Essay: Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf) / T.S. Eliot – psyche

Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot both sought a return to self-reflection as a response to their perception of the artificial and corrupt societies of their era, and in doing so integrated inversions of societal constructs of the time to create classic modernist texts, while at the same time using these works to critique their respective societies. Through these texts, authors begin to approach the puzzling question of what the psyche truly is. Both authors investigate the effects of WW1 on the psyche – most importantly through the exploration of the mental illnesses that the characters are seen to be afflicted with; through the mental decay of Septimus and the Tarot cards of Madame Sosostris we can see the emergence of an exploration of mental health, as a response to the emergence of Psychology which had been founded in Freud’s recent works.
Madness was a key concept that manifested within the psyche of society during the 1920s, as many soldiers were just returning from WW1 there was a sharp rise in the number of people suffering from what we now call mental illnesses, such as PTSD or Depression. However, the understanding of such illnesses were restricted to the point where mental illnesses were simply dubbed as “madness”, and those who were seen to be suffering from symptoms of such illnesses were simply “mad”. As Modernism aimed to bring changes in the fundamentals of society by bringing controversial topics to light, we can see how both Woolf and Eliot integrate aspects of “madness” within their texts in order to question society’s values regarding mental illness at the time.
One of the most notable aspects of Mrs. Dalloway is the form in which it was written. Woolf utilises the device of the Stream of Consciousness in order to portray such “madness”, a writing form that became extremely popular in the modernist movement, mainly because of its complete contrast to traditional narration. Rather than having a character soliloquy, addressing an audience or an absent third person, this type of writing often lacks punctuation and traditional grammatical structure, which heavily reflects what the modernists were writing for. This style of narration that is meant to mimic the flow of humans thoughts and, within this imitation, the way the human brain loosely jumps from thought to thought is accurately captured within the writing, and in this case Woolf uses it throughout the novel in order to allow her readers to see more deeply into her characters’ minds. An example of how powerful this technique is occurs when Clarissa watches taxis drive by – “She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs; […] she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day. […] How she had got through life on the few twigs of knowledge Fraulein Daniels gave them she could not think. She knew nothing; […] and yet to her it was absolutely absorbing; the cabs passing; and she would not say of Peter, she would not say of herself, I am this, I am that.” Here, Woolf creates a sense of the individual’s sense of self through a stream of consciousness that moves, using associative leaps and sensory impressions, from her experience of the world as overwhelming to a moment of introspection. This introspection supports Alex Zwerdling’s affirmation of Clarissa “deliberately looking at an object from the inside”, and this allows Woolf to succeed in conveying not only the content but also the structure and process of the thoughts of Mrs. Dalloway. Utilising the stream of consciousness gave authenticity to the experiences described within the novel, and mirrored the universal human experience within her contemporary society as WW1 changed how people saw the world; considering she was writing between the wars the changes that occured in her society were unforeseen, and it was something that no one had experienced before.
It is this stream of consciousness that allows readers to experience Septimus Smith’s mental breakdown that leads to his suicide. The initial presentation of Septimus clearly demonstrates the contemporary perception of mental illness that Woolf was writing to fight; his wife is seen to think he “had nothing whatever seriously the matter with him but was a little out of sorts.” This underplay of the observed PTSD that Septimus is seen to be battling throughout the novel depicts the contemporary perception of mental illness being nothing of importance. However, Woolf demonstrates to the reader that this is not the case, as the reader witnesses Septimus’ journey through his mental disorder. To begin with, readers can observe the distortion of reality that the war has resulted in, when the car backfires in the beginning of the novel the difference in the reaction between Septimus and Clarissa speaks volumes. Mrs. Dalloway instantly assumes that it is a “pistol shot in the street outside.” Woolf’s distortion of reality here, even through Mrs Dalloway who had no experience of war, conveys the preoccupied nature of society at the time – in the post WWI era, trauma could be seen in citizens of all walks of life. Additionally, the irony that it is a gunshot that cuts Septimus’ contact with reality portrays the gravity of his PTSD. Instead, he infers the noise to be the sound of a whip cracking – “The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?” This event begins to portray the decay of Septimus’ mental health as he is left terrified of a whip crack, whereas the rest of London is seen to carry on with their routines after assuming that the same noise was something a lot more fatal. This difference in reaction from characters is important because of the parallel it allows Woolf to draw between herself and Septimus; Woolf suffered from bipolar disorder after her mother died when she was 13. A symptom of bipolar disorder is mania – so by making everything “come to a standstill” for Septimus, and him only being able to move on because of his wife pulling him away, demonstrates the distortion of reality that he faces, even within seemingly normal events. This distortion of reality that Septimus faces is, as Paul Brown puts it, due to the fact that “he feels himself connected to everything around him to a greater degree than any other character.“ If one goes by this reading we can witness a subtle note regarding mental illness by Woolf – by rendering Septimus petrified due to an excess of connection to the world furthering the motif of him suffering from mania.
Another key event in the novel which accurately portrays the effect of WW1 on soldiers, and the stigma of mental illness within Woolf’s society, is Septimus’ suicide. This scene is where it is most evident that Septimus’ story is an extension of Woolf’s own story. The lead up to Septimus’ death is rather beautiful, but simultaneously gives a horrifically realistic account of what suffering with a mental illness is like which serves as a reflection of the time that Woolf had to be taken away to a psychiatric institution after attempting suicide on 10th May, 1904. The abrupt nature of suicide becomes one of the most poignant scenes in the novel, as just within a few pages we can see Septimus undergo a huge amount of pain due to his “affliction”. The readers see Septimus’ character react over an apparent small thing – Mrs. Peter’s hat. Over this hat, readers see Septimus joke about how the woman “looked like a pig at a fair.” We also see the effect fixing her hat has on him, as the narration reveals that “Never had he done anything which made him feel so proud. It was so real, it was so substantial”. This extract gives the readers hope of Septimus’ recovery past WW1, as he can finally identify with things that are happening in the real world, unlike before (i.e. the car backfiring scene). The fact that Woolf uses “substantial” is also important, as it counters the readers’ prior observation of Septimus slowly unravelling into existentialism. This motif is also presented earlier, when he describes WW1, the event that essentially makes his character, as a “little shindy of schoolboys with gunpowder”. However, despite him making mental progress, we can see his mental health overpower him once again – within the same section of him being “very happy”, we see the mania appear within his mind again, as the “sounds of the game” distort into “the cries of people seeking and not finding”. It is within his suicide that we can see the everlasting effect of WW1 on his mental wellbeing – his last words are “I’ll give it to you!” This is a multifaceted line, as Mr. Holmes intends to carry Septimus off, one can interpret the surrendering of his body to a higher authority as an effect of the indoctrination of obedience to authority as a soldier. However, this line is what allows readers to see the divide in Septimus, and all people – the divide between physical and mental beings. While Septimus hands over his physical self, arguably his refusal to go with Mr. Holmes is him preserving his mental self. Woolf almost romanticises this aspect of Septimus’ suicide, as he is metaphorically stopping some sort of plague – his mental health has been seen to affect others before, “it was she (his wife) that had suffered – but she had nobody to tell.” Woolf presents this final act of suicide as something that is positive for Septimus’ relationship with his wife, as for the first time in the entire book, his wife is seen to understand him. The method of suicide Woolf chooses for Septimus is particularly interesting, as it refers to a letter she wrote to her sister on 28th July, 1910, titled “Shut up in the Dark”. This was during the time where she was forced to spend time at Burley House, where she was subject to partial isolation, deprivation of literature and force-feeding. She wrote “I shall soon have to jump out of a window” – by mirroring her planned suicide attempt in Septimus, we can affirm our belief that Septimus is a reliving of Woolf within Mrs. Dalloway.
An archetype employed by T.S. Eliot across a variety of his poems which can be seen in many of his works, including The Hollow Men is a fragmented narrative that is purposely obscure and distorted in order to incorporate a variety of Voices, multiple points of view and abrupt shifts in dramatic context, which John Crowe Ransom dubs as “extreme disconnection”. Throughout the The Wasteland, Eliot sticks to traditional forms of verse, and instead of changing his form like Woolf does, he juxtaposes the traditional form with images of contemporary culture but weaves in references to classical literature and myths. An example of this is in lines 172-173, the use of “Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.” is directly taken from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, these lines belong to Ophelia, and are her departing words to Queen Gertrude and King Claudius before her suicide. This specific use of intertextuality allows Eliot to intertwine aspects of madness into his work given her mental state in Hamlet, countering critics such as A. Richards who claim that this link is made merely to further the fragmentation of the poem Arguably the reason mental health is such a prominent theme in The Wasteland is because Eliot himself was seen to suffer from mental illness, as in 1921 (1 year before the publishing of The Wasteland) he had a mental break that resulted in him taking a 3 month hiatus from his normal life – and during this time he wrote this first part of the poem. A key character in The Wasteland that presents the theme of mental health is Madame Sosostris and her “wicked pack of cards”. Through these cards, modern readers can observe Eliot’s attempt to bring awareness to the symptoms of mental health through creating “rather unconventional cards” (as Jessie L. Weston puts it) compared to the traditional Tarot card set – an epitome of this being “The One-Eyed Merchant”. One possible interpretation of this is the closed eye being suggestive of the fear of what one will see if one doesn’t attempt to control their thoughts, and the other being left open as imagery of merely existing, not looking for anything more. This could also be interpreted as the fear of what one will see which is also representative of mania – a symptom of many mental illnesses. The title of the card is also arguably fitting to “The Wasteland”, as the title suggests it is full of horrors that many are too scared to look at. Another card that is worth analysing is “The Hanged Man” – this card typically depicts the inability to change one’s future, and in this case the inability to change anything about The Wasteland. Given that the man is hung, he is seen to be forced into a position with no choice but to just watch what unravels in front of him. Although to contemporary readers, this would be interpreted as nothing but a device for Eliot to further portray the doomed nature of The Wasteland – modern readers with an understanding of mental health will interpret this as the feeling of one who is suffering with the inability to change their future. This is what typically results in suicides, and is also present in many mental disorders. Therefore, through this character and through these Tarot cards, readers can observe Eliot showing the symptoms of mental illnesses to his readers who were presumably uneducated about it.
Eliot and Woolf explore not only mental health but also the root cause of it in their characters at a time when society would have been dismissive of such phenomena. Within Mrs. Dalloway, the theme of sexual repression is strongly conveyed throughout the novel. Several critics, such as Joseph Allen Boone and Ann Ronchetti, have explored the topic of homosexuality in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. These critics view not only Clarissa Dalloway as a “repressed homosexual victimized by patriarchal culture,” but Septimus Warren Smith as a victim of this as well. For both Clarissa and Septimus have emotionally, if not physically, intimate relationships with friends of the same sex, and the inability to openly experience such relationships is arguably a factor in the development of their mental illnesses. According to critic Alex Zwerdling, “Woolf’s fiction frequently depicts homosexual and lesbian attachments with sympathy and yet without special pleading,” therefore challenging Victorian sexual prejudices by treating homosexual characters with the same basic dignity as sexually conventional characters. Septimus Warren Smith shares a friendship with Evans, his commanding officer, while “in the trenches” where he “develops his manliness”. The nature of their friendship is relatively ambiguous, but could be perceived as being one that also extends beyond a platonic heterosexual friendship – Woolf first hints towards this when she claims “They had to be together, share with each other, fight with each other, quarrel with each other”. The idea of “having to be together” clearly suggests that there was more to their relationship. Another allusion towards a homosexual relationship is when Evans is killed, and Septimus discovers that he has ceased to feel anything – his ability to connect emotionally dies with Evans. Septimus “became engaged one evening when the panic was on him – that he could not feel”, suggesting that his experience during the war has numbed him towards emotional attachment, and he uses Lucrezia as a last hope to restore any feeling. This almost forceful marriage can be seen to reflect T.S. Elliot himself, as Woolf and Eliot were close and she observed him rush into a “sudden” marriage to Vivienne Haigh-Wood, which according to James E. Miller “took place after Verdenal’s [Eliot’s supposed homosexual partner] death”. Through this, readers can begin to see Septimus as a representation of all those suffering with mental illness within their contemporary societies. Septimus also experiences great remorse for having “lied to her, seduced her”. The ambiguity within this line suggests that it is possible that his greatest remorse is the fact that he could never openly confess his love for Evans, rather than having lied to Lucrezia about his love. The fact that Evans appears one of his hallucinations and that he repeatedly wonders what would happen “…if he confessed? If he communicated? Would they let him off then, his torturers?”. Therefore it is possible that the guilt he feels for “lying” is the result of repressed homosexuality and the guilt for harboring feelings beyond his control.
Eliot also deals with the topic of sexual repression within his poem. To begin with, the character of Phlebas is associated with Shakespeare’s Ferdinand in The Tempest, with this association being formed due to Eliot taking the line “Those are the pearls that were his eyes. Look” from The Tempest where it is part of Ariel’s song. The speaker’s implied (sexual) idealisation of Phlebas possibly echoes Eliot’s dead friend Verdena, as suggested by John Peter. This is a portrayal of homoerotic desire, most distinctly in the image of ‘the pearls that were his eyes’. This viewpoint is supported by Colleen Lamos, who argues that ‘the intertwining of homophilia and homophobia in the same gesture attests to the productivity of the homosexual prohibition, which feeds upon the desire that it constraints’. This homoerotic undertone combined with the fact that Eliot had been getting attention throughout his lifetime due to his supposed homosexuality confirms that there is some semblance of sexual repression by the narrator concerning Phlebas. Later in the poem, in ‘Death by Water’, the speaker mourns Phlebas. The tone is melancholic, morbid and strikingly tender. However, when concerned with female victims, the mood of the poem is rather aggressive and guilty; now that the victim is male it is soft, which again supports a homoerotic interpretation. This change in tone from tender to laced with guilt reflects the inevitable frustration and shame as a result of repressing natural sexuality. Considering that Eliot had to be careful in his presentation of such topics, it is no surprise that, as the Times Literary Supplement puts it, Eliot creates a “zig-zag of allusion” that needs to be deciphered in order to comprehend what he is talking about – this explains why even seemingly irrelevant homoerotic undertones are of great importance within works such as The Wasteland.
In conclusion, Eliot and Woolf shared an interest in the suffering of the human mind, and they each mirror their lives between the texts. As established by Erwin R. Steinberg, the two had become rather close by the time Woolf began to write Mrs. Dalloway – Woolf even went as far to publish Eliot’s first poetry anthology in May of 1919 through her Hogarth Press. This is arguably the reason why the texts can be seen to echo each other; for example Septimus describes himself as “the drowned sailor; the poet of the immortal ode; the Lord who had gone from life to death”. This description is then seen to resonate in The Wasteland through the lines “He who was living is now dead/We who were living are now drying”. This is an example of the many shared motifs across the texts – another being the importance of time. In The Wasteland “Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours/With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine”, and the theme of clocks is then seen to be picked up in Mrs. Dalloway through the various connotations to time – “Love- but here […] the clock which always struck two minutes after Big Ben”, “a commercial clock […] in Oxford Street, announced genially and fraternally.” The sense of being locked in time creates a mental prison that neither protagonist can escape. The natural progression of humanity to move with time is corrupted by Woolf and Eliot to portray the invasive and alienating nature of mental illness. This exploration of the psyche and the infliction of mental illness within their texts not only brings attention to the subject of mental health but it also allows them to critique their contemporary society’s inability to recognise such issues.