Exploring life and death, and morality and ethics in Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours
We should act in a manner that treats people or objects not as a means to an end, but as an ends itself. Extending this argument to ourselves, we should regard ourselves with some self-respect and self-worth. How could taking our own lives be noble?
Life and death are core themes which underpin and drive the plot and its characters in both Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway and as well as Stephen Daldry’s 2002 film The Hours, which is an adaptation of a novel of the same name. Set in dramatically different time periods and contexts, both texts use what is limited by their medium to convey messages about the two opposing forces of life and death. For Woolf, being bounded by social conditions and words sees metaphors used when discussing life and death. The stream of consciousness technique employed often sees freight train sentences. On the other hand, Daldry can use lighting, settings, editing, as well as sound to say something about life and death. Moreover, Daldry, capable of intertwining parts of film together, does so in order to construct the story of three women in three different time periods. The three subplots are intertextually converses with Mrs. Dalloway. While life and death are the large umbrella themes, each or both texts deal with struggling and suffering in life, existentialism, and fulfilment, among others. Both Woolf and Daldry agree that existentialism has the ability to severely destruct our lives. Both also agree that identity is inextricably entwined with living. Communicated through the portrayal of characters clinging onto the last strands of life, Woolf and Daldry show how death is not only a superior option to living in certain cases, but suicide is a moral act, done to preserve one’s dignity and spirit. These specific elements under the umbrella and how each is constructed by Woolf and Daldry will now be explored.
Septimus Warren Smith is a former soldier in Mrs. Dalloway who struggles in society. He displays typical characteristics of shell shock and finds living intolerable. For Septimus, his feeling of being “bound” to survival stems from survivor’s guilt and his hatred of the notion that he would live while his inseparable comrade, who was one half of “two dogs playing on a hearth-rug”, would not. Woolf’s stream of consciousness technique, which was innovated during the Modernist movement and Woolf is considered a pioneer of the technique, sees run-on sentences describing Evans and Septimus. They are described as “two dogs playing on a hearth-rug”, but the use of commas and semi colons prolong the sentence, perhaps reflecting how good times are perceived to last forever, but so too the bad times. Terms and phrases such as “snarling”, “snapping”, “giving a pinch”, “raising a paw” and “growling good-temperedly” are used to describe their close bond, reflecting how many soldiers in Woolf’s time bonded in the trenches of the War. What pinches Septimus further is that he was “right there” as Evans died. Septimus’ condition and Woolf’s portrayal of it would have been typical at the time Mrs. Dalloway was published. Woolf notes that London “swallowed… many millions of young men”, reflecting the prevalence of shell shock and other traumas caused by the “whole show” of the theatre of war. In all, the descriptions and creation of the character Septimus Warren Smith reflect the post war times as well as the Modernist movement, through the stream of consciousness technique used in description as well as the relevance of the issue.
Existentialism as a philosophical thought was developed in the 19th century, but further developed and only becoming popular in the early 20th century. There are elements of this contextually contemporary idea in Mrs. Dalloway. One of the concepts in existentialism is despair, which is caused by the loss of identity. This strikes particularly true for both Septimus and Richard Brown in The Hours. Septimus was “one of the first” to volunteer. He began his adult life experiencing trauma, to the point where shells caused “indifference” in him. An existentialist would argue that because Septimus cannot define or create his identity, he struggles to survive. Moreover, the philosopher Berdyaev sought to link freedom and spirit by explaining that the former is found in the latter. This idea would almost certainly explain the visions he has of Evans appearing behind trees; a companion like Evans would free Septimus from the “verdict of human nature”, which drove the “wretch” towards death. However, there are many moments where he does not wish to see Evans, most likely because he cannot accept that Evans is gone. He cries out to nobody to not come out since he “could not look upon the dead”. Crucially, this tells us that from Septimus’ point of view, the dead is simply a reminder that the living must live, analogous to evil being necessary for good to be recognised. Living is not freedom, Woolf argues through the character of Septimus. The Hours picks up on this theme, and the character Virginia Woolf explains that “someone has to die” to ensure the living “value life more”.
We can also see the ideas of identity related to survival in Richard Brown. In Clarissa Vaughn’s conversation with the florist, it is mentioned in dialogue, a cinematic technique reflecting the form of the text, that Richard and Clarissa were once in a relationship. Richard proclaims boldly when Clarissa comes to visit that all he ever wanted to do was “write about it all”. His identity as a young man is tied to writing and Clarissa. However, presumably, he slowly loses his identity and with it, any semblance of a good life. Daldry uses many cinematic techniques to show the state of despair Richard is in and his loss of identity. The frame below shows the elevator to his building. It is dark and dirty, while the windows are caged, suggesting those inside are trapped inside. Juxtaposed with this shot is non-diegetic sound of a piano, alternating between two notes which invokes a sense of tension. Sparsely placed among the alternating notes are deep bass notes, which reminds the audience that although Clarissa is carrying bright flowers, the overall mood is still solemn and melancholic. Diegetic sound in the scene includes the creaky elevator and loud slamming door, which show instability of the building, roughly echoing Richard’s instability. Later, Richard takes a drink from the fridge, and it is murky. Daldry uses these film elements to highlight Richard’s suffering and the lack of fulfilment from living, reflected in the miserable state of his living environment.
Morality and suicide are contemplated in both texts. In fact, almost all of the major characters face the morality of suicide. We now examine the intertextual and intertextual dialogue about the morality of suicide. In Mrs. Dalloway Septimus chooses suicide rather than being captured by Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw. He simply did not want to give up his soul and integrity to them. Suicide is treated in a positive light here, as Laird notes in “The Drama and Romance of Suicide in Mrs. Dalloway and Madame Bovary”. Although one who has suicidal thoughts is described as “deserted”, Woolf claims there is an “isolation full of sublimity” in it. There is a redeeming quality in suicide which Septimus uses to mitigate the “repulsive brute” of Dr. Holmes. Septimus felt that human nature “was on him”, while Holmes was also “on him”. The phrases “on him” and “on you” are used frequently when we enter Septimus’ stream of consciousness. Of course, the repetition is a literary device Woolf can use to emphasise the fear and paranoia in Septimus in his realisation that Holmes and Bradshaw are not kind. Woolf continues to explain Septimus’ reasoning to deny Holmes and Bradshaw corrupting his soul by using a metaphor of a ship. The narrator argues that Septimus’ soul and integrity as a human was a “relic straying on the edge of the world”, and it lay on the “shore of the world”. His soul is teetering on the precipice of corruption, about to be swallowed by the unforgiving sea, but he was not about to give it up to his doctors. His final act was to defy Holmes by not giving him the satisfaction to work on him, leading Holmes to label Septimus a “coward”. In Woolf’s time, suicide was considered cowardly. Glimpses of this thinking are seen immediately prior to his suicide. The colour yellow is mentioned three times and can be associated with cowardice. In this circumstance, Woolf argues suicide is moral and right because Septimus would be defying greater evils. He was also not burdening any others. Lucrezia, his wife, was “smiling” after his death knowing that his last act was defiance of evil.
Interestingly, on a side note, we can also see that Woolf acknowledges her view is not mainstream by introducing the concept of the unreliable narrator. Both self-awareness and the unreliable narrator are features of modernism. We can suggest the narrator is unreliable because the stream of consciousness technique uses streams of words, intended to replicate the thoughts which come and go inside a mind. Because it is unfiltered and unedited, its reliability is called into doubt, and so the narrator’s viewpoint on suicide must also be called into doubt. However, Woolf is also the creator of the narrator and her views emanate throughout the novel, leading to the conclusion Woolf is aware her views are not mainstream nor perhaps flawless through the use of an unreliable narrator.
Daldry converses with Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway, presenting similar circumstances but with a clearly more modern adaptation. The issues raised in The Hours is markedly different from those in Mrs. Dalloway. In The Hours, Laura Brown is in the exact situation Septimus is in; contemplating suicide but considers how it will affect her family. Daldry shows that society is no longer Woolf’s era, the causes of our dread are different. He criticises the American Dream, which was pervasively pursued in the 50s but viewed somewhat unfavourably, for not providing non-material fulfilment. Yet, despite these changes, the fundamental feeling of drowning and despair could not be any more relevant, Daldry says. She is expecting another child while her husband Dan is oblivious to her suffering. As Clarissa Vaughn tells Richard Brown, sometimes, people “stay alive for each other”, which suggests one’s worth in existence is measured by how satisfied their existence makes others. The offhanded quote echoes Simone de Beauvoir’s statements on feminist existentialism, which was developed in the 1940s to 50s. As yet another indicator of the modern context of Daldry’s work, de Beauvoir argued that women were viewed only as the Other and the inessential. We can say that Laura Brown is only seen as Dan’s wife, and part of his American Dream, so much so that she has to concede to her son that baking a cake is the only way to Dan they “love him”. By putting Laura Brown as a main character, Daldry explicitly rejects the traditional view of woman as the Other. And while we are on this stream of consciousness inspired intellectual detour, we may as well address suicide and its relation to Kant’s view of viewing the inherent value human beings. Because we have value and should respect it, this line of thinking criticises suicide and euthanasia since it defaces our own self-worth. It is an argument against euthanasia. But Kant’s ideas were developed during the Age of Enlightenment, and both Modernism and Postmodernism reject the absolute certainty in truth espoused by the Age of Enlightenment. The implicit dialogue running between the lines highlights the contextual era in which the texts were created.
Laura Brown stays alive for the sake of keeping her family together. However, her mindset dramatically changes as she reads Mrs. Dalloway in a hotel room with Virginia Woolf the character narrating what she is reading, which shows how Daldry can juxtapose sound and visuals as part of the text’s form. We hear Woolf saying that while “it is possible to die”, one had to ask themselves whether “it mattered” that life and society would have to go on, which is part of Clarissa Dalloway’s thoughts in Mrs. Dalloway. Daldry then uses Angelica, Woolf’s niece in the film, to press Virginia Woolf the character on what she was thinking about. Woolf the character replies that she was going to kill off the heroine, but no longer. Daldry instantly cuts to the scene of Laura Brown waking up from a nightmare where the room drowns her in water, exclaiming “I can’t”, most likely referring to the grief her death would cause her husband and young child. The deft transition almost makes it seem like Woolf, in the process of writing Mrs. Dalloway, is controlling Laura Brown. Daldry seemingly draws the conclusion that our decisions on matters such as life and death are affected by the literature we read, which ironically, is immortal. Through its consumption, we take on the values of it and makes us who we are. He also makes a point of agreeing with Clarissa Vaughn’s sentiment that people do “stay alive for each other”, demonstrating intratextual dialogue. Laura Brown’s decision not to kill herself contrasts with her son’s decision to not do so. Richard Brown feels alienated and only recognised because he has AIDS, which is the modern counterpart to shell shock, and “being brave about it”. He feels that there is no one for him to stay alive for as both his father and sister has died, while he and his mother did not “speak often”. For this reason, he feels it is not immoral by taking himself away from others.
Life and death are two central themes driving both Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway as well as Stephen Daldry’s The Hours. While Daldry can and does use cinematic techniques such as sound, editing, and creation of settings, Woolf chiefly relies upon long sentences as part of the stream of consciousness technique of writing. Running alongside these themes is the related topic of morality of suicide. Woolf opines it is in fact moral and even noble to commit suicide in Mrs. Dalloway, which was contextually radical. Daldry intertextually converses with Mrs. Dalloway, mostly agreeing with Woolf but modernising the story line by introducing the modern challenge of AIDS. These two opposing forces of life and death are detrimental to both texts and both Woolf and Daldry have something to say about it. But it is more than just “having to something to say about it”. Like the eternal words of literature imparted in time, Woolf and Daldry leave with us a new perspective on these forces of nature. Like any art, they impart within us values and ideas which, like the food we eat, we won’t remember, but ultimately makes us who we are.
