Septimus' Suicide & The Feel of Loneliness

In the novel Mrs. Dalloway, the character of Septimus Smith particularly caught my eye. He's a shell-shocked WW1 veteran who suffers from hallucinations about his dead feidn Evans. Later, he's taken to a mental institution where he commits suicide by jumping out the window. When Mrs. Dalloway learns of his suicide, she sort of admires him for it, and "felt glad that he had done it".

This isn't surprising, as Septimus' illness was disregarded by everyone around him. The doctors didn't even bother to listen to him, Bradshaw just effectively told him to take a vacation, and nobody really helped took the time to give him any help. This doesn't seem like such a big deal today as we have a better understanding of mental illness and many ways to treat it. But still, something about Septimus' death and Mrs. Dalloway's reaction just sticks with you. Both characters feel alone and isolated, Septimus because his illness tends to push other people away, and Mrs. Dalloway's friends and family are either detached, obnoxious, or overly concerned with their own social status or self-importance. This is further reflected in the style of the novel: the stream of consciousness. Mrs. Dalloway is practically in her own little world, alone.

J. Alfred Prufrock: Is It Worth It

T.S. Elliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock appears to tell the story of a classic struggle we all have at one point in our lives: Do I dare have a sexual relationship with this person?

Throughout the entire poem, Prufrock is contemplating whether or not he should do something. He constantly runs scenarios through his head, most of them are what could possibly go wrong. For example, he seems to be fussing over his appearance, as he mentions "a bald spot in the middle of [his] hair" and is worrid about what "they" will say about him. This also seems to suggest that Prufrock is an older man, as he's worried about people commenting on "how his hair is growing thin" and "how his arms and legs are thin". The relationship he wishes to pursue could also be considered forbidden, as he asks himself: "Do I dare disturb the universe?"

But perhaps the most telling piece of evidence lies in this little snippet from line 122:

"Do I dare eat a peach?"

Peaches are symbols are sex and fertility in certain countries, especially that of females, given that they resemble an...attractive rear. I think it goes without saying that there's something more than anxiety on his mind.

"An Artist's (Re: Stalkers') Studio"

Upon reading Christina Rossetti's In an Artist's Studio, I have to say that I find the titular artist rather disturbing. Whether it was accidental or not, Rossetti has made him into a perverted stalker who single-mindedly paints different portraits of this one woman.

The most telling clue can be seen in the way the poem describes how the woman is portrayed: "not as she is, but as she fills his dream". This suggests that the artist and woman have never met, and that he regularly fantacizes about her. The poem also uses a form of repetition by having as much as 2-3 lines saying essentially the same thing, but with different words. This pulls the reader in and gives some insight into the artist's apparent fixation with this mystery woman.