Mrs Dalloway Insanity Analysis

In Virginia’s Woolf Mrs. Dalloway, originally published in 1925, is the utmost example of modern literature today. Woolf’s depiction through her novel, Mrs. Dalloway, truly immerses into a single day event from morning to night, recollecting memories while she’s meeting people throughout her day. As this single day event is written, Woolf explains a character in the novel a man named Septimus, describing the struggles he is having with his insanity. As a balanced contrast to Septimus, the short story The Yellow Wallpaper main character, the wife of the short story, has that same type of insanity in her mind as well. They are both insane in such ways that revolve around the idea of someone going “mad” after a traumatic event. This passage provides …show more content…
Dalloway is the deep emotional isolation that Septimus felt because he believed that no one truly understood the depth of loneliness he was experiencing. “Septimus, lately taken from life to death, the Lord who had come to renew society, who lay like a coverlet, a snow blanket smitten only by the sun, for ever unwasted, suffering for ever, the scapegoat, the eternal sufferer, but he did not want it, he moaned, putting from him with a wave of his hand that eternal suffering, that eternal loneliness.”(25). Septimus felt that he could show others to see his pain and suffering and that’s why he wanted to commit suicide. The isolation that Septimus felt was extremely unbearable therefore he wanted to commit suicide. “…Septimus had said, “I will kill myself”; an awful thing to say.”(15). In the end he does commit suicide and he is true to his words when he wanted to show others what ending his pain can …show more content…
The literature that Stetson wrote is quite similar to Woolf’s book. It has that same extreme isolation that Woolf made Septimus had in his mindset. Stetson explains in this short story about a wife who is suffering from a mental disease and must be put in a room to keep her sane. While Stetson does not explain who the wife is or her name, the wife is extremely isolated and begins to go insane and believe that there is a woman trapped inside the yellow wallpaper. “The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out. I got up softly and went to feel and see if the paper did move, and when I came back John was awake.”(652). As well as isolation, Stetson also places the insanity in the wife just as Woolf did for Septimus. As the story continues, Stetson explains further on how far deep the isolation went during the time period of this era. The wife is dealing with a mental illness and her husband; just like Woolf’s character Septimus’s wife is making him suppress what he is feeling, Stetson’s character John (the husband) is making his wife suppress her imaginations. “My darling,” said he, “I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake, as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours.