Virginia Woolfe's Critique of the Medical Industry's Dealings with Mental Health
Virginia Woolfe's uses Septimus Smith, one of the many main voices in her novel "Mrs. Dalloway" to voice her anger with the medical industry. Woolfe is deeply against how doctors of the 1920s treated patients suffering from mental illness. Woolfe aptly describes Septimus, a character who has endured great trauma and stress from events in World War 1, and uses his interactions with two different doctors to present her opinons to the readers of "Mrs. Dalloway."
Woolfe first introduces the reader to Septimus Smith on page 14, thrusting the reader directly into his strange mind. Septimus is seen reacting very oddly to the loud noise of a motor car. He thinks, "The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?" The uniquely twisted way that Septimus thinks, is because of his PTSD from World War 1. This mental illness incapacitates Septimus at points, allowing Woolfe to step in, briefly, as the narrator to share Septimus' backstory with the reader because he is unable to do so himself. This explanation is where we learn more about how Septimus is reacting strangely to the world around him because of losing his friend in the war, and the numbness Septimus feels surrounding his friend's death.
Septimus' wife recognizes something is wrong, as he slowly declines in mental health. So she takes him to see a doctor their landlord recommended: Dr. Holmes. Unfortunately, rather than trying to help Septimus, who is obviously enduring a hard blow, Dr. Holmes merely scolds Septimus for scaring his wife and tells him to start acting better. Through these interactions, Woolfe is scolding doctors who wrote of mental illnesses as something the patient could control. She argues not so subtlety that people can't just feel better because they want to be.
After Dr. Holmes' advice is deeply unsuccessful, seeming to send Septimus spiraling even more, Septimus' wife takes him to vist Sir William Bradshaw, who is an expert in mental health. Though Bradshaw does take Septimus' condition more seriously, recognizing that Septimus needs help, he helps in the wrong way. Bradshaw recommends the "rest cure", a many month vacation away from family and normal activities. Septimus deeply resents this recommendation. If he were to go, his wife would be thrust away from him, along with everything he knows.
Through Septimus' hate of the "rest cure," and his ultimate flee from Dr. Holmes (physically) and Bradshaw (metaphorically) Woolfe voices her anger with the ineffectiveness of the "rest cure." Woolfe, herself, was subjeted to the "rest cure" and saw no positive results. Her anger at going through it, and it's deep injustice of removing one from everything, are highlighted through her writing. Through these scenes, Woolfe calls out the doctors who attempt this and argues against their flaws in caring for individuals dealing with mental illness.
I always mention this when readers of Woolf discuss the rest cure, but if you're interested, definitely check out "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a harrowing horror-story narrative about a woman subjected to the treatment. Woolf did indeed have personal experience with this "cure," and she found it unbearable (she was in a kind of self-imposed rest cure, living in a quiet village in the south of England and not in London when she wrote _Mrs. Dalloway_). Septimus, interestingly, reacts reflexively against the idea of such a "cure" without even experiencing it--as if the concept were self-evidently absurd, and that a little peace and quiet is NOT going to ameliorate the extreme effects of shell-shock. It's not quite fair to say that Bradshaw "causes" Septimus's death, but Woolf depicts him as fleeing both Holmes and Bradshaw, since it's Holmes who arrives at the apartment, but they are expecting Bradshaw, and Septimus is conflating the two when he says "Holmes's homes." So in a sense, Septimus really does leap from the window in order to avoid being sent to the rest cure. This is too simplistic, but it does reflect the intensity of Woolf's critique.
ReplyDeleteCadence, I agree that Woolf's depiction of Septimus is her way of voicing her frustration with the medical industry at the time. We know that Septimus' experiences and hallucinations were what Woolf herself experienced during her mental break, but his treatment by the doctors were also what she experienced. I agree that Septimus' terror of the "rest cure" was very likely a direct connect to Woolf herself. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Cadence! I definitely agree that Septimus was a tool for Virgina to voice her justified complaints with doctors. As said in class, the birds speaking Greek hallucination Septimus has is one of her own (which sounds absolutely terrifying). Reading this story with modern knowledge of the horrors that people went through during this time also made it even more depressing knowing millions of people weren't receiving the care they needed post-war just based on gender. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI saw this connection in the book too, and I definitely agree that Septimus was a way for Virginia to express her grievances with the medical response to mental health. I think it makes his declining mental health all the more 'real' feeling, because it is based in reality rather than fully concocted by someone trying to understand what it's like but never truly experiencing the same pain. I think that Woolf's usage of her novel as a critique is deeply moving and interesting, and it gives us even more of a window to see the questionable societal views on mental illness at that time. Great post!
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