The story takes place in Clarissa's house during a party. Many guests have already arrived and the party is in full swing, but when Sir Bradshaw arrives mentioning Septimus's suicide Clarissa's mood changes. Even if she does not know who Septimus was, Clarissa is upset because such a discussion could ruin the party. However, this announcement leads Clarissa to reflect on life and death before she returns to the party few minutes later.
The extract is composed by 8 sequences following Clarissa's "steam of consciousness" it follows that there is not a linear development of the plot, but there is a quick shift from a subject to another.
When Sir Bradshaw arrives mentioning Septimus's suicide Clarissa begins her interior monologue; first she imagines Septimus throwing himself from a window. The scene is carefully described by the third person narrator, highlighting the most important moments of the event through very short phrases, alliteration "blundering, brushing" and repetitions "thud, thud, thud". Such a poetical style that uses figures of speech in a novel is typical of Virginia Woolf. In addition Clarissa expresses her feelings using harsh sounds "her dress flamed, her body burnt" to underline the way her body reacts to the shock.
The suicide leads Clarissa reflect on life and death because she is curious about reasons that led Septimus to commit suicide. Clarissa realizes that she and her guests live their life, but their conversations and occupation hide something that cannot be avoided: death. Septimus's suicide is an occasion to remember and reflect on death. Clarissa sees death as an "attempt to communicate" because people are alone, without a centre and need to reach something that cannot be reached. That is the reason why Clarissa defines death as "defiance" and as an "embrace".
The intelligent reader easily notices a shift in the rhythm of the narration in the second sequence: long phrases replace short ones and the narration is less pressing.
The third sequence wants to sum up what has come out in the first part of the monologue using a quotation from Shakespeare's Othello.
Then Clarissa wonders what would have happened if Septimus had met Sir Bradshaw. She does not know Septimus was truly a patient of Sir Bradshaw because he was insane. Clarissa uses the fictional meeting to tell what she thinks on Sir Bradshaw. He is defined as a great doctor and extremely polite to women, but also as capable of some indescribable outrage. Therefore Clarissa seems to consider the psychoanalyst as evil behind a polite surface because he is able to influence other people.
In the following section Clarissa shift from death to difficulties of life. She admits she is afraid of life because it cannot be lived serenely until it ends. However, Clarissa has the support of her husband Richard that makes easier to stand and face difficulties This is the paragraph in which the contrast between Clarissa and Septimus can be fully noticed: both characters have understood that life is difficult, but while Clarissa keeps on living, Septimus decided to commit suicide.
Suddenly, the suicide comes back in Clarissa's mind. It is the link to underline the contrast between her easy and successful life and the death and sufferings of other people. She feels oppressed by such thoughts and forces her not to leave the party. Life is perceived by Clarissa as a "profound darkness" in which everyone has to play a role.
Language and structure keep on being slow and complex. Virginia Woolf uses repetitions and long phrases to suggest the slow flow of thoughts in Clarissa's mind and every paragraph is linked to the following one using association of ideas. For instance the memory of a walk at Bourton at the end of the sixth paragraph conveys the idea of the pleasure that derives from the activities of day-to-day life, subject discussed in the following sequence.
The eighth sequence marks the return to the scene. Clarissa walks to the window and has a silent dialogue with an old lady who is going to bed in the opposite after she parted the curtains. Clarissa is fascinated by the silence and the calm conveyed by the old lady in contrast with the drawing-room where the party is in full swing. Clarissa also looks at the sky: it is not as she imagined it because of the wind and the clouds, but it is defined "solemn" in contrast with the chatter in the drawing-room. Nevertheless the turning point of the entire extract is the clock that begins to strike, as shown by the repetition "the clock began striking...with the clock striking the hour...the clock was striking"; it wakes Clarissa up because she will no longer reflect on Septimus or pity him, but she decide to go back to the party.
However, the intelligent reader has to notice the second Shakespeare's quotation "Fear no more the heat of the Sun". It is aimed at summing up the second part of Clarissa's interior monologue: she has to keep on living and go back to the party.