Mrs Dalloway War

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Recommended: Social effects of the first world war

Are we victims to our memory? Are we victims to our experiences? Are we victims to our own biology? Or all of the above? Through the novel “Mrs. Dalloway” Virginia Wolff provides a poignant view of what it means to be human, and how our experiences and memories shape who we become, in both different but universal ways. The truth revealed in her novel is the simple but complex idea that life is not plotted, instead it exists in spontaneity and different perspectives. This reveals the fact that events, or experiences in life do not simply start and end. They stay with us, effecting our attitude, behaviors, and views for the rest of our lives. Thus the notion that “the war is over” is ignorant, and most importantly false, because as long as there …show more content…

The irony of saying the war is over is immense, and almost comical, as for some people the war has only just begun. The memories of the war will stay burned in the minds of those who lived and fought through the hell forever. Even five years after the war ends, the country of England is still reeling and trying to rediscover normality. For example, for Septimus, who has to deal with a war in his mind every single day, and the repercussions of sacrificing his life for his country, the pain and suffering is far from over. Septimus suffers because the war still exists in his memories, they tie him down, and he often cannot decipher the past from the present. To him, the war is often as real in this current moment as it was when it was being fought. The hell he experiences every day is described in one moment saying, “He lay on the sofa and made her hold his hand to prevent him from falling down, down, he cried into the flames! And saw faces laughing at him calling him horrible disgusting names, from the walls, and hands pointing round the screen” (Wolff 65). The deep psychological issues Septimus has, which would most likely be considered PTSD today, make it impossible for the war to truly ever be over. PTSD is a prolonged illness in the fact that it can never be fully

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