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

feelings of pain and death experienced by Septimus through her body. She identifies with the Notes
fall he experienced and the rusty spikes piercing his body.
She, then, realizes that his death is a sacrifice for her, and for the others at her party and
everywhere, to allow them to continue living. Septimus’ role as a Christ figure becomes apparent.
Woolf originally planned for Clarissa to commit suicide, or simply die, at the end of the novel.
Instead, she decided that a part of Clarissa, constructed in the form of a man destroyed by war
and society, would take his own life in order for the rest of Clarissa’s being to appreciate the
life she had. Clarissa believes, “A thing there was that mattered...This he had preserved. Death
was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate.” The this’ to which Woolf refers is
purposely ambiguous. Life could obviously be inserted in its place, but the essence of life, “the
thing that mattered,” is impossible to define. Yet, the essence is possible to preserve and
Septimus’ decision to throw it all away has done so. The words of Shakespeare come to
Clarissa, linking her undeniably to the young Septimus. The words tell her, “Fear no more the
heat of the sun.” Septimus, who had gone to war so that he could protect Shakespeare, stands
in the heat of the sun immediately before jumping to his death.

Self Assessment

State the following sentences are True or False:
9. The name of Peter’s fiancee is Daisy.
10. Clarissa recently recovered from Typhoid.

11. A Calico cat see Clarissa twice in the window across from her own.
12. The Septimus committed suicide because Lady Bradshaw tell Clarissa at the Dalloway’s
party.

Woolf is borrowing from Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline, as she had earlier in the novel when
Clarissa notices the same words in an open book as she walks through Bond Street. The
repetition of the statement emphasizes its significance to the thematic progression of the novel.
Critic, Avrom Fleishman, notes that, though the quotation has generally been understood as
an illustration of Clarissa’s strength in the face of death and disillusionment, “Clarissa’s affinity
for the refrain may be taken as a mark of her strong propensity for death ...” Clarissa notes,
before returning to her party, “She felt somehow very like him - the young man who had
killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away.” His sacrifice, his affirmation
of life’s inconstancy and immediacy, allows Clarissa to face her own fears and desires. His
death permits her to “feel the beauty” and “feel the fun.” As critic Isabel Gamble concludes,
“In comprehending Septimus’ death—he has plunged holding his treasure’ - Clarissa herself
discovers her own identity and becomes whole.”

The short time Clarissa spends in the little room is saturated with significant images and
allusions. This time is the climax of the novel. The old lady appears in the neighboring house
at this moment as well. Because of Septimus’ death and the old lady, Clarissa steps out of the
social circle of her party and connects to the larger sense of life and death occurring around
her. The text states, “It was fascinating, with people still laughing and shouting in the drawing-
room, to watch that old woman, quite quietly, going to bed.” Just as the woman connected
Clarissa to the movements of life after Miss Kilman and Elizabeth depart for the stores, she
once again creates in Clarissa wonderment for life and being.
Clarissa returns to the party charged with a sense of life and with a need to “assemble” with
the people important to her. She has conquered the sense of isolation and returned to social
connection. The novel ends with a scene that can be considered a microcosm of the novel.

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