Suicide in Mrs. Dalloway



Woolf uses Septimus’s suicide as a way to show the suddenness of mental health. Virginia Woolf struggled with mental health throughout her lifetime, even going into periods of insanity. She used her own personal experiences to portray Septimus and his mental health issues. She describes his death as a powerful statement rather than an act of cowardness, which is how suicide is most often thought of as.

Septimus’s suicide was romanticised, and it seemed to be a way of taking back his own life. Rather than letting the doctors take him to the mental institution, he kills himself. This allowed for him to die with honor, rather than have his life be taken away from him. When Septimus began to have suicidal thoughts, he described it as “quite alone, condemned, deserted”. During this time period, mental health was much less understood than it is today. Septimus, being a veteran with mental health issues was not understood. Even today, a large portion of the veteran population struggles with mental health issues, along with a large percentage that also face homelessness. Therefore, it would have been difficult, if not impossible for Septimus to get the help he needed.

While Septimus is dealing with his suicidal thoughts, Woolf says, “there was a luxury in it, an isolation full of sublimity; a freedom which the attached can never know.” Woolf does not undermine the pain he is going through, but by saying this, she is also subtly romanticizing his suicidal thoughts. By doing this, Woolf is contradicing the usual stereotypes of how society views suicide. Society normally views it as cowardly or selfish, but Woolf decides to contradict this with her description of his suicide. She describes his death as “defiance” or “an embrace”, which shows how she believes that his suicide was not something done out of fear or cowardness, but instead a powerful statement, and an opportunity for Septimus to take back his life.

Comments

  1. Kethan NaiduOctober 16, 2020 at 10:04 AM

    I do agree with you that that was how Woolf portrayed Septimus' suicide but I think an important thing to note is it can also be done out of fear and cowardice, and Septimus might have done it because he was afraid of Bradshaw taking away his life. But it is true that mental health wasn't a very "explored" topic back then, and while Woolf might have also been suffering from it there is no way of us knowing exactly why or exactly how much she knew.

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  2. BiancaOctober 17, 2020 at 8:40 AM

    I think woolf's romanticization of suicide is pretty closely tied to the fact that she had several suicide attempts herself, and finally succeeded when she was 59. It's definitely not a healthy perspective to have, but she was in that dark mindset for most of her adult life so she saw suicide as the answer. Maybe it contradicts stereotypes, but it's also dangerous to view suicide as a freeing act of defiance rather than as the symptom of severe untreated mental illness. It does seem inevitable given how bad the care available to Septimus was, but he could have lived if just a few things had gone differently.

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  3. CollinOctober 17, 2020 at 9:58 AM

    I agree with Bianca -- I also see Woolf's own outlook on life very clearly through her characters. I think Septimus may have already believed his life was taken away, even before he was almost sent to the mental hospital, and the scene where he is "back to normal" signifies his final unity with who he used to be and an acceptance that he will cease to exist.

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