Similarities Between Mrs. Dalloway And The Hours

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depressed, and unhappy housewife and mother in 1949; and Clarissa Vaughn, an editor who’s preparing an awards party for her AIDS-stricken ex-lover and best friend, Richard Brown, in 2001. All three women in one form or another suffer from an extreme form of depression, known as melancholy. Illustrating the events, the women face in only one day, ultimately serves immense significance to the lives of the characters. The Hours, uses additional characters to portray the parallels of suicide and mental illness between the novel and film as well as to express the depth of the personal relationship within the two.
The suicides of both men, Septimus Warren Smith and Richard Brown, in stories surrounding Mrs. Dalloway, depicts the first of several resemblances between Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours. Septimus and Richard are counterparts …show more content…

Dalloway, Septimus Warren Smith is a young veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Septimus is also married to Lucrezia Smith. Upon returning back home, Septimus experiences hallucinations of Officer Evans, a friend of his and commanding officer, who died on the battlefield. Septimus has been made ‘mad’ as a result of the war, but more importantly, because of his intimate relationship with Officer Evans. It is never explicitly stated in Mrs. Dalloway, that the two shared a sexual relationship, but the two were described as: “It was a case of two dogs playing on a hearth- rug; … They had to be together, share with each other, fight with each other, quarrel with each other” (Woolf 86). Septimus and Evans were inseparable during their time in the war, but when Evans died in combat, it sparked the beginning of Septimus’ mental illness. His inability to feel after Officer Evans’ death, makes the intimacy of their relationship suspicious. Similarly, Virginia Woolf in The Hours, has the same psychosis that Septimus exhibits. Both share the innate fear of living a life that is neither healthy for them nor their

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