Besides the obvious connection between Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus, Peter Walsch also has one. Although Peter didn't go to war or come back scarred, he does have his big pocket knife that he uses to push off the feelings of stress and anxiety. Without his Pocket knife Peter would most likely be in a very similar emotional state as Septimus. Peter was rejected by Clarissa and now sees her, in his eyes anyway, wasting her life hosting parties. In addition he found a girl in India who he thought he loved then realized he didn't love even though he came back to London to find a divorce lawyer for her because she is married. It seems he is not doing so well for his life and this would be causing him lots of stress except for his bog knife, which he flips open and closed. In a way the knife is like an old fashioned fidget spinner where, as long as he has something to do with his hands, he won't be stressed out.
Back to the connection with Septimus, when an ambulance passed Peter he felt sad. Septimus was probably in that ambulance as that scene happened soon after Septimus' suicide. Besides that little connection, since we didn't really get to see Peter's reaction to the death of the young man that Sir William Bradshaw was taking care of, we don't really have anything else connecting Peter and Septimus besides their similarities.
I have to say the connection between Peter and Septimus physically might be very loose, but I think I could suggest something more spiritual. As in, they are essentially Polar opposites personality wise. Maybe Woolf was trying to set this contrast in that scene with the ambulance?
ReplyDeleteI had never thought about a connection between Peter and Septimus before reading this post. I don't think the link is incredibly prevalent but I do see the connection between the timing of the ambulance and Peters mood at the time. Even though they are for entirely different reasons, they do seem to have some sort of bond in the moment.
ReplyDeleteI think Peter is also connected to Septimus in that both he and septimus never really fit the traditional "masculine role". Septimus was a poet, and Peter never found consistency and never married.
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