The "Clearer" Parallels between Septimus and Clarissa

In Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway, the story is, as we can tell from the title, supposedly centered on Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway. However, as the book drags on, it often gives characters other than Clarissa more pages in the book. Characters like Peter, Sally, Elizabeth, and Richard do play important roles in the book, but the most crucial ideas of the book feel more centered around just two characters; Clarissa and Septimus. When we first discussed Septimus' larger significance in class, we drew a bubble diagram of the interconnectedness of all the characters' interactions in the novel. In the diagram, our class gave Septimus and Clarissa seperate central bubbles because they interact with seperate sets of characters in the book. However, I do think that Clarissa and Septimus are connected, except on a deeper level that is not as simple as a visible line on a bubble diagram. 

The only physical branch between Clarissa and Septimus is Peter's senseless interaction with Septimus. But on a psychological level, the two share many internal struggles, which connect them on an almost psychic level. In a way this idea about a psychic connection is somewhat teased at by Virginia Woolf through her use of "window scenes" in the novel. In these "window scenes," both Septimus and Clarissa look out their windows across the street to see elderly people going about their lives peacefully and admire them from a distance. To me, these scenes help to draw a parallel between Clarissa and Septimus.

In Clarissa's window scene, Woolf writes this; 

"She parted the curtains; she looked. Oh, but how surprising!-in the room opposite the old lady stared straight at her...She was going to bed, in the room opposite. it was fascinating, with people still laughing and shouting in the drawing-room, to watch that old woman, quite quietly, going to bed" (186)."

Clarissa clearly has admiration for the lady in the window. She admires her independence and resilience to be herself by going about her day the way she normally does, despite there being a disruptive party across the street. The distance between Clarissa and the elderly woman all the way across the street in the window almost feels like symbolism for how Clarissa is so distant and far removed from her true self. It feels like the old woman staring back at her represents a "what if" mirror that shows the freedoms Clarissa would've had if she had not sacrificed them to become Mrs. Richard Dalloway. Her admiration for simple freedoms such as going to bed when she pleases despite the commotion of the party is clearly something Clarissa wishes she had.

A similar "window moment" happens with Septimus just moments before his death, Woolf writes; 

"He did not want to die. Life was good. The sun hot. Only human beings--what did they want? Coming down the staircase opposite an old man stopped and stared at him. "I'll give it to you!" he cried, and flung himself vigourosly, violently down on to Mrs. Filmer's area railings" (149). 

This tragic scene is, as we know, a result of Septimus' extreme case of PTSD, which leads him down a road of loss of autonomy in his life. Differently from Clarissa who struggled to project herself and speak her mind at all, Septimus' internal struggle is about his inability to make others understand him, even though in his own mind he makes perfect sense. For Septimus, this scene is a culmination of loss of autonomy in his life to the point where he has little control over his actions. As he reflects on his current life by looking out across at the old man, he also reflects on a potential life where he would have more independence and be free from his tormenting thoughts.

    Through the parallel of the "window scenes" in this novel, it feels like Woolf is creating a psychological connection between Septimus and Clarissa to show how they both suffer internal struggles. Even though the outcome of each window scene is drastically different, it is a way of saying that the desire for independence and freedom is shared between them, and that the two characters have more in common than we think.