How Holmes Ruined a Good Moment

Often, one of the most heart-wrenching things a book can do is create a character that you bond with, only to kill him/her off. In Mrs. Dalloway, I don't know how much I loved Septimus, but I definitely started understanding him. I was quite touched by how he and Lucrezia were able to have happy moment together, for the first time in a while. It was all Lucrezia wanted. And it helps us see that Septimus and Lucrezia weren't in a completely loveless or lifeless marriage. 

Maybe I'm reading too deep into their scene of friendship and enjoyment. Maybe I don't understand exactly went on in that moment. But at that point, both Septimus and Lucrezia really started growing on me. Their points of view even started becoming similar. They thought about each other, rather than worrying about their own worlds. In the beginning of Mrs. Dalloway, I felt like Septimus and Lucrezia were so far apart. Septimus was in a different world and Lucrezia, much to Septimus's dismay, had to drag him back to the "real" world. But now, they were enjoying themselves. Septimus was struggling to keep himself in Lucrezia's world, but he did it, at least for a moment. I don't know if he did it for himself or for her, but it was nice to see. 

When Holmes knocked on the door, both Septimus and Lucrezia immediately reacted  negatively. This is another example of their having similar points of view. Lucrezia told Holmes to leave, but instead, he pushed her aside and came in. His level of insensitivity at that moment was astonishing, considering that he probably knew Septimus didn't like him. I believe Woolf was trying to antagonize Holmes at this point. His behavior is rude and borderline idiotic. If there was even a slight chance that he could be a trigger for Septimus's suicide (which there was), he should have been much more careful. 

Holmes didn't intentionally cause Septimus's death, but it's really easy to feel like he did due to the tension of the moment. It just happened at the worst possible time, because Lucrezia was finally content. I appreciate how Lucrezia tried to keep Holmes out of the house; it really displays her loyalty to Septimus. But, Holmes still got in. It's obvious that Holmes triggered Septimus's suicide because Septimus wasn't feeling as tense before Holmes came (and if he was, he found ways to lessen the tension), so Septimus probably wasn't planning on killing himself before Holmes came. Septimus didn't want to die either, which made it worse. All he wanted to do was escape from Holmes and the "human nature" that he represented. Septimus saw jumping out of the window as his only option. 

To make things worse, Holmes called him a coward for doing so. This especially shows that Holmes had no understanding of or sensitivity to what Septimus was feeling. It's easy to become completely angry at Holmes; I know I definitely am. I think Holmes's behavior is definitely supposed to anger the reader. So Virginia Woolf might have been trying to make a point of how (psychiatric) doctors of her time behaved (and treated her). Doctors didn't necessarily treat Woolf the same way they treated Septimus, but Woolf definitely had some negative feelings towards her doctors. 

Mrs. Dalloway may sometimes seem like it lacks heavy and obvious emotion, because the characters have so many emotions fused together that it's hard to read just one. But this scene definitely has emotional depth that can manifest heavy feelings among readers. I didn't like Septimus or Lucrezia that much before this scene, but I came out of this scene enraged with Holmes and sympathetic to Septimus and Lucrezia for the trauma that they went through. 

Peter Walsh's Role in Mrs. Dalloway

I don't know what most people expected Peter Walsh to be, but I thought someone who got this much interest from Clarissa must be pretty amazing. In the beginning of Mrs. Dalloway, before you learn the characters' true natures, it seems that Clarissa Dalloway is married to some boring politician type and that she really misses Peter. I assumed Peter would be this pretty great guy who rescued Clarissa from her marriage. I didn't know much about Clarissa's relationship with her husband Richard, but I just sort of assumed that they wouldn't work out based on patterns of other books that I've read. 

At first, Peter seemed like Clarissa's lost love who had some annoying traits. But as I learned more about him, I could tell that thinking about him bothered Clarissa. It didn't bother her because she missed him so much. It bothered her because she could always hear him criticizing her. They may have had passion in their relationship, but she doesn't seem happy when she thinks about Peter. And throughout the book, we learn more about Clarissa and Richard's relationship, which is much less boring than one would expect. 

Every time Clarissa used to think that Peter would judge her for marrying a politician, I thought that Richard would be some stuck-up, selfish politician. But Richard loves Clarissa a lot, and their relationship seems very warm and relaxed. It may lack the passion of Peter and Clarissa, but that doesn't mean that it's bad. In one chapter, Richard was very intent on giving Clarissa something to show his love for her, even after they had been married for quite a while. Richard and Clarissa do definitely love each other, which is why I don't know where Peter fits in the scheme of things.

Clarissa and Peter definitely have something, but I don't know if I would call it love. Maybe it used to be love, and maybe it still is, but it's not quite obvious. Peter tries to convince himself that he doesn't love Clarissa, and he claims to love another woman. But why then would he come to her house and cry (for reasons that still aren't 100% clear)? I know I sound biased against Peter, which I probably am, but I'm basing most of my information on how Clarissa sounds when she thinks about him. She sometimes enjoys moments with him, but whenever she thinks about him, his criticisms of her always seem to pop up in her head. I don't think Clarissa likes feeling this burden of Peter; she doesn't necessarily hate it, but it doesn't make her happy. So I wonder what Peter is going to do for the rest of Mrs. Dalloway. He is obviously a significant character and he is in the same town as Clarissa, but what could become of Peter and Clarissa? Could they potentially make each other happy despite all of their problems? If not, then why is Peter there? I hope that this will become obvious as the book progresses.