An Interpretation Of Septimus' Tragic Fate In Mrs. Dalloway From The Perspective Of Spiritual Ecology

Virginia Woolf enjoys a high prestige in English literary world of the twentieth century and is recognized as a pioneer of modernism and feminism.She is diligent in writing throughout her life and writes numerous masterpieces,especially the stream-of-consciousness novel Mrs.Dalloway which was published in 1925.For it is thought highly of by readers,the novel is listed as one of the best hundred English novels from 1923 to 2005 in The Times.Set in post-war London,England,the novel portrays living conditions of different social status by means of stream-of-consciousness writing technique,and deeply reveals a series of problems,such as the cruelty of the war,the indifference of the society and the alienation between man and man.In Mrs.Dalloway,Woolf adopts a distinctive narrative technique,by which she shows the characters' personality through the description of their spiritual world,and further explores the social factors that lead to protagonists' character flaw.Scholars mostly center on the heroine of the novel and analyze the inequality that she bears in politics,economics and social life in patriarchal society from the perspective of feminism.While this thesis analyzes the novel from a new aspect,it puts emphasis on the hero and probes into the reasons for his tragic fate from the perspective of spiritual ecology.In view of these,this thesis will interpret the tragic fate of a neglected male character Septimus·Warren Smith in Mrs.Dalloway based on the theory of spiritual ecology.This thesis elaborates on basic concepts of spiritual ecology from three aspects,including spiritual vacuum,incompetence of behavior and alienation of existence,and combines these with the text to analyze and interpret the tragic fate of this character thoroughly.Fundamentally speaking,Septimus'tragic fate originates from a series of factors,such as the outbreak of the war,great changes of the society,etc.Committing suicide by jumping out of the window in pursuit of relief,Septimus can be regarded as a victim caused by double factors,the cruel war and indifferent society.Based on this,this thesis further analyzes the underlying reasons leading to his tragic fate and shows concern and sympathy for this miserable male character,thus attracts readers' attention and reflection on issues of spiritual ecology.