Page 378 - DENG404_FICTION

Fiction

Notes that gives her a profound capacity for emotion, which many other characters lack. However,
she is always concerned with appearances and keeps herself tightly composed, seldom sharing
her feelings with anyone. She uses a constant stream of convivial chatter and activity to keep
her soul locked safely away, which can make her seem shallow even to those who know her
well.
Constantly overlaying the past and the present, Clarissa strives to reconcile herself to life
despite her potent memories. For most of the novel she considers aging and death with trepidation,
even as she performs life-affirming actions, such as buying flowers. Though content, Clarissa
never lets go of the doubt she feels about the decisions that have shaped her life, particularly
her decision to marry Richard instead of Peter Walsh. She understands that life with Peter
would have been difficult, but at the same time she is uneasily aware that she sacrificed
passion for the security and tranquility of an upper-class life. At times she wishes for a chance
to live life over again. She experiences a moment of clarity and peace when she watches her
old neighbor through her window, and by the end of the day she has come to terms with the
possibility of death. Like Septimus, Clarissa feels keenly the oppressive forces in life, and she
accepts that the life she has is all she’ll get. Her will to endure, however, prevails.

Septimus Warren Smith
Septimus, a veteran of World War I, suffers from shell shock and is lost within his own mind.
He feels guilty even as he despises himself for being made numb by the war. His doctor has
ordered Lucrezia, Septimus’s wife, to make Septimus notice things outside himself, but Septimus
has removed himself from the physical world. Instead, he lives in an internal world, wherein
he sees and hears things that aren’t really there and he talks to his dead friend Evans. He is
sometimes overcome with the beauty in the world, but he also fears that the people in it have
no capacity for honesty or kindness. Woolf 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.
On the surface, Septimus seems quite dissimilar to Clarissa, but he embodies many characteristics
that Clarissa shares and thinks in much the same way she does. He could almost be her double
in the novel. Septimus and Clarissa both have beak-noses, love Shakespeare, and fear oppression.
More important, as Clarissa’s double, Septimus offers a contrast between the conscious struggle
of a working-class veteran and the blind opulence of the upper class. His troubles call into
question the legitimacy of the English society he fought to preserve during the war. Because
his thoughts often run parallel to Clarissa’s and echo hers in many ways, the thin line between
what is considered sanity and insanity gets thinner and thinner.

Did u know? Septimus chooses to escape his problems by killing himself, a dramatic and
tragic gesture that ultimately helps Clarissa to accept her own choices, as
well as the society in which she lives.

Peter Walsh
Peter Walsh’s most consistent character trait is ambivalence: he is middle-aged and fears he
has wasted his life, but sometimes he also feels he is not yet old. He cannot commit to an
identity, or even to a romantic partner. He cannot decide what he feels and tries often to talk
himself into feeling or not feeling certain things. For example, he spends the day telling

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