Learning Paths » 5C Interacting
Analysis: What an extraordinary night
by - (2012-01-20)
Up to 5C - Modernist fiction. V. Woolf and J. Joyce
WHAT AN EXTRAORDINARY NIGHT
The text is an extract taken from "Mrs. Dalloway" written by Virginia Woolf. In this extract Clarissa gets to know that Septimus, a patient of Dr. Bradshaw has committed suicide.
When Clarissa is informed about the new even if she doesn't know the young man, she retires in a room away from her party; she thinks about the young man decision and starts to reflect about life and death.
Clarissa thinks that Septimus can be forced by Sir Bradshaw, his psychoanalyst, which makes come to surface worst aspects of Septimus's life.
After this Clarissa realize that death is a concept which appare every time in human mind, and she also realize that she didn't committed suicide after her husband's death, and this makes her happy.
The narrator is in third person and omniscient; and his point of view coincide with the Clarissa's one. The tecnique used by Woolf in this text is the interior monologue which makes the reader understand feeling and toughts of the charachters.
In this extract Virginia use Septimus's suicide as a pretext to talk about life and death and to promote Clarissa's reflection. The writer also make clear the differents choice maked by Septimus and Clarissa.