overlooked. The horrifying death toll of the War left a deep scar that could not have been healed quickly for those with friends and families who never returned. The presence of Septimus shows that even five years after the War, the myriad anxieties and overwhelming grief still etch into every aspect of the post-war life. Almost everyone lost someone in the War: a friend, a distant relative, a colleague…… This was probably true for Woolf as well. (Bradshaw)The British society was never the same after the Pyrrhic victory. The social atmosphere changed after the survivors returned from the battlefield. Through Septimus, Woolf draws attention to the problems that she sees in the post- World War 1 society.
“Shellshock” was the termed coined to describe the conditions caused by the psychological traumas of modern warfare that were manifested in physical symptoms on soldiers ("W H R Rivers"). By the end of the War in 1918, over 80,000 cases of Shellshock were reported to the British Army (Bourke). In Mrs. Dalloway, Septimus is one of those cases. Virginia Woolf creates him to give voice to those WW1 veterans, to describe the world as they see it, and to vividly express their pain.
In Mrs. Dalloway, we see the lives of people from different parts of the social ladder of British society as the characters share the world as they see it. We see the struggle of Septimus adapting to civilization and repressing his horrifying memories from the frontline. Through the description of a series of actions, Virginia Woolf vividly shows Septimus’ deeply embedded fear of the reality. “He began, very cautiously, to open his eyes, to see whether a gramophone was really there”. Septimus is afraid of “real things” because they are too “exciting”.(Woolf 142) He is afraid that he would go mad. He forces himself to see real objects a small piece at a time: “First he looked at the fashion papers on the lower shelf, then, gradually at the gramophone with the green trumpet. Nothing could be more exact. And so, gathering courage, he looked at the sideboard; the plate of bananas; the engraving of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort; at the mantelpiece, with the jar of roses.” As he sees that none of the objects moves, he reassures himself that he is present in the world of reality not an imaginative world of madness: “All were still; all were real” (Woolf 142). The shadow of the War is even more noticeable in the way Septimus sees Rezia– his own wife: “He shaded his eyes so that he might see only a little of her face at a time, first the chin, then the nose, then the forehead, in case it were deformed, or had some terrible mark on it”(Woolf 142). He does not want to see anything that would invoke his memories from the war and would induce his madness. “But there was nothing terrible about it, he assured himself, looking a second time, a third time at her face, her hands, for what was frightening or disgusting in her as she sat there in broad daylight, sewing?” (Woolf 142) The simplest action of looking and the most familiar people and objects have all transformed into potential triggering points for madness to be unleashed.
While we witness Septimus struggling and suffering from the simplest actions in life, we also see the easeful and privileged life of the English elites. Giving out parties is not merely a representation of the lavish lifestyle of the upper-class, but it is also their attempt to preserve their power and way of life prior to the War, deliberately ignoring the unhealed wounds beneath the surface, desperately holding on to their old privileges. The interruption during the party caused by the suicide of Septimus is by no mean a coincidence. Virginia Woolf set up Clarissa’s party– a vivid portrayal of the life of the upper class with high members of the English society as symbols of power– as an appropriate background for the madness to break the barrier, to intrude the perfect life of Clarissa and to reveal itself. (Ghalandari and Jamili)
“In the middle of my party, here’s death”, thought Clarissa, when the news of Septimus’ suicide arrived at the party. She was far more concerned about the success of the party than the death of Septimus. For her, the news was a disturbance, an unpleasant stain to her perfect party. In this simple line of thoughts, Virginia Woolf exposes and criticizes the selfish intention of Clarissa and the self-concerned nature of the upper-class. However, hundreds of thousands of men like Septimus volunteered to fight in World War 1 and sacrificed themselves to “save an England which consisted almost entirely of Shakespeare’s plays and miss Isabel Pole in a green dress walking in a square” (Woolf 86). Soldiers devoted their lives to save the peace and prosperity, to make it possible for such extravagant parties to happen. Ironically, they were quickly forgotten. “Really it was miracle thinking of the War, and thousands of poor chaps, with all their lives before them, shoveled together, already half-forgotten; it was a miracle” (Woolf 115). There is no flower, poetry or romance in wars. Blood, order, duty, guilt, brutality, death are woven into memories that hunt the survivors for the rest of their lives. They are “the wounded in mind”(Simkin).
The War was the source of Shell Shock, but the society and its power structure further induced madness. All abnormalities were meant to be concealed and suppressed. Mental illness certainty had to be eliminated for that the society was not prepared to accept an illness that would expose the flaws of human nature. The topic around madness no doubt touches Woolf personally. She had suffered from psychological trauma ever since the deaths of her mother and her older sister during her teenage years. The state of her mental health was further compromised by the death of her father later on and the sexual abuse committed by her half-brothers. Eventually, she was institutionalized for a period of time. The strict Victorian society that forced females to conform to its norms was certainly another factor that had exacerbated her illness.(Tabassum) All of these traumatic experiences had contributed to Woolf’s vivid and touching writings on the hidden struggles of people within the social context. Her works emphasize the building of character’s inner thoughts and psychology, and their interactions with the outside world.
The indifference and even aversion from others and even from doctors received by patients with mental illness are sometimes more devastating than the illness itself. The lack of compassion from others created another layer of burden that patients like Septimus and Virginia Woolf herself had to bear. Because doctors were unable to understand the biological mechanisms underlying “Shellshock,” many believed that it was merely a manifestation of lack of discipline and loyalty. Some even went so far as to suggest that the Shellshock veterans should have been shot for malingering and cowardice. The overall societal atmosphere partly contributed to the doctors’ irresponsible and disrespectful actions. Despite the agony that he sees in Septimus, Dr. Holmes examines Septimus from the outside and concludes that Septimus is fine. “Dr. Holmes examined him. There was nothing whatever the matter, said Dr, Holmes. Why not try two tabloids of bromide dissolved in a glass of water at bedtime?”(Woolf 94) There is no conversation, no attempt to communicate and understand the patient. Septimus is isolated. As Virginia Woolf writes in the book: “Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate; people feeling the impossibility of reaching the centre which, mystically, evaded them; closeness drew apart; rapture faded, one was alone. There was an embrace in death”(Woolf, 184), suicide is Septimus’ last outcry. Woolf herself was also victimized through the lack of understanding for her manic-depressive illness (Ghalandari and Jamili). One cannot avoid to conjecture about the potential connection between the suicide of Septimus and that of Virginia Woolf. Through fiction, Woolf publically raises the issue of mental illness in British society.
The doctors in Mrs. Dalloway– Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw– are created by Virginia Woolf to criticize the flawed medical system in British society: the lack of healthy doctor-patient relationship and the corrupted morals of the doctors. As Clarissa describes, Sir William Bradshaw is a good doctor, but she also sees his obscure evilness: he is “capable of some indescribable outrage– forcing your soul, that was it– if this young man had gone to him, and Sir William had impressed him, like that, with his power, might he not then have said, Life is made intolerable; they made life intolerable, men like that?”(Woolf 185) Doctors are supposed to be healers. But according to Clarissa, they are the perpetrators in the case of Septimus’ illness and suicide.
Ever since the famous Greek physician Hippocrates, the doctor-patient relationship has been a keystone of patient care. While interacting with psychiatric patients, Dr. Holmes and Dr. Bradshaw exercised their absolute power and allowed their own bias to influence their practice. The Hippocratic Oath that every doctor should abide by throughout their careers was nowhere to be seen in them. In the following lines, Virginia Woolf exposes the corruption of materialism in the medical system: “But he would give him something to make him sleep. And if they were rich people, said Dr. Holmes, looking ironically around the room, by all means let them go to Harley Street; if they had no confidence in him, said Dr. Holmes, looking not quite so kind”(Woolf 94). The monologue of Dr. Holmes suggests Septimus’ financial status prevents him from getting a better treatment. Instead of focusing on the patient, Dr. Holmes is more concerned about money and even looks down on Septimus because of his humble dwelling.
The lack of understanding of the biological mechanism of the illness and the lack of effective treatments contributed to the overall negative societal sentiment towards mental illness.
In fact, many victims of shellshock were charged and punished for committing military crimes of cowardice. The bromide prescribed to Septimus by Dr. Holmes was by no mean a treatment to cure the illness, but merely an anticonvulsant and a sedative intended to suppress the symptoms. Virginia Woolf uses the tabloids of bromide to criticize the incompetence and the arrogance of the doctors.
Common treatments for Shellshock at that time include shaming, physical re-education, inculcation of masculinity, infliction of pain and electric shock– none of which is considered scientific and moral today, but where commonly practiced at hospitals. Many doctors even agreed that “patient must be induced to face his illness in a manly way”.(Simkin)(Bourke) Psychotherapy certainly existed at that time, but few doctors were willing to use this form of therapy for patients for the extensive recovery time that the therapy requires. Given the scope of the epidemic of Shellshock– as many as 80,000 reported cases in the British Army– and the urgency of the war, the government had no interest, nor did they have the resources, to care for each patient.(Bourke) The soldiers had to keep fighting. Their inner lives had little importance in the grand scheme of the War.
One may wonder what Virginia Woolf had experienced when she was institutionalized for her manic-depressive illness.
Eventually, Septimus has seen and experienced the distorted side of humanity. He has lost faith in humanity after all he has been through in the War and even in the civilized British society His death could be interpreted not as an act of cowardice, but an act of defiance and pursuit of freedom. As Clarissa expresses in her monologue at the end: “Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate.”
As a fictional work, Mrs. Dalloway pushes boundaries of people’s understanding of war, madness, medicine and society. The topics are by no mean antique and the questions have never been resolved. The modern version of this discussion of mental illness, especially its manifestation seen in war veterans, is the controversies around the Purple Heart Medal Award– the oldest military decoration that honors the physically injured soldiers. Do soldiers with PTSD deserve this award? In 2009, the Pentagon decided that the award could only be given to those with physical wounds, further reinforcing the stigmatization that mental illness is somehow less “real” than physical illness– a similar perspective held by the majority of the society as Woolf describes in Mrs. Dalloway. As a person suffering from manic-depressive illness, Virginia Woolf experienced the “realness” of the symptoms of madness personally. Through Mrs. Dalloway, she wanted to give voice to those who are suffering internally, to shed light on the invisible oppression and the deeply embedded prejudice that deplete the remaining courage and strength of those struggling.