Hanna Jay - English
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Hanna Jay
Sevenoaks School
dym346 (000102 -0103)
might be a summary of the action of the play.” King Lear may be also be used as an
example again: Gloucester is tricked by his son Edgar into thinking he has jumped off a
cliff and yet miraculously survived, and this causes him to reconsider suicide. So, like
Lear, who is humbled by nature and the storm which provokes his remorse, Gloucester
“has been humbled by his circumstances and now sees his life in a different light.” 6
Gary Ettari argues that “because of the play‟s tragic undertone, there can be neither
rebirth nor renewal without loss. Many critics have argued that this recognition of loss‟s
necessity is one of the chief features of Shakespeare‟s late plays, and Lear is no
exception.” 7 Ettari therefore confirms a link between the two writers as Woolf uses this
tragic element of regeneration in Mrs Dalloway - it is not until Septimus‟s death that
Clarissa recognizes the importance of life.
However tragic, Clarissa sees his suicide as a heroic act of defiance, and death
becomes strangely aesthetic. In her introduction to the novel, Showalter convincingly
defines Septimus as a double to Clarissa, a double who could function in the novel to
both widen and deepen all that is significant about the main character and her time. The
two characters are not linked solely by their fear of reproduction, but also by their
“anguish about mortality and immorality” and their “acute sensitivities to (their)
surroundings”. 8 Similarly, Shakespeare‟s use of doubles is also indisputable and equally
“related to a concern with questions of identity, sameness, and the union of separate
selves – joined opposites”. 9 In Hamlet, the use of doubles is very obvious and almost
seems unnatural, but the intensified use of the device works to emphasise the concerns
of the characters, as in Mrs Dalloway. There are obvious pairings between characters:
Cornelius and Voltemand, two ambassadors who speak (together) only ten words:
Rosencrantz and Guildernstern. The players who perform the „mousetrap‟ create a
double to Hamlet‟s dilemma, and the role of the revenger is doubled by Laertes and
Fortinbras, and though these doubles lack subtlety and may delay the action in the play,
they raise an awareness of human nature and the concerns of the writer.
In an explicit way, Virginia Woolf also lets her characters define themselves
according to whether or not they appreciate Shakespeare. This technique creates yet
another link between Clarissa and Septimus. Both these characters live with a spouse
6
“Rebirth and Renewal in Shakespeare‟s King Lear” by Gary Ettari, Rebirth and Renewal, Harold Bloom
“Rebirth and Renewal in Shakespeare‟s King Lear” by Gary Ettari, Rebirth and Renewal, Harold Bloom
8
Introduction to Mrs Dalloway, xxxvi, Elaine Showalter
9
Shakespeare‟s Language, Frank Kermode, p.101
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