Mrs Dalloway Suicide Analysis

The word suicide and the action of killing oneself throughout the book Mrs. Dalloway brings up many questions and possible interpretations of how the book plays out as a whole. One of the definitions of suicide is “ a course of action that is disastrously damaging to oneself or one 's own interests”. Although it is true that Septimus does do himself damage by killing himself, there may have been other reasons Septimus killed himself besides for solely his own interests. The way in which death is described and interpreted in the book Mrs. Dalloway vastly differs between characters; from death as a way of communication, to holding on to the things that you love, even as well as a symbol of people not being able to brave their own selves. One of the ways in which the novel describes death is as a way of …show more content…
Dalloway learns of Septimus committing suicide, she brings up a point about death when she states, “But this young man who had killed himself-had he plunged holding his treasure” (184). This brings up a very interesting point about how now, instead of the main purpose of death being communication, death is now about holding your treasure. What Mrs. Dalloway may mean by treasure, may be something that he cherishes, or it could be something that she feels would help them find a reason for why he decided to commit suicide. For example, instead of Septimus dying with nothing in his hands, he may have wanted to have had one of his war medals with him in order to imply his commitment to the war effort as well as to his friend who died while fighting with him during the World War. Therefore, although it may seem like Mrs. Dalloway means an actual object that Septimus values, based off of the meaning of death as a whole throughout the book, it appears that Mrs. Dalloway is referring to an object that Septimus may have used as a form of