Change In Mrs Dalloway Woolf

The First World War took over 16 million lives (“World War I Casualties”); however, the impact was much more immense than the lives taken. On top of this high death toll, over half of the surviving soldiers faced severe psychological damage which was treated incorrectly because of the social stigmas perpetuated by many doctors. The war impacted all aspects of life, not just the lives of the soldiers who fought. Despite the fact that Mrs. Dalloway is set in the summer of 1923, just five short years after the war ended, there is hardly any mention of the war; and when it is mentioned, it is mostly just in passing. Despite its minimal inclusion, the war provides a contrasting line in Mrs. Dalloway between the untouched society and those largely affected while acting as a driving force to emotional change in the novel. Woolf develops the novel mostly around the lives of the Dalloways, who represent the high class English society who were left largely unaffected by the war. The Dalloways belong to the high upper class society as a result of Clarissa’s husband’s position in Parliament. In this symbolic role the Dalloway’s assume the standpoint of wishing to continue English society in its …show more content…
Individual change is contrasted between Clarissa and Septimus; while Clarissa grows in her beliefs and thoughts, Septimus falls prey to his thoughts and illness. His illness drives him to find a way to communicate and defy the wretched things that it has done to him. The biggest act of defiance that he can act upon is to kill himself; in death the illness can no longer control him. The reader sees Clarissa grow philosophically and emotionally throughout the novel. At the beginning of the novel her thoughts appear extremely naïve and shallow in regards to the situations she faces. Early on she poses many questions regarding death, but they all seem rather