An Abstract View of Death in Mrs.Dalloway and The Hours

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An Abstract View of Death in Mrs.Dalloway and The Hours

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In Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours contradictory and almost altered views

of death are presented. Virginia Woolf and Michael Cunningham portray

death as escape for some, but an entrapment for others. It is no

longer treated as a subject to worry about or fear, which society now

views it as. A line from Shakespeare's Cymbeline, "Fear no more the

heat o' the sun / Nor the furious winter rages," sums up what the

authors of Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours are trying to convey. Meaning

that death is not something to fear, and life should be lived to the

fullest.

The thought of death streamlines through several character's

narratives in both novels. In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway and

Septimus Warren Smith are haunted with thoughts of death, while in The

Hours, Richard Brown and Laura Brown also share similar thoughts.

Their feelings on the subject are, however, different. It can also be

said that their motives for dying or wanting to die are also quite

different.

The characters' thoughts, feelings, and reasons of death bring about

parallel relationships between the two novels. Septimus Warren Smith,

in my opinion, parallels Richard Brown. The most common fact between

them is that they are both the only people that actually die in their

respective story. They share a similar feeling toward death, in that

they both want to use it as an escape. They have very different

reasons why they choose suicide, yet they commit it in similar

fashions. Septimus is suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome,

due to his stint in World War I, which has caused him to loose al...

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...s and love in both women's lives.

Death becomes multifaceted through the analysis of these novels. The

authors of Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours have created new definitions of

what it means to die. Septimus uses death for relief, escape, and

conservation. Richard also uses death as conservation, but also

revenge on his estranged mother Laura. Clarissa sees Septimus' death

as an awakening and a chance to start over. Laura however uses death

as an alternative to running away from it all. Death is no longer just

the ending to a life. It's a mean of preservation, escape, and

awakening. "Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate;

people feeling the impossibility of reaching the centre which,

mystically, evaded them; closeness drew apart; rapture faded, one was

alone. There was an embrace in death" (Woolf 184).

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