The Realities of War (Content Warning: Suicide)
The Realities of War Although the main character of the story in Clarissa Dalloway, Virginia Woolf created a just as, if not more, complex character in Septimus Smith. Septimus is introduced as a war veteran who seems to have lost all sense of what is real, relying on his wife, Lucrezia (Rezia for short), to attend to his every need. We quickly switch to Rezia’s point of view, where we learn more about Septimus’s situation. We learn that he was a veteran of World War 1, and after he quickly marries the daughter, Rezia, of an Italian family who was housing him. Once they are married, Septimus’s psychology quickly deteriorates, prompting Rezia to call upon Dr. Holmes and eventually Sir William Bradshaw. Both doctors attempt to “treat” Septimus in different ways, both of which do nothing but harm Septimus more, which eventually leads to his tragic fate. Virginia Woolf uses the character of Septimus Smith not only as a method of showing Clarissa Dalloway’s inner self but, more impo...