Septimus, Clarissa, and the Importance of a Singular Day
As the class was discussing the importance of the juxtaposition of Septimus Smith and Clarissa Dalloway's storylines, I came to realize that I had taken a completely different view on what their storylines shown side by side can teach us. To me, their portrayals in the novel reflected strongly to me the importance that even a single day can hold for anyone, even people as seemingly unrelated as Septimus and Clarissa. Though for one character this is a tragic importance and for the other a rewarding importance, I think it is still important to recognize through these characters' stories how deeply significant even one day can be. Both characters have striking series of thoughts and unique recollections of the past that culminate in important events, devastating and illuminating respectively. The idea that all of this could transpire within the seemingly brief period of time that is one day is overwhelming, but fascinating.
For Septimus Smith, the gravity of this particular day is indisputable. His entire day is plagued with thoughts of sorrow, death, the return of his closest companion, but also with thoughts of hope, of being a messenger of all the world has to offer. We see in one day of Septimus's life a flurry of thoughts about nearly every moment he holds important to him, even a heart-wrenching moment of terminal lucidity before the day culminates in his tragic end. In one day, we are exposed to what Septimus treasures most about the world, what he abhors most. Though a day is typically considered a fleeting, almost insignificant length of time, we are introduced to the depths of Septimus's character and mind. We become closely acquainted with him, all in the events of one day. For example, not even in a day, but in a matter of a few hours, in the scene at Regent's Park, we are introduced to Septimus's suicidal thoughts, as he begs to "rest still.. [and go] under the sea" (Woolf 67). Not just this, but we see how beautiful he finds the world as well, describing the movement of the leaves as an "exquisite joy" and proclaiming that "beauty was everywhere" (Woolf 68). It does not even take us a day for Septimus to experience a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts, and this is a pattern that continues throughout the entire day. Though this is also the nature of Septimus's battle with shell shock, it is a stark contrast to typical ideas that a day is a relatively uneventful period of time.
Just as we are able to see the major aspects of Septimus's life and thoughts portrayed and ultimately build up to a crucial event all in the course of only one day, we something very similar happen with Clarissa Dalloway as well. We get a depth of introspective past memories and a multitude of present-day occurrences that make this day an incredibly eventful and informative day for us, though the premise is set up like an everyday setting. Through Clarissa, we can understand that even a day sometimes filled with routine occurrences can still prove a unique experience, sometimes even a trip down memory lane. In just one day, we learn all about her past at Bourton, her complex love life, and even in the present day we see her confronting almost all of her past at her own culminating event, the party. She comes to acknowledge this herself, explaning that "all day she had been thinking of Bourton, of Peter, of Sally" (Woolf 180) and realizing that this party is the pinnacle of all of these thoughts she has experienced, this day's journey she has taken through her past. I am sure that getting up in the morning, Clarissa could never have predicted all the places her mind would take her that day, and all the memories she came face-to-face with, and it is unfair for anyone, not just these two characters, to believe that any day is unimportant or insignificant.
I think that Clarissa and Septimus shown in their respective storylines over the course of this book serve as a powerful example of all that a day can hold, and how the possible importance of a day to come can never be underestimated. I was very fascinated by the other analyses of the relationship between Clarissa's and Septimus's storylines, but this stood out to me as an important element that their stories can show us. I'm curious to hear what you guys think about how I understood these storylines playing out!
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Harcourt, 2005.
This is such an interesting an unique take on Mrs. Dalloway! When we were discussing and writing blogs about The Mezzanine, it seemed like the idea of timeframe was all people were talking about, so I found it interesting that no one really talked about time frame in Mrs. Dalloway, because a novel in the span of a day is still a pretty remarkable thing, especially a novel as jam-packed with emotion and activity as Mrs. Dalloway. I think we've been a little bit desensitized to novels with a short time frame because of The Mezzanine, but the day long plot of Mrs. Dalloway is definitely a major part of what makes the novel so special! This is a really great take on the time frame, and I think you did a great job analyzing the way each character spent this day.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere in her letters and journals during the composition of _Mrs. Dalloway_, Woolf describes her project as something along the lines of "capturing all of life in a single day," and your post reflects this idea very well. There is a sense of everyone's lives always accumulating in the present moment, so that ANY day is always potentially the culmination of a whole life, and the present moment is always constituted by all of the moments leading up to it. And I'm always struck by Clarissa's occasional "be here now" moments, where she feels this overwhelming "love" for everything around her--the chaos and rush of life, "this moment of June."
ReplyDeleteIt's sobering to think of Septimus's story in the same light, since this is going to be his final day alive--and while this catastrophe is foreshadowed (he has announced his suicidal ideations, and Lucrezia is on guard), there is also the sense that, whatever his psychological struggles, Septimus is experiencing the present moment with almost overwhelming intensity. The world can be a living nightmare to him--his "day" a blur of paranoid confusion and flames in the sky--but it can also be so beautiful it brings tears to his eyes. Again, we see Septimus fluctuating on a bipolar spectrum between utter joy and total despair, but Clarissa fluctuates between similar poles throughout the day, just with far less of an extreme range. It all comes down to this core project of attempting to represent in narrative and words what it is to be alive, to fully occupy a moment, to see your life as always culminating in the present day.
I think I had similar takeaways from Clarissa and Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway to you. I found it incredibly interesting how important one particular day was to these two individuals in drastically different ways. You also do a good job of bringing to light just how much we learn about these two characters and their spectrums of emotions in such a short timespan. Good job!
ReplyDeleteNice blog post. I thought this was a good explanation to how this book has a lot of information regarding the various things that the characters are thinking in one day. Granted, this book is told in the third person, and this book does not revolve around one single person; it revolves around multiple people, so you're going to have multiple different thoughts from different people. If this book took place over a span of a few days, the book would probably be a lot longer.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy the parallels to The Mezzanine in your blog post, and I was definitely one of several people who did not make this connection or consider the short timeframe. Much like the Mezzanine, this book stays in the past for an overwhelming amount of time. Memories and experiences fill this novel and are the changing factors of how we perceive and categorize these characters. I do find it interesting that despite having intense and impactful memories, Septimus spends a large amount of time in the present. He does not contribute to the time spent in the past, because he does not have the time or energy to deal with his own memories. Clarissa, on the other hand, is able to mull over the choices she has made, since they do not cause her debilitating feelings. Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteWhile reading through Mrs. Dalloway, I sometimes forgot that the entire book took place in a day. I think this made the book very unique and feel much more interesting then if it had took place over the course of a week or so. I like how you say how this book shows the importance that a single day can have, as this book definitely showcases how a lot can happen within a day.
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