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Unit 29: Virginia Woolf — Mrs. Dalloway: Detailed Study of Text

slowly slipping from reality. When he awoke, Rezia had gone to take the girl home. He looked Notes
for his visions but they were not there. Rezia burst in, still happy. She felt that things had
returned to normal. She thought back to when she had first met him, and how he had understood
the things that she said. She asked if he liked the hat, but Septimus just sat, looking at her.
He believed that he could feel her mind, but he also remembered that Bradshaw had said that
he would need to separate himself. It bothered him that Bradshaw had seemed so demanding.
Rezia told him it was because he had wanted to kill himself. He inquired where his writings
were and she brought them to him. He wanted them burned but she promised to keep them
from the doctors. She also promised that the doctors would not separate her from him.

Septimus imagined his wife as a flowering tree, triumphing over the doctors. Rezia heard the
voice of Dr. Holmes and ran to stop him from seeing Septimus. Holmes pushed by her. Rezia,
Septimus knew, was on his side. Holmes continued up the stairs toward Septimus. Septimus
tried to think of ways to escape. The window was the only option he could fathom. He waited
to the last minute, enjoying the sun, and then threw himself onto the fence below. Holmes ran
in, shouting that Septimus was a coward. Mrs. Filmer ran to Rezia, making her sit down.
Holmes gave Rezia a drink that made her fall asleep. She thought of happy memories. Slowly,
she realized that Septimus was dead. People outside carried the body away.

Part II Section Four Analysis

Elizabeth Dalloway is compared often to a blooming flower, the metonym for spring and
growth, as she is a young girl coming into womanhood. Against her will, Elizabeth is being
drawn into adult life. Woolf writes, “People were beginning to compare her to poplar trees,
early dawn, hyacinths, fawns, running water, and garden lilies, and it made her life a burden
to her, for she so much preferred being left alone...” This list of images creates in the reader
a sense of renewal and vitality that is essential to Elizabeth’s character. Miss. Kilman employs
Woolf’s metonyms for Elizabeth when she substitutes, “Elizabeth had gone. Beauty had gone,
youth had gone.” As Elizabeth breaks from Miss. Kilman, Elizabeth renews and revitalizes her
sense of self. She enjoys the feel of being alone and outdoors and revels in the noise of the
crowds and in life rushing around her. As she rides the bus through London, she is inspired
to think of future professions and aspirations. Critic, Manly Johnson, relates, “There is a
Dickensian delight in movement and sounds in the description of Elizabeth’s recommitment
to life on her own...” The ride through London symbolizes a rite of passage for Elizabeth who
begins exploring the path from adolescence to vital adulthood.

Woolf also frequently compares Rezia Smith to a tree or flower of life. Johnson explains,
“Crippled within, [Septimus] seeks out Lucrezia to marry her, with the instinctive knowledge
that her health is what his sickness needs. She appears to him as the tree of life...” As Woolf
develops the theme of the sane along side the insane, she again describes Rezia, through
Septimus, as a flower attempting to protect her battered husband with her maternal petals.
Woolf illustrates, “...she did up the papers...as if all her petals were about her. She was a
flowering tree...” Rezia too represents vitality and life, and as such, she is incapable of protecting
or understanding her husband. Her attention to detail and the love she gives to her hat
making depicts the care she gives to the world around her. Rezia’s declaration that she and
Septimus will not be separated is used to explore the necessity of togetherness in sanity. When
she leaves to take the young girl home, Septimus begins to lose his grasp on reality. He falls
asleep and when he wakes up, he has clearly returned to the separate world of his own
delusions. His desperation is reflected in the text: “That was it: to be alone forever. That was
the doom pronounced in Milan...” The devastation caused by the war and his realization that
he can no longer feel illustrates the lack of emotional connection Septimus retains to those
around him.

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