Literature Review Draft 2

Conversations Surrounding Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway

Brittney Dube

            One of the most obvious, but hardest issues to grapple with in literature comes with the broad umbrella of the psychological discourse which we would love to be able to ignore. When it comes to psychological analyses of literature, it becomes important to understand the conversation occurring in the academic world. This enhances not only our understanding of the literature, but also of the world around us both in and out of the academic discourse. For the purpose of a critical analysis of Mrs. Dalloway, psychological analyses cannot be ignored – especially considering that one of the main characters, Septimus, suffers from several different forms of psychosis. In “Railed in by a Maddening Reason: Septimus Smith and His Role in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway,” Sabine Sautter-Leger comments on Septimus by stating, “But the problem, again, is on another level: Septimus thinks he cannot feel – and this intellectual conception of himself as one who is incapable of feeling underlies his psychosis,” (12-13).  Leger makes this comment after pulling in psychological analyses from both Sass and Lina Spoerl that diagnose Septimus with a form of mental dysmorphia and/or schizophrenia. Leger continues to argue the aspect of psychology that most people have an issue with determining: the conflict between rationality and irrationality and the presence of intention. When someone suffers from a mental illness, oftentimes people assign a certain set of expectations for that one person. This becomes problematic because then people face two sides of the same coin: one side if hat we do not want to assign expectations to people with mental illnesses because they should be treated as equals, but on the other side of the coin, a certain set of expectations should be put into place if we are attempting to have realistic expectations of a person that suffers from mental illnesses. Leger states,

If we use Sass’s account of the condition, we have an alternative and provocative way of understanding Septimus. Indeed, the aspect of Septimus linking him to Sass’s version of the schizophrenic and which is essential to understanding his character is that he insists, despite the anguish it paradoxically causes him and alienation he feels as a result, on the necessity of taking a rational approach to understanding his psychological state and the universe as a whole (13)

The topic of psychological disorders and their existence is one that most people shy away from when having a conversation. This comes from the lack of exposure to truths and facts about the topic, and the over-exposure to horrible assumptions that most people make about those who suffer from the various disorders.

            Another issue facing the spectrum that Mrs. Dalloway falls within is that of the presentation and reinforcement of toxic masculinity. This reinforcement of toxic masculinity is not only something on its own, but it is also something that stems out of the treatment of psychological patients – especially those that were men. In “Feminism as Aesthetic Vision: A Study of Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs. Dalloway,’” O. P. Sharma focuses mostly on the women of the novel, but in one section, she comments on the climate of the interrelationships of men within the novel, but also in a worldly sense as well. She states,

Besides, she is forces into a situation by his illness, where she has to confront the insensible and mechanistic world of Dr. William Bradshaw and Dr. Holmes. In them masculinity is further corrupted by the mechanical and fellingless reaction to human life. Dr. Bradshaw harangues to the patients and their relations, in moments of acute tension and affliction, upon the virtues of “proportion” and “conversion” – and the eternal efficacy of a long “rest in bed,” (Sharma 69).

Sadly, this is the common conversation when it comes to discussing hetero-normative issues in literature from all decades and genres. If the literature is not being outright with its overflow of support of hetero-normative behaviors, then it must be something of the feminist category that is bound and determined to replace the patriarchy with a matriarchy. This assumption, however, is extremely problematic in the sense that the ultimate goal of feminist literature is to either highlight the issues that women face, or, highlight their right to independence. The notion that one system of power can be replaced with another is severely flawed – especially if a person is to expect that there would be any fundamental differences between the two power systems other that the gender of the group running said system.

            Regarding the political climate of when Mrs. Dalloway was published, and the climate of modern society that has the academic, critical conversations about the novel, not much has changed over time. Readers can see that the world that Septimus Smith and Mrs. Dalloway existed in is highly like the world in which they are taking time away from to read the novel. Mehmet Aslan comments on the climates of the two worlds in “A Different Perspective on Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.” Aslan comments, “Furthermore; moral values, spiritual and

psychological well-being of individuals were in great depression as piled crowds

were in search of a light to a benign world among whom the hope for universal

peace was rotting under the threat of a new world war,” (8).

However, one can read the novel and use the commonality and consistency of conversation to support an argument that does not align with that of the novel or the general conversation surrounding the novel. The larger importance here is that the conversation is open to change and interpretation. If the conversation gets shut down by the elitists involved, then that completely rejects the point of the conversation as a whole. The importance of understanding not only the conversation, but the heart of the text as well comes from the Universality of Truth regarding social and political issues that many do not want to address. The importance of studying the text is to see how, in a fairly practical way, a reader can deconstruct a text (which can become practice for the future deconstruction of a society) through the study of hetero-normative behaviors and representations, feminist psychoanalyses, and toxic masculinity. This can then be translated into the current climate that our society rests within to be used as a tool for teaching the ability to reject systems of power and change social norms through the use of conversational discourse and deconstruction.

References

Aslan, Mehment. ‘Hëna e Plotë’ Beder University. BJES. P 1-8.

SAUTTER-LÉGER, SABINE. Papers on Language & Literature, Winter2017, Vol. 53 Issue 1, p3-31, 29p.

Sharma, O.P.. Women's Studies, Dec1975, Vol. 3 Issue 1, p61, 13p.