Suicide in Mrs. Dalloway, and thinking about Veterans

     So for my third blog post, I wanted to look at the character Septimus, since he was generally the character most difficult for me to understand. Reading the passages describing the inner workings of his head, often left me lost and confused as to what his character's message was. In this post I'm not going to attempt to explain that message (since I don't think I fully understand it even now), but instead I want to talk about the way mental health issues were presented in the book, as well as the parallels one can observe in real life. 

    First up, I want to talk about how Septimus is viewed by others. In Mrs. Dalloway we are given a glimpse of Septimus from both the eye of a passerby and the eye of a "doctor." Peter Walsh, our passerby, sees Septimus and Rezia in the park, during the middle of one of Septimus' episodes and dismisses it as a quarrel between two young lovers. Peter formulates his take on a couple seconds and a glance with no other information. Holmes on the other hand is in direct contact with the couple, and Rezia explains to him the things that Septimus has been going through. Even when presented with this information, Holmes sees nothing at all the matter with Septimus. Instead of trying to get to the bottom of his problems, Holmes tells him to "man-up" essentially, and to stop putting Rezia through the pain of seeing him act the way he is. Now in regards to real life, nearly 100 years later, not much has changed. The way we treat our veterans is still pretty awful, and we can see this by looking at homelessness for example. According to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, 9% of all homeless people in America were veterans. In addition, 46% of all American veterans were facing homelessness from 2010 and 2017. Outside of the statistics, I've seen pretty terrible treatment of the homeless, and while there is no confirmation that the homeless people in question were in fact veterans, a commonly used statements I've observed are things like "get a job," "get off your ass," or "I work so why don't you?" These statements are pretty similar to the "man-up, get over it" attitude that Dr. Holmes had. And again, while the homeless people being yelled at aren't necessarily veterans, it isn't like their abusers are stopping to ask. A lot of people seem to just assume that homeless people aren't doing everything they can to get back up on their feet. It isn't a mystery that a lot of veterans are homeless, and even when people assume that to be the case, they may not be doing everything, or even anything, that they can for these people.

    I also want to talk about how suicide was portrayed in this story. Specifically, how it was described before, during, and after the occurrence of it. When we are first introduced to Septimus and Rezia, and given our first glimpse into their relationship, we are told that he has brung up killing themselves together to her on a few occasions. The emphasis on this is pretty nonexistent, and it is quickly followed up with other details of their unfortunate relationship. Because of this initial exposure to Septimus' mind, I think it's safe to say that most readers aren't surprised when Septimus ends up killing himself later on. That take might be slightly incorrect, but at the very least I would say that some semblance of suspicion for the suicide exists in the majority of readers' minds. Once it finally happens, it happens quick (Although I suppose he does contemplate the means of his suicide for a bit). I think the length of the event really shows how quickly the change can be from perfectly fine, energetic, and lively to suddenly none of those things; no longer alive. After that, we can observe the aftermath of this death for people not even remotely involved. After hearing the news, Clarissa's immediate thought is "in the middle of my party, here's death." Not "what happened to him?" or "how are his loved ones?" but "wow, this had to happen at MY party." And although she ends up contemplating it later, her first response is selfish, and it seems like she doesn't care about Septimus' life and death in the slightest. 

    This made me think about a video I watched a while ago, talking about how being exposed to certain situations can make someone uncomfortable, and why people should resist this feeling and do what's right. This is sort of a tangent but bear with me. Basically in the video, he describes a scene taking place in a New York subway, in which a homeless man asking for money isn't being given any attention. He talks about how the man, desperate for results, lies down on the side of the tracks hanging his torso off of the edge, looking sadly at the faces of the people standing nearby. Nobody looks up from their phone, nobody tries to help him. And the narrator says that in that moment, he thought of the man as pathetic. He knew that the people at the train station didn't care about this man's life, but once the train came they'd be mad about how the accident made them late for work. Eventually he does go over and pull the man out of harm's way, but not without the man yelling and making a scene. He notices that everyone in the station is now looking at him. The crowd has made it his problem. Embarrassed and uncomfortable he runs out of the station. This story says a lot me. Once again it shows how little people care about their fellow man, those less fortunate than themselves. It shows the selfishness humans can have, caring more about their image or their job than the life of another person, less than 3 yards away and looking them in the eye. It shows how adamantly people will refuse to make someone else's well being their problem, and how easily they will shove these responsibilities onto someone else. I feel like we as a species don't take care of each other enough. The fact that we dump our broken soldiers onto the streets or into the offices of people paid to treat them shows this. We need to be paid to keep each other from killing ourselves? I myself acknowledge the discomfort I feel from encountering homeless people, and I recognize the effort I put in to avoid eye contact.

    People often use the saying "what if it was you in their shoes" when trying to get someone to express an act of kindness. I've been hearing that since elementary school. Clarissa contemplates Septimus' suicide by imagining herself as Septimus in the moment he died. I think it says a lot that people must first visualize themselves suffering before they can justify helping another facing the same pain.