Unrecovered Trauma

Virginia Woolf, as a distinguished writer in the history of modern English literature, with a psychologically informed awareness of postwar trauma, depicts the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by Septimus Warren Smith. Through the characterization of Septimus, Woolf combines her own autobiographical trauma with her observations of postwar malaise. In Mrs. Dalloway, the tragedy of Septimus illustrates the victims'psychological injuries endured in severe war trauma, as well as their need to recover from post-traumatic stress disorder by the victims'giving meaning to the suffering. Focusing on the cause of Septimus's tragedy, this thesis holds that Septimus's suicide results from his inability to reason his traumatic experiences and therefore fails to recover from post-traumatic stress disorder.With the help of the modernist narrative form, Virginia Woolf depicts vividly Septimus's damaged psyche as well as his confusion which he experiences in the aftermath of war trauma. Septimus's fragmentation of consciousness disenables him to narrate his traumatic experiences clearly. In the novel, Woolf employs the recurrent image and the external stimuli for the reader to go back to Septimus's unspeakable traumatic story. In addition, Septimus's changeable traumatic memory, which contains countless atoms of experienced data, helps to bring together the shattered knowledge of what happened on the traumatized.Although the discoveries which veterans made during the war time cause Septimus to feel confused and disillusioned in the postwar life, he senses that his own potential for recovery lies in communicating. But Septimus's postwar identity crisis leaves him a fragmented consciousness, which lacks the necessary connections to give meaning to his traumatic experiences. Therefore, Septimus is deprived of the possibility of telling his story effectively to others. Furthermore, Septimus's will to tell his story is frustrated by the collective denial of war trauma. Trying to survive the havoc of the First World War, civilians refuse to deal with the anguished memory of the war. Moreover, the authoritarians represented by Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw, silence and marginalize war veterans, repressing their traumatic story that will challenge the established social order. Encountering the collective denial of traumatic war event, Septimus Smith commits suicide for the reason that he fails to communicate his experiences to others.