Mrs Dalloway Depression
200662841
Francis O’Gorman
ENG 3259 Literature, Reading, Mental Health
Question 1. The Representation of Isolation and depression in Mrs Dalloway and The Bell Jar
Many studies of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway have focused on its themes of gender roles, repression, issues of feminism and its writing techniques. I will be examining it from a different perspective; that of mental health issues, particularly isolation and depression. Sylvia
Plath’s The Bell Jar also voices similar concerns with these issues of mental health. As an established writer, Virginia Woolf published her novel Mrs Dalloway in 1925. It was at a time when Woolf was mentally stable. She had previously been shattered with fits …show more content…
She gazes into her mirror alone in her room. At this moment she draws herself into focus, into the semblance of a unified self whilst at the same time she exposes such an impression, which seems like an illusion “ seeing the delicate pink face of a woman who was that very night to give a party.”23 Clarissa therefore performs versions of herself when called onto by social conventions, which is a theme that echoes throughout the novel as Clarissa’s day progresses. Both Clarissa and Septimus participate in a lifestyle that also validates imperialism, nationalism and war. While Clarissa manages better than Septimus, they both manage to see beauty in spite of suffering and isolation. Septimus succeeds by rebelling against convention but is only able to do this by committing suicide. Clarissa as an expression of defiance experiences his death, a real communication of the self from which she can benefit too: “ a thing there was that mattered; a thing, wreathed about with chatter. This he had preserved. 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 …show more content…
It is more like a ultimate acknowledgement of the failures of the world around him, a bold rejection of the tyranny and the only way to preserve himself. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is another book that deals with mental health issues of isolation and depression which are mainly seen through the eyes of Esther Greenwood the protagonist of the book. The Bell Jar an isolating object in itself is used as a representation of
Esther’s mental suffocation by her depression upon her psyche. This representation is very important as to how the book can be read and understood in terms of Mental illness. Critics such as Pat Macpherson view Plath’s novel solely through a lens of social criticism. To her Esther’s suicide attempt becomes an act of retaliation against suburbia26and her ultimate release from the mental hospital, or her “ last – passed test” is simply a reflection of her “social” and “psychic” maturity.27 Other critics like Marjorie Perloff describe Esther’s depression as her “ human inability to cope with an unliveable situation”.28 By no means are these points of view accurate descriptions. They do not take into consideration the immediate reality of Esther
Francis O’Gorman
ENG 3259 Literature, Reading, Mental Health
Question 1. The Representation of Isolation and depression in Mrs Dalloway and The Bell Jar
Many studies of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway have focused on its themes of gender roles, repression, issues of feminism and its writing techniques. I will be examining it from a different perspective; that of mental health issues, particularly isolation and depression. Sylvia
Plath’s The Bell Jar also voices similar concerns with these issues of mental health. As an established writer, Virginia Woolf published her novel Mrs Dalloway in 1925. It was at a time when Woolf was mentally stable. She had previously been shattered with fits …show more content…
She gazes into her mirror alone in her room. At this moment she draws herself into focus, into the semblance of a unified self whilst at the same time she exposes such an impression, which seems like an illusion “ seeing the delicate pink face of a woman who was that very night to give a party.”23 Clarissa therefore performs versions of herself when called onto by social conventions, which is a theme that echoes throughout the novel as Clarissa’s day progresses. Both Clarissa and Septimus participate in a lifestyle that also validates imperialism, nationalism and war. While Clarissa manages better than Septimus, they both manage to see beauty in spite of suffering and isolation. Septimus succeeds by rebelling against convention but is only able to do this by committing suicide. Clarissa as an expression of defiance experiences his death, a real communication of the self from which she can benefit too: “ a thing there was that mattered; a thing, wreathed about with chatter. This he had preserved. 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 …show more content…
It is more like a ultimate acknowledgement of the failures of the world around him, a bold rejection of the tyranny and the only way to preserve himself. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is another book that deals with mental health issues of isolation and depression which are mainly seen through the eyes of Esther Greenwood the protagonist of the book. The Bell Jar an isolating object in itself is used as a representation of
Esther’s mental suffocation by her depression upon her psyche. This representation is very important as to how the book can be read and understood in terms of Mental illness. Critics such as Pat Macpherson view Plath’s novel solely through a lens of social criticism. To her Esther’s suicide attempt becomes an act of retaliation against suburbia26and her ultimate release from the mental hospital, or her “ last – passed test” is simply a reflection of her “social” and “psychic” maturity.27 Other critics like Marjorie Perloff describe Esther’s depression as her “ human inability to cope with an unliveable situation”.28 By no means are these points of view accurate descriptions. They do not take into consideration the immediate reality of Esther