Mrs. Dalloway and the Great War
The Great War shows its deep effects on English society throughout the sections of Mrs. Dalloway we have read so far. The clear candidate is the one of Septimus Warren Smith, but it shows through in other locations as well. It is mentioned explicitly in several locations beyond Smith, from mentions of “the dead, of Empire”, to talk of those who Clarissa knows have lost their children. On page 19, we are given a description of the crowd watching the motorcar go by, from a Mr. Bowley, who “had rooms in the Albany” and is “sealed with wax over the deeper sources in his life”. But, the sight of the crowd, he admits, breaks past this seal over his character, and he gives a description of the people there: “poor women, nice little children, orphans, widows”, and then, “the War”. The war is given the status of human by Mr. Bowley, alongside the crowd, and alongside the results of the war, the widows and orphans of London. It is, of course, cap...