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Clarissa and Septimus

This document provides context about the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. It discusses the two main characters, Clarissa and Septimus, who never meet in the story but reflect each other. Clarissa is a wealthy socialite while Septimus is a shell-shocked veteran of World War I. The document also explains how the novel explores the psychological and social impacts of the war through Septimus's character and the other characters' reactions to his shell shock and eventual suicide.

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133 views14 pages

Clarissa and Septimus

This document provides context about the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. It discusses the two main characters, Clarissa and Septimus, who never meet in the story but reflect each other. Clarissa is a wealthy socialite while Septimus is a shell-shocked veteran of World War I. The document also explains how the novel explores the psychological and social impacts of the war through Septimus's character and the other characters' reactions to his shell shock and eventual suicide.

Uploaded by

Tomas Tomas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CLARISSA AND SEPTIMUS

Tomas De Felice
Istituto Facchetti
5ª L.L.
a.s. 2021/2022
«Clarissa and
Septimus» is a
novel, written by
Virginia Wolf.
Mrs Dalloway
WHAT ABOUT
THE TITLE?
Mrs. Dalloway is the name of
the main character, Clarissa
day
Dalloway. She is a wealthy
middle-aged Englishwoman
who reexamines her
relationships with others and
her attitude.
Clarissa and Septimus.
The plot.

Carissa enters in a flower shop, on Bond


Street; Miss Pym greets her and when
Clarissa selects the flowers to buy, she
hears like a shot from a gun in the street.
Miss Pym reassures her that it is only a
special car. Clarissa and many others turn
to observe the aristocrat who owns the
car. They wonder if it's the Queen, the
Prince of Wales or the Prime Minister.
Clarissa and Septimus . The plot.
Septimus, a 30-year-old and a First World War
veteran, suffers from shell-shock, a mental illness,
caused by the horrors of war, and believes that he is
responsible for the traffic caused by the car.

Lucrezia, his young Italian wife, is embarrassed by


his strange behavior and is also frightened,
because Septimus has threatened to kill himself.

At the end, she leads him to Regent's Park, where


they sit together.
Virginia Woolf wrote Mrs. Dalloway using the

literary technique stream of consciousness to

slip in and out of the direct thoughts of various


Her style
characters. The anonymous narrator tells

favoring wealth and prestige, looked to be on

its way out.


Virginia Woolf agreed with many of her contemporaries that a

new postwar world demanded a new style of writing, more

adaptable and tuned to human psychology. Writers like Woolf,

Her style James Joyce, and Marcel Proust experimented with a

storytelling style that presented characters' thoughts and

conscious minds in a continuous flow. This style, called stream

of consciousness, introduced a new way of reading for a new

era.
The 2
characters.
Although In Mrs. Dalloway,
we are presented with
Clarissa and Septimus
never meet, they reflect
each other through their
thoughts and actions.
Clarissa and Septimus
Woolf made them almost a mirror of each
other. Clarissa is part of the upper-class,
so she takes part in the fancy parties,
expensive fashion, and overall high status.

On the other side of the spectrum there is


Septimus, a working-class veteran who
protected his country in World War I and
now suffers from shellshock.

Both Septimus and Clarissa lost their


battles. Septimus was not able to become
the man he wanted to be, and Clarissa
married someone who is also withdrawn
socially and emotionally.
Clarissa and
Septimus
The main difference between these two characters is that
Clarissa was considered sane and thought about
consequences while Septimus portrayed insanity and
vulnerability to emotions. Septimus seems to feel
everything and nothing all at once, weeping at beauty but
worrying about not being able to care for another person.
On the other hand, Clarissa is able to keep her emotions in
check and only the reader gets insight to what she feels, as
she is worried about being overtaken by emotion.
World War I and Its Impact

World War I lasted from 1914 to 1918. Britain


emerged no longer a world superpower, with the
United States and the Soviet Union surpassing Britain
in authority. The war was longer and bloodier than
anyone expected. Britain's veterans, those who
survived, had faced horrific conditions in muddy
trenches. The British weren't sure what would happen
next, but they knew nothing would ever be the same
again.
World War I and Its Impact

Mrs. Dalloway deals directly with the plight of veterans


through the character of Septimus Warren Smith and
explores how the anxiety and alienation caused by the
war affects characters from all walks of life. The novel
explores shell shock (now called post-traumatic stress
disorder), an illness often observed in war veterans, and
its devastating effects. The characters' confused
responses to Septimius's symptoms, and to his suicide,
show the governments, and the average citizen's,
struggle and failure to meet the needs of war veterans.
THANK YOU!!!!!

Tomas De Felice
Istituto Facchetti
5ª L.L.
a.s. 2021/2022

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