The novel: Mrs.Dalloway - Essay Example

The Novel: Mrs. Dalloway Essay 2 Societal success greatly relies on elements of hope and optimism. Existence of hope enables members of the society to overcome life challenges. Moreover, faith defines social relations such as friendship, love affairs, and marriage. A community member who observes the social relations acquires redemption power over societal challenges. Optimism and hope shapes societal thinking and relieves its members of social pressures or oppressions. Optimistic and hopeful societies cherish scientific and social development that propels its success. The novel, Mrs. Dalloway represents a society in which its members strive to maintain optimism and hope in vain. Most characters featured in Mrs. Dalloway portray pessimism and despair, which causes them to remain vulnerable and succumb to social pressures and oppressions of life such as love, friendship, and sickness. Concepts of hope sustain life within the community. Hope enables individuals to foresee the future in discouraging conditions. The concepts form the fountain of success in a society besieged by disparaging conditions. Hope in Mrs. Dalloway defines the future of social, economic, and political life of its characters. Clarissa and Septimus maintain their hope for living based on their level of hope. Mrs. Dalloway use of flowers remains symbolic of hope. Flowers blossoms in hope, its elegance, and appealing colors symbolize believe that despite harsh conditions of living, hope dims ahead. Clarissa’s immediate thought in preparation for the upcoming party is to buy flowers. Clarissa aims to give the flowers as gifts to her dearest friends who will attend the party. She hopes to convince her friends that hope should define their thoughts despite threatening life challenges. Hope defines stronger relationships within the society. Redeeming power of hope maintains trust and respect among friends and lovers. Stronger relations rely on the level of hope bestowed on the associating parties. Strength of Clarissa’s marriage remains founded in hope. She strives to maintain a decent and delightful marriage despite continual thoughts of her former relationship. Clarissa remains confident that her relationship with Richard will blossom more than her initial love affair with Peter Walsh. Richard Dalloway also believes that his relationship with Clarissa would thrive. He knows that in rare occasions have he reminded Clarissa of his love and decides to buy her flowers. Though he fails to give the flowers to Clarissa, Richard remains hopeful that his confidence would build up to allow him express love to Clarissa. Peter Walsh also displays hope in his relation with Clarissa. Though Peter had terminated his relationship with Clarissa, He still admires her and sends her love letters while he was still in India (Woolf 7). Peter understands that Clarissa have already got married to Richard. He fails to understand that his previous love affair with Clarissa had ended. Peter’s constant behavior of suing Clarissa begins to affect the latter’s affections. Clarissa begins to think of her former relationship with Peter and even regrets leaving him for Richard. During Clarissa’s discussion with Peter, she expresses her desire to elope with the latter. Clarissa’s change of mind and revival of affection to Peter, her former lover depicts optimism within the society. Though Peter understands the relationship between Clarissa and Richard, he remains optimistic that Clarissa will finally get married to him. Therefore, Mrs. Dalloway presents optimism as a substance that should remain in society thoughts irrespective of life challenges. Throughout Mrs. Dalloway, oppression and despair threaten the lives of Clarissa and Septimus. Despair in the novel originates from vast guises such as religion, science, faith, and relationship. Septimus dies to escape from what he perceives as oppressive social pressure. Septimus felt discouraged of his mental illness that affected him after World War 1. He remains hopeless of future life and opts to die. Septimus feels that science would change his soul and way of living. He commits suicide from the fear of Dr. Holmes, who intends to treat him (Woolf 74). According to Woolf, Science has failed to redeem life. Septimus, who suffers from mental illness, dies despite being under the care of two renowned doctors. Although, Sir William is a celebrated psychiatrist, his scientific skills fail to counsel Septimus and convince him not to die. Septimus had believed that the experiences of war that resulted into the death of his friend Evans would influence his life. He lived under the scare of War experiences and opted for Suicide. Science could have saved him. He had a desire to live despite his contrary confessions. He had trusted Sir William to help him recover from mental illness though William fails to listen. William fails to diagnose Septimus with mental illness but instead reports symptoms of lack of proportion. William compromised the power of science and failed in his quest to treat mentally ill patients. Virginia wolf portrays science as a failure in saving the society. Sir William’s psychiatry skills fail to convince Septimus that suicide would not solve his problems. Traditional medical practice would have counseled Septimus to maintain hope of living. Wolf believes that psychiatry entails mental thinking of both the client and psychiatrist. William would have listened to Septimus complains about his mental illness. Septimus vividly described that he felt hopeless of life and that thoughts of committing suicide kept haunting him. Septimus lack of faith contributed to his death. He had believed that death was the only viable option left for him. Septimus failed to have faith in his doctors. He had believed that Dr. Holmes for instance, could not rescue him from the oppression that he faced. Septimus had faith in his beliefs and never trusted in doctors such as Dr. Holmes. He believed the doctor would destroy his soul. Septimus decides to commit suicide by jumping out of the window to defend his faith. Septimus final decision that leads to his death explains lack of redeeming power in society faith. Society should remain faithful in life and trust the existing elements, which support it such as science. Traditional beliefs in love and marriage have eroded society thoughts and created a new style of thinking. Most of the society members recounts on the several mistakes they have made in their love life. Notably, characters such as Clarissa, Rezie, and Carrie Dempster wish that life should have presented them with a second chance to love. Clarissa loved Peter, but she opted to marry Richard after a long love affair with the former. Choice of marrying Richard restricted her social life. Clarissa believes that Peter would have acted contrary to Richard. Peter always has a sociable character, and they have endured a convenient and enjoyable lifestyle than they have had with Richard. She feels wasted, and love cannot redeem her. Carrie, an elderly woman at Regent’s park admirable stares at Maisie Johnson, a fresh girl from Edinburgh and wishes that someone could reverse her life (Woolf 25). Carrie grieves over the marriage choices she made while at Maisie age and concludes that she would have done them differently if given a second chance. Rezie, Septimus wife regrets of her current situation and acknowledges that love between her and the husband have completely deteriorated. She remains disgusted with her husband and his mental illness and opts that he dies. Though Clarissa, Rezie, and Carrie traditionally got married to husbands as culture demands, their love affairs present them with numerous challenges. Typical societal beliefs expresses that marriage solves individual partners life issues as they strive to overcome the challenges. Love does not seem to solve their problems, and they remain regretting over their choices. In conclusion, pessimism and despair recount for loss of life and depression in a normal societal setup. Individuals ought to remain optimistic of life challenges and hope that life will change. For instance, Septimus would not have committed suicide had he learnt the redemption power of hope. Pessimistic thoughts and hopelessness of Clarissa, Rezie, Richard, Carrie, and Peter also makes them succumb to the pressures of social life. It is imperative that individuals maintain hope and optimism to help overcome social or physical challenges. Work Cited Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. London: Interactive Media, 2012. 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