London as a Space:

the Tragedy of Septimus under Modernization in Mrs. Dalloway

By Cui Yuanyuan

Abstract: Mrs. Dalloway, one masterpiece of Virginia Woolf, is featured by its dense
depiction of London. The fate of one main character Septimus Warren Smith is
intertwined with this city. The multifunctionality of space determines that a city is not
merely a vessel for social development, but also the result of it, and conversely
reinforces social hierarchy through disciplining the individual within it. London, the
major setting of Mrs. Dalloway, is undoubtedly a production of modern civilization
and acts upon Septimus, for whom London played a role as the Utopia of his aesthetic
ideals, a fertile ground for reason and civilization, as well as a spot for discipline.
Under the influence of the threefold relations, Septimus’ marginalized condition
gradually deepened to an extreme state where a window was eventually regarded as a
way to escape from the medical authority both mentally and physically, and ended up
with his death. Despite the suffering of the First World War, The tragedy of Septimus
did not stem from but was rooted in the failure of integrating himself to London.
Key words: Mrs. Dalloway, Septimus, London, space, marginalization

Introduction
Mrs. Dalloway (1925), one of Virginia Woolf’s (1882-1941) celebrated novels,
contains two main narrative lines involving two characters. One is the eponymous
protagonist of this novel and the other is Septimus Warren Smith. The present time of
the novel was set in 1923, five years after the First World War, and the veteran
Septimus ultimately committed suicide. Consequently, some previous studies
attributed his death to postwar trauma which was intensified by “his inability to
communicate his experiences to others and thereby give those experiences meaning
and purpose” (DeMeester 649). However, it becomes unpersuasive by an examination
of Septimus’ prewar life that suggests “an extreme sensitivity and perhaps even the
beginnings of psychological trouble” (Sautter-Léger 4). In addition, the motivation for
Septimus’ joining the army was also engendered by experiences and education in
London whose role as a space in Septimus’ life was nevertheless always neglected.
Other critics have argued that Septimus was a victim of social order, reason, science
and proportion, offering insight into the impact of bourgeois ideologies on the fate of
the individual. However it is still worth noting that they cannot function without
certain spatial basis.
According to the discussion above, it is essential to reconsider the multi-function
of London on Septimus’ tragic fate. Additionally, as the city where Woolf was born
and familiar with, London is always used “in her works to explore the cultural sources
and significance of her experience” (Squier 1). It is no wonder that Septimus who
shared experiences of mental illness with Woolf was also closely linked with London.
For one thing, London carries multiple implications embedded in its spatial
characteristics. Spatial criticism gives an interpretation that this urban space is formed
by its social system, particularly by modern capitalist institutions which in return
manifest themselves in the spatial structure of this city that is comprised of a number
of public buildings and faculties such as Buckingham Palace, Bond street, public
libraries and parks. Based on these specific spaces, power operates upon the
individual and encroaches its ideology to human mind. This is what happened to
Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway. His belief in modern values which was constructed by
the disciplinary power in London, worked on two levels regarding his tragedy. One
was that it caused his desire for joining the war and the other was that it was crushed
by Septimus experiences during the war. Therefore, the social ideology embedded in
London is indispensable from Septimus’ after-war madness and alienation from the
ordinary. Just as Woolf expressed: “I want to criticise the social system, and to show it
at work, at its most intense” (qtd. in Zwerdling 69).
For another, as the incarnation of civilization and prosperity at that time, London
impels Septimus to transfer his life towards a new path in a way of making two
crucial decisions. Firstly, Septimus escaped from his hometown to London; secondly,
he left London for Milan to fight for England in the First World War. Several years
after returning London, he killed himself. It was apparent that the impact of London
on him from his early life perpetuates until his death. Based on this, the paper intends
to give a detailed analysis, from the perspective of spatial criticism, of how capitalist
ideology, using London as a vehicle, has acted upon Septimus’ spiritual and physical
space. In this process, Septimus keeps being marginalized, culminating in his death,
which alludes to a critique of the oppression of the external space on personal space .

Chapter 1. London as the Utopia of Septimus’ aesthetic ideal

Though the portrayal of Septimus’ early life is rough in details, his aesthetic ideal
of being a poet has firstly emerged since his youth. It is revealed that affected by some
great men, Septimus dreamed of being a well-known man whose struggles would be
read by the world. Stroud, where he lived with his family, is evidently unsuitable for
the fulfillment of his ideal. He said that “he could see no future for a poet” (Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway 62). It can be partly explained by a crudely depiction of his solitary
condition at home with the mere confidant of his sister. It seems that he lived in “a
family unreceptive to his aesthetic” (Van Wert 76). Further illuminations can be made
for Septimus’ negative prospect of living in Stroud in terms of historic context. In
early 20th century Britain, accelerated urbanization made London attractive to
“people from a wide range of regions, with complex backgrounds and diverse
interests” (Wang Minan 118), thus creating a more tolerant space. Compared to
culturally developed London, Stroud, the market town, undoubtedly means less
opportunities for and recognition of a young man who longed for being a poet.
Septimus would find no room for developing his career if he continued to stay at
home. Forced by this marginalized situation, he ran away from Stroud to London.
London, thus acting as both a shelter and Utopia of Septimus’ aesthetic ideal,
made more public resources available for him. Septimus indeed benefited a lot from
modern civilization flourishing in London which is strikingly rendered as urban
architecture, particularly its public buildings serving for citizens such as public
libraries. It is relied on the service provided by these buildings that Septimus achieved
his self-education. The novel explicitly stated that “his education is all learnt from
books borrowed from public libraries, read in the evening after the day’s work”
(Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 62).
In addition to public service, London also offered Septimus an opportunity for
lectures on Shakespeare given by Miss Isabel Pole who greatly influenced his life. It
is Miss Isabel Pole who plays a role as a guider in the development of Septimus’
literary taste as well as a motivation for his writing. She not only introduced him
Shakespeare’s works, “lent him books” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 62), but also evoked
light of love in Septimus’ heart which inspired him to begin writing poems
passionately. With the help of Miss Isabel Pole, Septimus was able to move a step
closer towards his aesthetic ideal. On another level, his association with her indirectly
led to his participation in the war because what Septimus fought for was “an England
which consisted almost entirely of Shakespeare’ plays and Miss Isabel Pole” (Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway 63).
In the light of the above argument, London, as a metropolis with assorted people
and communal faculties, appears to function as an impetus for Septimus’ aesthetic
ideal. Nevertheless, in this process, “he was, on the whole, a border case” (Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway 62). His family background and an introverted personality such as
concentrating primarily on his interior to some extent determined that his dream of
being well-known would eventually be disillusioned. In fact, his fate to fall into
oblivion has already been revealed by the author's objective exposition that “London
has swallowed up many millions of young men called Smith” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway
62). What’s worse, as Van Vert put it, “the alienation of Septimus’s youth is repeated
more devastatingly once he has installed himself in London” (77). He spent most of
his time alone, whether in his rented flat, the office, the fields or the streets of
London. The reason why Septimus failed to get rid of this alienated condition
aggravated by these solitary experiences despite the fact that he had moved from
Stroud to London should attribute to the double-edged London. On the one hand,
London, as the political and cultural center of England, is highly urbanized, therefore
provides resources that meet the needs of Septimus. On the other hand, it is
unavoidable that “the lack of shared emotions, the sharp competition, the class gap,
the monolithic nature of the individual caused by the division of labour” (Wang
Minan 118-119), distance people from one another so that interpersonal relations in
London become “superficial, thin and ephemeral” (qtd. Wang Minan 118). It was even
more serious for a young man like Septimus.
In conclusion, when Septimus felt hopeless in his hometown, he resorted to the
highly civilized London whose advantages to some extent drove Septimus to improve
himself in literature. However, in this process, he was always on the fringes of the
metropolis and never integrated into this urban space, not to mention access to higher
social status.

Chapter 2. London as a fertile ground for reason and civilization

Septimus “whose behavior seems based on an emotional response” (Sautter-
Léger, 3) in Mrs. Dalloway is characterized by his irrationality which in the eyes of
Lucrecia, his wife, was bound to be excluded from the public space in London and
therefore unbearable. Lucrecia’s attitude towards his behavior reflects the situation of
a private self in the public world. It is also one of the issues of most concern for
Woolf.
The relation between the personal behavior and the public space in modern
society should refer to the theory of Georg Simmel (1858-1918). He argued that
industrial civilization created the material culture which relied on the monetary
institution to cope with the rapid changes and unpredictability of urban life through
the medium of money. This is also a sign of the rationalization of human society.
Since then, “bourgeois of modernity” (Calinescu 41) emblematic of reason and
efficiency has dominated human life. In this context, people had to compete
indifferently to make a living, resulting in modern urbanites who are increasingly
restraint, rational and sophisticated because only in this way can they be accustomed
to the competitive systems and material civilization within the modern city.
In addition, the development of modern industry has brought about the
objectification of human who has been declined to “a cog in the urban machine”
(Wang Minan 117). The individuality, especially the irrational component of it, is thus
stifled and suppressed. It is the rationale for an “oppressive and formal” (Sautter-
Léger 5) London in Mrs. Dalloway, which was also expressed by Lucrecia, who came
from Italy where, as she once vented, “the streets crowded every evening with people
walking, laughing out loud, not half alive like people here” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway
17). “Indeed, Septimus inhabits a city where outbursts of emotion are rare” (Sautter-
Léger 5). On the contrary, Virginia Woolf stressed in her notes that “Septimus should
pass though all extremes of feeling—happiness and unhappiness—intensity” (qtd. in
Sautter-Léger 5), determining his role as an outsider. In Mrs. Dalloway, after
returning London from the front lines, Septimus always had turbulent emotions out of
control, which stood in sharp contrast to other Londoners other Londoners in the
streets, mainly manifesting in his sudden anger at Lucrecia’s interruption to his
mediation, his reaction to hallucination and “staring and talking aloud” (Woolf Mrs.
Dalloway 18) to himself. These eccentric behaviors were bound to attract others’
attention and meanwhile made Lucrecia feel embarrassed.
It is Septimus’ odd demeanor that made his being an alien in the streets of
London. Streets, amid an urban space, are supposed to be open to everyone and
tolerate diverse people. However, the truth is that when people appear in the streets,
they are put in a situation of being gazed which brings the judgment and supervision
by the crowds, through whom, social ideology imposes restrictions on whoever being
gazed. The public streets thus become a space where individuality and irrationality are
wiped out so as to conform to civilized norms. It is due to the peculiarity of streets
that Septimus was excluded from crowded Bond Street and brought to less crowded
Regent’s Park by Lucrecia to avoid being gazed.
Woolf used Lucrecia’s agonized mentality which is out of her sensitive perception
of others’ views to indirectly reveal Septimus’ marginalized situation. When Lucrecia
accompanied Septimus, her repeated monologue that “people must notice; people
must see” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 17) mirrored that it was unbearable and shamed for
her to being gazed by others whose mind has been shaped by ideology of modern
civilization. Judged by their standard, Septimus was a failure and was unable to
integrate into society. Even in Regent’s Park, she made an effort to avert others’ eyes.
The encroaching of natural space, especially trees also aggravated Septimus’
state. In the process of the construction of modern city, the reasonable layout of space
results in urbanites’ separation from nature. Instead, artificial structures such as steel,
concrete and skyscrapers dominate the landscape, leading to a duller London. Even if
there grow plants, they are regimented like “a few ugly flowers stuck in pots!” (Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway 18). It had an adverse effect on the recovery of Septimus because trees
played so important a role in his life that he communicated with them and “the leaves
are connected by millions of fibres with his own body” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 18).
Septimus expressed his disapproval of a damage to nature by pleading for not cutting
down trees on many occasions. He relied on trees to maintain his connection with
outer space which he failed to establish with urban space. Once the connection was
recovered, he was likely to be released from suffering.
All in all, as a result of modern civilization, the suppressive London made
impulsive Septimus an alien especially in streets. Meanwhile, a close intimacy
between his own heart and trees was confronted with danger on account of London’s
invasion of natural space.

Chapter 3. London as a spot for disciplining Septimus

For Septimus, the process of discipline can be divided into two stages: before and
after the war. The former was carried on in a mild manner and the latter was in a
violent one.
It is essential to quote the theory of Michel Foucault (1926-1984) when it comes
to how disciplinary power works in the relation between the individual and space. He
has argued that in modern society, political power has founded all manner of
mechanisms on confined spaces that make surveillance and discipline possible. In
Mrs. Dalloway, London as the capital of England, functions as such a space. The
young Septimus who cherished a literary ideal has been shaped by capitalist ideology
since living in London. Before enlisting as a soldier, he had subtly acquired the
qualities of being scientific, rational and devoted to political authority, chiefly in the
way of work and reading books related to development of civilization such as
Darwin’s works and the history of Civilization. He worked in an office managed by
Mr.Brewer whose clerks were composed of “auctioneers, valuers land and estate
agents” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 63). The office is the production of capitalist economy
and meanwhile serves for it, therefore it was necessary for a clerk to learn to be
calculated and rational, not to mention the outstanding Septimus. The influence of
these qualities lasted till the post-war years. Even in his madness, Septimus kept in
mind that “one must be scientific” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 50) and dedicated the
supreme secret to the Prime Minister.
After his retirement from military service, Septimus was imposed constraints by
disciplinary power mainly through two doctors: Dr. Holmes and then Sir William
Bradshaw, both of whom leveraged medical authority to “snuff[ing] into every secret
place” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 108) on both Septimus’ physical and spiritual spatial
levels. That the discipline was carried out in an ignorance of Septimus’ suffering
finally stoked his death.
Initially, home, a private space as well as the sanctuary for the soul, sometimes
was unable to protect Septimus from outer violations. Dr. Holmes once pushed
Lucrecia aside and barged into Septimus’ bedroom despite his refusal. As the wife of
Septimus Lucrecia was, she worked as the helper of Dr. Holmes who devalued the
importance of mental feeling. It is emphasized that the outer world is worthier of
attention. Therefore Septimus was required to shift his focus to the objective reality
since he “generally present him as someone who moves to a subjective realm”
(Sautter-Léger 4). Following Dr. Holmes, Lucrecia tried to make her husband take an
interest in things outside of himself by reminding him to “look” for five times when
they sat under a tree and persuading him to take part in “a nice out-of-door game”
(Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 19). It eventually proved to be in vain that Dr. Holmes in
partnership with Lucrecia forced Septimus to pay more attention to the outer space
rather than his interior. Consequently, the couple was pushed into another space that
was the house of Sir William Bradshaw in Harley Street.
Enclosed spaces played a further role in manipulating Septimus. By the famous
psychiatrist named Bradshaw, the discipline was conducted in a grey room of his
house where the sense of proportion was propagated to the unfit so that they realized
“their transgressions” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 74) and fulfilled conversion after the
diagnosis. It was true of Septimus’ treatment. Besides the old preaching of “try to
think as little about yourself as possible” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 72), he was stripped
of the right to know his illness for being secluded from the room where Bradshaw
informed Lucrecia frankly of Septimus’ complete nervous breakdown. Then under the
banner of improving his condition, Septimus was suggested to spend time in the
country as a cure, implying that Septimus would be confined to a place alone under
the control of Bradshaw. It was through these spaces that Bradshaw enabled his
patients to possess a sense of proportion including all virtues propitious for the
bourgeois prosperity such as “family affection; honour; courage; and a brilliant
career” (Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 75), or he would turned to police for the sake of social
development.
Septimus was thus defined as the other of modern society in the wake of these
two doctors’ diagnosis that were based on bourgeois values. They not only intruded
his spiritual space in the image of something horrible but also attempted to eject him
from London to countryside. Shortly after Lucrecia and Septimus returned from
Bradshaw’s house, Dr. Holmes again forced his way into Septimus’ personal room.
For Septimus, there is no way out of their power and “remains only the window”
(Woolf Mrs. Dalloway 109) so that he killed himself at last moment. Here Woolf uses
window as a metaphor to suggest Septimus’ desperation in social space.

Conclusion
In Mrs. Dalloway, London acted on Septimus’ fate primarily in three aspects
during which his personal space kept being extruded by outer space until he flung
himself through the window. The tragedy of Septimus was indeed a tragedy of a
young man who was unaccepted by capitalist values after a long period of efforts.
Woolf took the example of him to satirically reveal how “the individual is shaped (or
deformed) by his social environment, by how historical forces impinge on his life and
shift its course” (Zwerdling 69). In this process, London was utilized as the medium
by modern civilization and its disciplinary power. It will lead to a better understanding
of the role of space in our life to comprehend Septimus’ fate from the perspective of
space.

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