MCorte - The Modern Age - Analysis of final extract from Mrs Dalloway

 

This extract from Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolff is at the end of the novel. In this extract Clarissa has just known about Septimus' suicide and she retires in a side room , away from her guests.
In her room she has an interior monologue confronting herself with the act of this young man . She initially feels annoyed by hearing death news during her party but she can feel and reflect about this event. Firstly she imagine the dead body and she asks herself why he chose death. His monologue is based about relationships between life and death, based attitude to the change of living. Septimus cannot more bear the life and for this he chose to commit suicide; instead Clarissa has not any doubt shows to choose to go living. For this she tries to understand the reasons of Septimus' choice: her conclusions are that death is an attempt to communicate because he cannot be understood by others; this reminds about the matter of communication. This is linked to the research for the center of the life; Septimus' feeling is to be lost due to his lack of communication and also because he can't find any center in his life. This reminds of Modernism because Clarissa's research is about to find a center, that is a sense for our own life. In fact the Modernism looks for any sense in the life even the losing is more and more diffused. Clarissa's reactions are also about the role of Sir William Bradshaw, Septimus's psychoanalyst: using Clarissa's reactions Woolf seems to be hostile to the psychoanalysis; it is certain that Clarissa accuses Bradshaw to be responsible for Septimus' death because he could have encouraged him to commit suicide.
In this extract there is a third person narrator and this allows writer and reader to adopt and follow Clarissa's reactions and thoughts. For this the narrator is also omniscient because she knows everything about actions and thoughts of her character. She adopts the technique of interior monologue to report Clarissa's feelings. Woolf's writing also uses a lot of repetitions and onomatopoeias to emphasize what Clarissa feels, both reflecting Septimus' thoughts and expressing her own ones.
Concluding this reflection is based on the contrast between Clarissa and Septimus about their choices about life and death. For Septimus death is necessary as a defiance to the difficulties of life; in the moment of suicide he comes at a moment of being that represents his final aim. Instead Clarissa thinks death is coming too but she choose to accept life and go living, because she also looks for any sense in her life that could be found.