Septimus, They Failed You.

By: Joseph Santilli

Suicide is quite an act to make. To some, it is shameful – a demonstration of weakness and inability to cope with life’s problems. To others suicide is admirable – an act of defiance, a form of protest. In Mrs. Dalloway, one of Virginia Woolf’s novels, there is a character by the name of Septimus who is suffering from post-traumatic stress. This has left him feeling devoid of emotions and hallucinating a dead war friend. In short, he is labeled as insane – a lunatic. At the end of the novel Septimus ends his life, the most shocking event to take place in the book. This act of suicide, however, is not only revealing of Septimus’ fragile state, but also of society’s failure to demonstrate human compassion and to aid a fellow human being.

The doctors that tended to Septimus are the one’s most responsible for his suicide. They are, first and foremost, important figures in society, for they are doctors – people who work for society as a whole, and try to fix its health issues. The first problem occurs when the doctor’s both conflict in their handlings of Septimus’ condition. Dr. Holmes was the first doctor to treat Septimus. When he first diagnosed Septimus, he found that “there was nothing whatever the matter”, and if anything, “hoped to find [Septimus] out of bed”, paying more attention to his wife. Dr. William Bradshaw, however, took a different route with Septimus. He desired for Septimus to remain in bed and separated from those who “he [was] fond of most”, specifically his wife. The two men were “different in their verdict”, and this only led to further instability in Septimus’ life. Septimus was even led to believe that he had done something terribly wrong for he came to wonder, “what was his crime?”, for “he could not remember it”. Though most likely not the intention of the doctors, the negative result upon Septimus had been made. He was left confused on how to fix his problem, and then further led to believe that his problem was as serious as to be some sort of crime, one he could not figure out.

Whenever Bradshaw and Holmes are discussed, they are discussed along with the amount of money they garner and their characteristic of being forceful. Bradshaw and Holmes are described as “men who made ten thousand a year” and who “saw nothing clear, yet ruled, yet inflicted”. Ten thousand a year is a high number and to make such an amount is indicative of the high reputations given to these doctors, which in turn gives power to their advice. If they had been doctors of no significant reputation, the advice given would have not been used. But since people are paying large sums of money to get their advice, they will most likely be highly submissive to the treatments provided. Septimus never wanted the advice of the two doctors in the first place, yet his wife had insisted upon it. He had realized that the doctors never understood his situation. They saw things from one perspective: the biological side. They saw his problems as a symptom of some sort of bodily malfunction, and didn’t even bother to realize his problem from an emotional aspect, thus proving their seeing “nothing clear”. Therefore the imposed treatments, and conflicting ideas of treatment only aggravated Septimus’ situation. One doctor, Sir William Bradshaw, was to be feared because he prospered, but it is not said that he prospered through helping the mentally disturbed. Rather, he prospered by “seclud[ing] [England’s] lunatics”. The word choice used makes a big difference in describing Bradshaw’s success. Using the word “help” has a positive connotation, indicating some kind of good willed nature. The use of the word “seclude”, however, provides for a negative image of Bradshaw. He hides England’s lunatics, he doesn’t help them, and the way he manages his profession is akin to sweeping the dust under the rug. There is no demonstration of human compassion in this quote. Bradshaw is also said to stifle the voices of England’s “lunatics”, one of which is Septimus in Bradshaw’s (and ultimately society’s) eyes. Bradshaw “made it impossible for the unfit to propagate their views” until they “shared his sense of proportion”. What we get of Bradshaw is a forceful image: someone who stuffs people into a box and who takes what ‘normal’ people see as the weird of society and forces it to “share his sense of proportion”. One gets the impression of a wealthy mad doctor, bending the will of others because society has given him the power to do so. Poor Septimus was in the hands of Bradshaw, and because society advocated Bradshaw’s high reputation, they in turn are the one’s responsible for Septimus’ suicide, thus confirming their failure to help him.

Towards the end of Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway confirmed society’s failure in her thoughts. While Clarissa hosted her party, Mrs. Bradshaw revealed that they were late due to the suicide of one of Mr. Bradshaw’s patients (Septimus). On a side note, it is interesting that Mr. Bradshaw is able to attend a party with his wife after having just dealt with a patient’s suicide, another human being whose health was in his hands. How one human can be so indifferent to the death of another is appalling. It shows how no human connection was ever established between the two characters, proving that Mr. Bradshaw most likely engaged in his practice merely for the money. Clarissa is perturbed that Septimus’ suicide is talked about at her party, yet couldn’t help to ponder its meaning. She realized that “death was an attempt to communicate”, and that Septimus’ suicide was an act of defiance. She understood a lot about his situation, but unfortunately said that she did “not pity him…with all [of] this going on”. “All [of] this going on” most likely references the party she hosted, and she comes to believe that his death was “somehow her disaster-her disgrace”. What can be derived from this is that she understands her role in a society that failed Septimus. First she acknowledges her indifference to his death: “she did not pity him”, and then proceeds to acknowledge her debasement of participating in such a society: “somehow it was her disaster-her disgrace”.

Society’s failure to aid Septimus shows two things: 1) that in their fear of the insane, society will get rid of the problem by any means and 2) human’s ultimately do have other things on their minds besides the interest’s of others. The doctors that tended to Septimus’ condition had their reputations in mind, which further fueled their high incomes. Clarissa Dalloway, a representation of a part of society, had her party, which had to be a success so as to further her own social relations, even if that meant not caring much for the suicide of Septimus. People are inherently selfish, and wish to further themselves either through money, reputation, or both. Whatever the reason, this selfishness could have been the one thing Septimus had come to fear in society, what he, throughout the book, called “human nature”.

 

Sources:

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. London: Harcourt, Inc., 1925. Print.