An Abstract View of Death in Mrs.Dalloway and The Hours
Works Cited Missing
In Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours contradictory and almost altered views
of death are presented. Virginia Woolf and Michael Cunningham portray
death as escape for some, but an entrapment for others. It is no
longer treated as a subject to worry about or fear, which society now
views it as. A line from Shakespeare's Cymbeline, "Fear no more the
heat o' the sun / Nor the furious winter rages," sums up what the
authors of Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours are trying to convey. Meaning
that death is not something to fear, and life should be lived to the
fullest.
The thought of death streamlines through several character's
narratives in both novels. In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway and
Septimus Warren Smith are haunted with thoughts of death, while in The
Hours, Richard Brown and Laura Brown also share similar thoughts.
Their feelings on the subject are, however, different. It can also be
said that their motives for dying or wanting to die are also quite
different.
The characters' thoughts, feelings, and reasons of death bring about
parallel relationships between the two novels. Septimus Warren Smith,
in my opinion, parallels Richard Brown. The most common fact between
them is that they are both the only people that actually die in their
respective story. They share a similar feeling toward death, in that
they both want to use it as an escape. They have very different
reasons why they choose suicide, yet they commit it in similar
fashions. Septimus is suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome,
due to his stint in World War I, which has caused him to loose al...
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...s and love in both women's lives.
Death becomes multifaceted through the analysis of these novels. The
authors of Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours have created new definitions of
what it means to die. Septimus uses death for relief, escape, and
conservation. Richard also uses death as conservation, but also
revenge on his estranged mother Laura. Clarissa sees Septimus' death
as an awakening and a chance to start over. Laura however uses death
as an alternative to running away from it all. Death is no longer just
the ending to a life. It's a mean of preservation, escape, and
awakening. "Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate;
people feeling the impossibility of reaching the centre which,
mystically, evaded them; closeness drew apart; rapture faded, one was
alone. There was an embrace in death" (Woolf 184).
In Andre Dubus’ “Killings” and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the theme of death is apparent throughout both of the short stories. Both have a plot that revolves around death and murder. They differ because in Dubus’ story the theme of death is obvious because the whole plot revolves around murder, but in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” there are numerous symbols of death as well as a major theme of death. Also, the endings of the stories are of an interesting comparison because they both end in the perspective of a murderer. In “Killings” the reader is left with a depressed feeling and an irresolvable ending, while in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the reader is left feeling like the story was somewhat resolved even after all the gruesome fatality. The endings of these stories leave the reader with opposite feelings and Dubus and O’ Connor show their different outlooks on the world through these endings.
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As I sit in my cozy, victorian home located Minnesota, I can not help but reminisce the life of one of my greatest friends, Mr. Jay Gatsby. It has been two years since his funeral. I often wonder why his life was taken so soon; why I deserve to find love with my wife, Sarah, and he was killed by loving too much. I had always wished Gatsby and Daisy would have found the love they deserved. Now, Gatsby is dead and Daisy is in an emotionally abusive and loveless marriage with her cheating husband, Tom Buchanan.
Throughout Virginia Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway, the reader encountered many different people living in post-WWI London. These characters that Woolf created have different backgrounds, points of view, concerns, and mental states. Through these variances she clearly showed the many intricacies of life in the city. One of the most intriguing of all the characters she crafted is Septimus Warren Smith. Through intertwining story lines, from all the different points of view including his own, it becomes obvious that Septimus was very unique. The relationship between him and the rest of the city had an interesting dynamic as well. Septimus was wrought with the overwhelming feeling of isolation because of the other character’s lack of understanding
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In conducting preliminary research for the final paper, I uncovered several sources that spoke to three intertwined and mutually-interacting themes that stood out to me as I read Mrs. Dalloway: namely, Woolf’s interpretive representations of mental illness, subjectivity, and existential tension in the novel.