Mrs Dalloway - Modernism

Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, is a novel that encapsulates the Modernist paradigm, with its complex structure and thematic concerns about individuality and society.   As in reality, each character has different perceptions of the world around them, evident in the contrasting manner in which Clarissa and Septimus observe a motorcar.   Clarissa acknowledges the car as the carriage of an important person, while Septimus feels it is invasive and threatening in its mechanical monstrosity.   Symbolically, to him, it represents that the world has, “raised its whip”, and promotes fears that this “whip” will soon descend on him.   His fear is conveyed in a fragmented passage, with the aural imagery making the threat seem imminent, “the throb of the motor engines sounded like a pulse irregularly drumming through an entire body”.   Woolf is demonstrating that the personal context of an individual determines the perceptions of the individual.   In fact, with Septimus, Woolf attempts to create a character that symbolises Modernism as a whole.   His personal experiences include the suffering he has done for society in his attempt to protect England in war. Yet ironically, society does not cater for the impact of that war on the individual.   Woolf characterises Septimus through the imagery of him acting, “inappropriately,” according to societal expectations.   His incongruous behaviour has him living in his own imaginary world, where, metaphorically, he sees, “legions of men prostrate behind him… the giant mourner”.   Post-traumatic stress is preventing him from being unable to move beyond the suffering of war, and he continues to mourn those lost.   In particular he regularly hallucinates about his friend, Evans, who died at war.   Through Septimus and society’s neglect of him, Woolf is challenging the treatment of the mentally ill and those who suffer from depression.   Her personal context impacts the novel in this respect. Hence, through several literary techniques, Woolf expresses...