The Character of Septimus Warren Smith in Mrs Dalloway

Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In on self-place; for where we are is hell
And where hell is, there must we ever be

~Dr Faustus, Christopher Marlowe

The nature of literature is such that certain stories remain alive and relevant in all ages. Virginia Woolf seems to corroborate this fact through the depiction of some of the most complex characters in her novel, Mrs Dalloway, which, at some level, has echoes of truths explained in literary texts of the past. It does not seem ironical, then, that the above quoted lines from an iconic play of the sixteenth century should resonate with Woolf’s characterization of Septimus Warren Smith in the twentieth century.

Initially Septimus was a poet and a patriot. In an ideal world, he would have epitomized the ‘dignity of man’ (to borrow a phrase from Pico). However, he does not belong to the ideal world. He is the product of modern times of the twentieth century, which has witnessed the ravages of the world wars propelled by man-made technology. In the name of progress, humankind has regressed into barbarism, yielding violence and causing irreparable devastation. The bleak reality of modern Europe, marked by mass destruction, loss, pain and chaos, has indeed rendered the project of modernity a failure. It is no wonder, then, that life seems meaningless, and all efforts futile. In the context of this man-made hell, it is justified to say that Septimus in Mrs Dalloway represents an existential being.

Septimus lives in a state of psychic paralysis. His mind has become a torture chamber, an inferno. It is interesting to note that his very name – Septimus – is a reference to the Seventh Circle of Dante’s Inferno. In this circle, the guilty are punished mercilessly for their sins. While no-one condemns Septimus for any crime, he imposes guilt upon himself for reasons known only to himself – killing in war, his homoerotic affection for Evans, and his shallow marriage to Rezia.

Out of an idealistic notion of patriotism, Septimus had enrolled himself in the army. He sincerely wanted to contribute to his country. However, after witnessing sheer bestiality and senseless wastage of human life during the war, he becomes completely disillusioned. He understands that under the veneer of the glory of war lies mass killing and death. Even his dear friend Evans meets an untimely end in this war. Thus, for Septimus, the ideal of patriotism comes undone, and the horror of war leaves him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Trapped in post-war existential crisis and afflicted with mental illness, Septimus returns from the war numb and disoriented. He sees Evans returning from the grave. It is, in fact, Septimus’ own guilt that gnaws at his soul. This guilt is further accentuated by his passionless marriage to Rezia, whom he marries out of sheer panic, because “he could not feel”. It links to the idea of the death of the soul – a condition in which one realizes that one cannot feel, and that one’s imagination has died. This numbness makes Septimus feel that there is loss of dignity of the human race. The emotional poverty that he goes through troubles him to a great extent, and every time he has the idea of lacunae in his mind, he indicates at the emotional vacuum around him.

Septimus’ emotions seem to reflect Woolf’s own anguished sensibility at the time. Like Septimus, she also loved her sister, had homoerotic feelings for her friends, and had a passionless marriage to Leonard Woolf. Moreover, she, too, was a victim of mental illness. As one of the earliest advocates of mental illness and professing empathy for patients going through depression, Woolf uses the novel and the character of Septimus to voice her disdain for doctors who claim to be the authority in the situation and seem to have no regard for the real feelings of the patient. In Mrs Dalloway, Septimus feels oppressed by the continual bulldozing of Dr Holmes and Dr Bradshaw. So, in order to save the privacy of his soul, he decides not to see them anymore.

Even as Woolf was grappling with the privacy of her own soul, in a broader sense she, too, saw the death of the soul of her contemporary society, which had made claims to progress and development by sacrificing human values and emotions. Therefore, to end the miasma in such a society, her creative solution was to sacrifice a character who was constantly dwelling in a state of emotional poverty. Septimus Warren Smith fit the bill perfectly. Septimus feels that the world is only a reflection of his own anguish. There is no way he can escape it. This proves Christopher Marlowe’s point that Hell is not a physical space; rather, it is a condition created by humankind right here on earth. There is no escaping this condition, for it persists as much within oneself as without. This is the trap – the eternal, ubiquitous hell – from which Septimus is unable to break himself free. Len Marcus comments:

Septimus feels like a trapped animal. He sacrifices his body to save the privacy of his soul.
He preserves his autonomy in a final, wilful act of self-destruction. He is Christ-figure,
sacrificed for the sins of the mankind for cruelty, egotism and authoritarian brutality.

In English folklore, the seventh sun is deemed lucky, restorative, and gifted with occult powers. Critics believe that by calling him Septimus, Woolf represents him as a restorative power. Thus, Septimus becomes a scapegoat, a significant figure in Greek mythology, who pays for others’ sins. In Christianity, this scapegoat is the messiah. In some ways, Septimus finds himself as a messiah-like figure. It is a mythical idea by which a solitary figure informs the metaphorical world. Septimus carries within himself guilt as well as godliness. So, he looks upon himself as someone who has to set forth order in society by surrendering to the disorder within himself. At the same time, he does not allow himself to be violated. His soul is too pristine for him to be bulldozed into submission by authoritarian doctors and the like in a world which is not even worth living in anymore. So, in a final act of preserving his private self, he leaps from a window to his death. “Death was defiance…there was an embrace in death.” This is how Septimus ultimately breaks free from hell that has consumed the soul of the modern human being.

(c) Riya Payal, 2020