A Double - Insanity and Suicide because of War Experience by Virginia Woolf - Essay Example

A Double: Insanity and Suicide The way Septimus and Clarissa mirror one another stems from Septimus' troubles because he is a World War Victim, as a soldier who suffers the shock of the war. Woolf portrays Septimus as a unique character in the piece of literature and as such, the first character that shows the effects of war horrors and the trauma that befalls the victims after the combat. Woolf never portrays Septimus as the usual war hero but rather the survivor and a sufferer. As the plot continues, Septimus is seen as deeply plunged in hallucinations and the feelings of numbness because of the friend's death and also has the desperate urge for communicating something concerning beauty and love. Woolf shows how the character's transformation changes him from the initial boy who had an intense love for poetry and Shakespeare and was so eager to prove a point as a man in the combat. On the contrary, Septimus comes out of the war deeply pessimistic about the war and the purpose it serves. As such, Septimus is a changed person who never goes back to the initial life including the strong faith he had for the England Empire. Therefore, the double persona that Clarissa shows in the novel is because of the man she has never met, Septimus Smith. The experiences as well as the lives of these two characters, despite the radical difference, mirror each other. For instance, Woolf depicts Clarissa as a rational character who consistently seeks meaningful answers concerning identity and life, Septimus is a representation of death and madness. Another example is the epiphany experience of Septimus that Woolf depicts the same as the experience between Clarissa and Miss Pym. In this experience, “he lay back in his chair, exhausted but upheld. He lay resting, waiting, before he again interpreted, with effort, with agony, to mankind. He lay very high on the back of the world. The earth thrilled beneath him. Red flowers grew through his flesh; their stiff leaves rustled by his head. Music began clanging against the rocks up here. It is a motor horn down in the street, he muttered” (Woolf 55). Woolf uses the climax to show how the outside sounds for this character, like the car horn that takes Septimus away from the reality. As sounds get louder, it combines with the already mad state of the mind. The same happens to Clarissa whom the noises in the streets bring her back to reality. However, Clarissa never abandons the touch with reality as she refuses to let everything go, the same case with Septimus. Woolf also depicts Septimus’s madness as incurable that happens because he has no self-recognition, a condition that may be incurable. However, it is arguably right to insinuate that Septimus may be suffering the same agongy as Clarissa since as the wife instructed by Doctor Holmes to show him things that will bring him back to reality as Woolf notes “ Septimus, lately take from life to death, the Lord who had come to renew society, who lay like a coverlet, a snow blanket smitten only by the sun, forever wasted, suffering forever, the scapegoat, the eternal suffer, but he did not want it, he moaned, putting from him with a wave of his hand that eternal suffering , that eternal loneliness” (p. 23). The experiences in war sets Septimus apart from the main character, Clarissa because the experience with the other side of humanity because it was insane watching friends die and as such, it has become very difficult to recover from the tragedies. Despite the dark experience, Septimus also experiences the same images as Clarissa. For instance, there is the scene where he reaches life climax, and the reader can see a man willing to live and wants to live happily. On the other hand, the two characters can never be happy unless they are locked out of reality. For instance, Septimus is never happy unless the poor soul loses his life to the dream world. Woolf explains that reality puts weight on both Clarissa and Septimus. Septimus is portrayed as having for the reality as “he had only to open his eyes; but the weight was on them; a fear” (Woolf 55). However, time to Septimus reminds him of the lurking death due to the horrific death scenes at war and that life's beauty is just the memory because it is becoming difficult to reconcile the experiences at the dreaded war. Though Septimus and Clarissa are described separately by their friends, doctors as well as their chaotic minds, are connected when Septimus dies. The plot sadly changes when Septimus after realizing he cannot escape the harassments from the doctor, decides to find an escape; throwing himself out of the window. Woolf also portrays a troubled Septimus who considers all options but the window the book considers “there remained only the window, the large Bloomsbury-lodging house window, the tiresome, the troublesome, and rather the melodramatic business of opening the window and throwing himself out”(Woolf 115). However, the death reveals some truth about Septimus that he detested death and loved life the same as Clarissa. The death also reveals that Septimus was finding it difficult to define his place in life because of the war experiences, and that he never knew how to please the likes of Clarissa and believed that the doctors deserved to see him take his life mercilessly. The death of Septimus is a big blow to Clarissa despite the fact that he never set eyes on him. Woolf further shows how Clarissa empathizes with Septimus at the mention of the suicide at the party. On the other hand, the death touched Clarissa personally and shattered her composure. On the contrary, the reaction after Septimus' death leads Clarissa to think of death and as such, she has the same perception of death as Septimus and this perceives how she sees death. Woolf suggests that “with her horror of death, allowed her to believe, or say that she believed, that since our apparitions, the part of us which appears, are so momentary compared with other, the unseen part of us, which spreads wide, the unseen might survive, be recovered somehow attached to this person or that (Woolf 117). Also in the introductory part of the novel, Woolf offers an outright explanation thatthe two characters, Clarissa, and Septimus are doubles. In fact, Woolf intentionally plans for Clarissa to take away her life at the end of the plot. In this case, both the characters are facing disturbance from social structures and the British life oppressions. The two characters have a strong love for Shakespeare and also seek to find the deep meanings in life, in addition to their bird-like faces. The two characters are doubles because they have the same psychological qualities, where, for instance, Clarissa sees the other side of life after Septimus’ death as she notes “Heavenly to see you” (Woolf 120), an indication of having the same perception about life. On the other hand, the characters have the same feelings about death but also manage to see the beauty in life despite their untold suffering. Throughout Septimus’s experience, it is evident that Woolf points at the blunt relationship between the combats and the non-combats. Though it is always a cowardly act for a man to take away his life, the combats have such experiences that the ordinary persons or the non-combats cannot understand. For instance, Septimus cares for Clarissa, who fears that the war may have changed him into a different person. In this case, Woolf shows the tense relationship between the combats and non-combats because the later assumes that the war turn individuals into monsters. On the other hand, the combats are considered to be having internal struggles as well as mental instability like in the case of Septimus threatens to kill himself when walking with the wife down the street as he says “ I will kill myself” (Woolf 16). Such experiences detach the combats with reality, a situation that makes it difficult to have a good relationship with the non-combats. The war experiences of the combats make them have much trauma and emotional distress and as such, render them suicidal. Therefore, the non-combats believe that the war survivors or soldiers are sadist people whose conditions may drive them into madness or mental illness. In the novel, Woolf portrays a distressed Septimus, who is always yelled at by the doctors in addition to the constant mistreatments. Besides, the woman whom he cares for, Clarissa finds it difficult to understand the condition thus it is right to infer that the combats and the non-combats live in a different world. Nonetheless, the war experience is a torture to humanity because the experience exposes individuals to human destruction. As such, the combats have a different view of life, including their connection with death and suffering. On the contrary, they feel that the non-combats have no idea of other side of life of untold suffering and that they are not cared for because of the cases of mental illness or madness and mental distress. However, the novel paints a different picture of the relationship when Clarissa takes away her life as a proof that there are some non-combats who have sympathy for the distressed combats. Work Cited Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Interactive Media, 2012. Print Read More