Eng426 20th century english literature

Psychological Stories: In Mrs Dalloway, the treatment of characters and incidents is essentially psychological in nature. Each character is seen as a result of various experiences that he or she has gone through. Clarissa’s rejection of Peter’s proposal of marriage has influenced all his later thoughts and actions. The effects of war experiences on a sensitive mind are explored through the character of Septimus who, years after the cessation of the war, is seen struggling frantically to come to terms with and then to overcome his experience of war and death, and then of disenchantment and madness:“…he threatened, to kill himself – to throw himself under a cart! ...there he was;
still sitting alone on the seat, in his shabby overcoat, his legs crossed, staring, talking aloud.” (Mrs. Dalloway, 21).

The details concerning the tortured feelings of Septimus, the reasons behind his present mental state, his delusions and his reactions to everyday incidents, as well as his mistrust and abhorrence of the doctors, Clarissa’s thoughts and mental reactions, Peter’s life as seen through his thoughts and those of others, are vividly presented. The novel broods on death: the deaths of loved ones during the war, Clarissa and Septimus’ meditated death and the latter’s success at suicide. Existence becomes an illusion and the likes of Miss Kilman and Lucrezia feel alone and unloved, even Richard Dalloway finds it difficult to express his love for Clarissa.

Focus on Characterisation: In her essay, “Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown,” Woolf posits that the foundation of good fiction is characterisation and nothing else, and that the character’s inner life should be presented as it is instead of burdening the narrative with details of the environment. In Mrs. Dalloway, there is the focus on characters’ consciousnesses and how the happenings in their past and present affect them and how they respond to these realities. While Septimus commits suicide as he could no longer survive the trauma of the war, the doctors and his wife’s intrusion, Clarissa is seen at the end of her party thinking that “she must assemble” (158).