Hanna Jay - English
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Hanna Jay
Sevenoaks School
dym346 (000102 -0103)
“It is the woman who provokes a crisis which overturns the sexual identity of the central
male character of the drama.” 4
Suicide and Death - “The harsh winter’s rages”
It is important to point out that Septimus Smith‟s experience of the war is a contributing
factor to his unwillingness to reproduce, and something which ultimately leads to his
suicide. Also here, Woolf uses Shakespeare to reveal the transformation in Septimus
following the sufferings of the war - his loss of emotion results in a loss of appreciation
of Shakespeare‟s work. Before the war, Shakespeare was such an inspiration to him
that he wanted to become a writer himself, Shakespeare was something worth
defending England for: “Septimus was one of the first to volunteer. He went to France to
save an England which consisted almost entirely of Shakespeare‟s plays and Miss
Isabel Pole in a green dress walking in a square”. (p. 94). Once faced with the horrors
of the war, Septimus loses his idealist view of Britain - and his appreciation of
Shakespeare‟s beauty. As a result, his shell shock spirals into madness and thoughts of
suicide.
Virginia Woolf uses Septimus and his suicide in such a way that the other
characters - and the reader - can appreciate the beauty of life. Woolf puts forward an
idea that death can bring revelation - an idea that is also detectable in Shakespeare‟s
plays. The natural healing space, or “Green World”, that is a common setting in the
plays lets characters “gain a new perspective” 5 on life, and it seems that this
perspective may, rather paradoxically, result from an awareness of nature‟s cyclical
regeneration and inevitable death. The idea that deathlike experience leads to new life
is central to Cymbeline - and, in turn, to Mrs Dalloway, through the clear intertextual
references. The play conveys the idea shared by Woolf and Shakespeare that life and
beauty inevitably come from death. It is demonstrated by the words of Jupiter: “The
more delayed, delighted. Be Content” (Act V, Scene III) These words are explained in a
footnote in The Oxford Shakespeare edition of Cymbeline: “This suggestion that
happiness is only achieved after enduring great trials, thus making it more appreciated,
4
“Sexuality in the reading of Shakespeare: Hamlet and Measure for Measure”, Jacqueline Rose, page 97
“Rebirth and Renewal in Shakespeare‟s King Lear” by Gary Ettari, Rebirth and Renewal, Harold Bloom ,
page 147
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