Hanna Jay - English
6
Hanna Jay
Sevenoaks School
dym346 (000102 -0103)
Clarissa‟s troubled attitude to sex is paralleled and exaggerated in Septimus
Smith‟s disgust and fear of sexuality, eventually driving him mad. Interestingly, Woolf
has chosen Shakespeare as Septimus‟ inspirational figure:
“How Shakespeare loathed humanity - the putting on of
clothes, the getting of children, the sordidity of the mouth and
the belly! This was now revealed to Septimus; the message
hidden in the beauty of words.” (pp.97)
Septimus finds a loathing of sexuality “hidden in the beauty of (Shakespeare‟s) words”,
and he becomes led by his interpretation of Shakespeare, believing that his own ideas
reflect those of the playwright. Septimus sees intercourse as a filthy act, and claims that
the playwright shares the same opinion to strengthen his argument. Woolf relays
Septimus‟s fierce loathing for humanity and also conveys a suggestion about
heterosexual relationships: they lead to an obligation to reproduce, an act that is
repulsive.
“Love between man and woman was repulsive to
Shakespeare. The business of copulation was filth to him
before the end. But, Rezia said, she must have children. One
cannot bring children into a world like this. One cannot
perpetuate suffering, or increase the breed of these lustful
animals, who have no lasting emotions but only whims and
vanities, eddying them now this way, now that.” (pp. 97)
For Septimus, those who reproduce are merely “lustful”. He proposes that sex has little
to do with the want of a child, but is simply the result of the contemptible sexual desire
of the individuals. These individuals (women) are described as having only “whims and
vanities”. Interestingly, Jacqueline Rose points out the same tendency in Shakespeare:
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