I think this has been done before, but only briefly. So, to expand: Septimus and Clarissa. Similar on multiple levels!
Someone else made the point that Septimus and Clarissa are both victims of trauma, Septimus due to the war and Clarissa due to... whatever. I won't go further. That's not the end of their similarities! (And I can't believe no one has said anything like this yet.) Septimus and Clarissa both had epic friendships that could have been something more with a member of their gender. Clarissa had Sally Seton, who was good friends with her at school, and kissed her one night. Later in life though, Clarissa married Richard and drifted away from her friendships with Sally and Peter. They were never as close as they had been again. This is sort of similar to Septimus's friendship with Evans, which was probably not romantic in the way that Clarissa and Sally's could have been, but was still very defining. Unfortunately for Septimus, Evans died right before the end of the war.
Clarissa has ascended, in marrying Richard, to high social importance. She throws parties that the Prime Minister attends. She's married to an important government figure. Lots of people know her, and know of her. Septimus could have had importance in his life. He was described (before he went to war) as an okay poet and a good clerk- someone who could be excellent given time. And, had he not enlisted in the war, he probably could have become famous and important. Clarissa-and-Prime-Minister-party important.
Even their marriages are similar. Septimus marries Lucrezia because that's what's expected of him, and he thinks that marrying her will help cure him of his emotional trauma. Clarissa marries Richard (and probably loves him) and fulfills her "destiny" to become the perfect hostess. Peter predicts, correctly, that Clarissa will marry Richard. Both Clarissa and Septimus do exactly what is expected of them.
After their respective traumas, both cope by retreating. Septimus retreats into himself, becoming obsessed and hallucinating of his war experiences. Clarissa retreats into her mask of Mrs. Richard Dalloway, and throws parties where she hides her true self while making other people feel important.
Do you think Septimus and Evans' "young dog & old dog" relationship is similar to Clarissa and Sally's? Or is there some other way to describe their relationship? Sally seems to be a sort of young dog figure, always lively, and unconventional. Clarissa is portrayed by others (and by herself occasionally) as old, not just physically. So maybe the same comparison works.
ReplyDeleteI like your comparison of Clarissa and Septimus. I never thought of them both doing what is expected of them, but now I realize it. Perhaps this commonality reveals some insecurity in them that explains retreating actions after their traumas, and eventually their suicidal thoughts?
I was trying to nudge the class in this direction, by focusing our attention both on the Sally Seton kiss and Woolf's depiction of the surprisingly physical and affectionate officer-soldier relationship. You won't be surprised to hear that lots of literary scholars have made all kinds of conclusions based on these fleeting moments in the narrative--and it may be possible to conclude (tentatively) that there's at least some kind of repressed homosexual desire in both of their stories. But as you note here, we can go pretty far just looking at these as intense and abruptly truncated influential same-sex friendships that have altered the course of their lives and made them both doubt the value of where they've ended up.
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