Notebook Prompt: Septimus and Lucrezia and the Dalloway Narrative

In her notes and manuscript drafts while composing the novel that would become Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf makes clear that her initial plans for the novel were to have Clarissa take her own life at the culmination of the story. Woolf changed her mind when she started developing the Septimus and Lucrezia subplot (she refers to Septimus as "the artist" in her notes and letters), but this composition history suggests some strong underlying connections between these characters and their plotlines in the novel.

Now that you've read all of Mrs. Dalloway, how do you see the Septimus Smith storyline relating--if at all--to the Clarissa Dalloway storyline? How does Septimus's story connect with Clarissa's? What do you think Woolf is doing by juxtaposing these characters in this way? What do these two characters, who couldn't appear more different from one another on the surface, have in common? And what might these connections have to do with the larger design and themes of the novel?

Take 5 minutes now to contemplate these questions in your notebook.