The Complementary Ideas Of Life And Death In Mrs.Dalloway

Mrs.Dalloway is one of Virginia Woolf’s masterpieces.With the double-plotted structure and the web-like stream of consciousness,it certainly stimulates a great interest in the critics.This thesis analyzes the complementary ideas of life and death between Septimus Smith and Mrs.Dalloway.In addition to the introduction and conclusion parts,the main body of this thesis is comprised of two chapters.The introductory section clarifies the previous scholarship,research values,main arguments and chapter structures of this thesis.Chapter One discusses Septimus Smith’s idea of life and death.First,he doubts the vitality and plenitude of life since he suffers from the anguish of traumatic schizophrenia as a PTSD patient and fails in searching the meaning of existence.Second,he perceives himself as the Lord,who is called to hear the truth and can save the fallen world through death.Accordingly,Septimus Smith believes his suicide is a redemptive sacrifice.Chapter Two deals with Mrs.Dalloway’s view of life and death.On the one hand,she yearns for integrity and extrication from death.She realizes either rescue herself from social discipline and ruthless time by death,or she will struggle for preserving her independence and individuality forever.On the other hand,she chooses to live to fulfill her role.Only by holding the party as an artist can she kindle and illuminate others,and fight against the male-dominated society.Consequently,Mrs.Dalloway takes life as her inescapable responsibility.In conclusion,this thesis summarizes the complementarity between Septimus Smith’s idea of life and death and Mrs.Dalloway’s ideas of life and death,indicates that the reasons why Woolf describes Septimus Smith as Clarissa’s double is to emphasize the destruction of human nature in the post-war society,and excavates the profound connotation of Woolf’s own idea of life and death.