Comparing Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway And The Good Soldier

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Throughout fiction the author persuades the audience to share a perspectives with the narrator of the novel. Many of the character’s perspectives are shared with the audience, however, the audience does not always understand the thoughts of the narrator. For the audience to truly “share a certain view of the world”, the perspectives and understandings of the situations ought to be the same between the author and the audience. This rhetorical art is shown through the works of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. While Woolf focuses on many different perspectives throughout her novel, Ford solely focuses his audience on the perspective of his narrator. While both works persuade the audience to share the perspectives …show more content…

As Septimus reveals his past, audience is able to understand the effects behind his disorder, however the audience is still unable to conceive the thoughts of Septimus and truly understand his justification for his thoughts. In the beginning of the novel, a plane draws letters in the sky to distract the attention of the characters from the blown out car. Septimus perceives these letters, which spell toffee, as a form of communication specifically messaging him. However the audience does not understand why Septimus believes the sky writing is messaging him. At this point the audience does not share the same view of the world that Septimus experiences because the justification behind his perceptions are unclear. As the book progresses the audience seems to begin to understand Septimus's perception. Towards the end of the novel Septimus goes into a mental home. There he hears Dr. Holmes coming up the hall and at that moment Septimus would rather die than see a man that does not try to understand him. The audience could clearly experience why Septimus does not wish to see Dr. Holmes, however the whole audience might not understand how seeing Dr. Holmes, possibly for the last time, would justify committing

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