Rest in peace, Septimus.

Even though the book is called Mrs. Dalloway, it could easily be called Mr. Warren Smith. At least during the last few "chapters" we've read, Septimus Warren Smith has been a pivotal character, and we are with him through every step of his day to day life, his background, his "treatment", and his eventual demise (How anything can be eventual when you're only talking about the time span of one day, I don't know.).

Two things interested me about Septimus: First, was something that Mr. Mitchell said during a class discussion last week, which is that Woolf doesn't allow her reader to write Septimus off as being a complete whackjob. She doesn't introduce him from an outsider's perspective, saying, "And then Mrs. Dalloway saw this weird lookin' dude on the side of the road who looked like he was about to have a psychotic episode at any minute." Had she said something along those lines, and then transitioned into Septimus's thoughts, we would have definitely discredited anything that he had to say. The way Woolf does introduce us, however, is much subtler, and, I think, much better. She immediately puts us into his mind, not giving us a chance to think about this guy's mental stability, and making us see things from his point of view. This tactic, I believe, makes us relate to Septimus better than we would if we already knew him to be "crazy," and I think this is a very good thing indeed.

The second thing that interested me was how relieved I was when Septimus killed himself. Please don't misunderstand me, I really enjoyed reading the sections of the book that were his thoughts, and I thought he was an incredibly sympathetic character, but after reading about so much struggle, so many misunderstandings (whether it was between Septimus and Rezia, Septimus and his various doctors, or Septimus and anyone else), and so much ignorance (mostly on the part of the doctors), I was so relieved that he didn't have to go through that anymore. There's nothing more upsetting than feeling completely secure in your beliefs and your ideas, but not being able to share them with anybody, or having anybody believe you; that's what I feel Septimus was going through, and I was happy to see it come to an end.

All in all, since we have now been both introduced and made to bade farewell to Septimus, I conclude that he's an incredibly likable, but also highly distressing character. I think that without his presence in the book, Mrs. Dalloway would be much more superficial than it is, and it would not have as serious a nature as it does. Goodbye Septimus, we love you!!!