63 pages • 2 hours read
Virginia WoolfMrs. Dalloway
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1925A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Pages 59-92Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 59-76 Summary
At Regent’s Park, Peter observes a little girl as she runs into the legs of a woman. The woman is Rezia Smith, who helps the little girl up while she thinks about her deeply-troubled husband, whom she has left alone “to say hard, cruel, wicked things, to talk to himself, to talk to a dead man, on the seat over there” (60). Rezia engages in a debate with herself, angry one moment at her situation and brave in the next, reminding herself that “[e]very one gives up something when they marry” (60). She remembers Septimus in the early days of his decline, and the inability of Dr. Holmes to help Septimus, and soon she “ha[s] taken off her wedding ring” (62) for fear of losing it off her thin finger. Meanwhile, Septimus “lay[s] resting, waiting, before he again interpreted, with effort, with agony, to mankind” (63). With effort, he sees the park in front of him, observing that “[b]eauty was everywhere” (64). Septimus speaks out loud to a dead man named Evans, seeing a vision of “[a] man in gray […] but no mud was on him; no wounds; he was not changed” (64).
Peter observes Septimus and Rezia engaged in a difficult-looking conversation and reflects, “that is being young […] to have an awful scene—the poor girl looked absolutely desperate—in the middle of the morning” (65). He reflects on his tendency to admire most of the women he meets in India, and this reflection leads him to ruminate on Sally Seton, “the best” (67) of all of Clarissa’s friends and acquaintances, whom Hugh Whitbread, “the greatest snob” (68) kissed one evening at Bourton, to Sally’s shock and horror. Thoughts of Hugh meld with thoughts of Richard Dalloway, whom Peter believes to be “a thorough good sort; a bit limited; a bit thick in the head […] but a thorough good sort” (69), and eventually, Peter’s thoughts return to Clarissa. He rejects the possibility he might still be in love with Clarissa, but he perseverates on her personality and her “sense of comedy that was really exquisite” (72), obsessing over the fact that “Clarissa had made him suffer” (73).
Peter regrets his “astonishing excesses of emotion—bursting into tears this morning” (74), blaming it on a sense of jealousy inspired by a letter from Daisy rather than his reaction to seeing Clarissa again; in the letter, Daisy intentionally mentions seeing another man to make Peter feel insecure. He explains to himself that “[t]hat was what tortured him, that was what came over him when he saw Clarissa so calm” (74). Peter’s thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a “voice of an ancient spring spouting from the earth” (75) and he gives money to the “battered old woman with one hand exposed for coppers” (76) outside Regent’s Park Tube Station.
Pages 76-92 Summary
The same woman who distracts Peter captures the attention of Rezia Smith, who is accompanying Septimus to the office of Dr. William Bradshaw on Harley Street. Septimus looks like other men who work in London, except for “something hesitating, trailing, in the man’s walk” (77), and like the other “millions of young men called Smith” (78), Septimus had experienced life. For example, he had a teacher named Miss Isabel Pole, and he “wrote poems to her, which ignoring the subject, she corrected in red ink” (79). When the war started, Septimus volunteered quickly, “to save an England which consisted almost entirely of Shakespeare’s plays and Miss Isabel Pole in a green dress walking in a square” (79-80). While in service, Septimus grew close to Evans, his officer, but when Evans died, Septimus “congratulated himself upon feeling very little and very reasonably. The War had taught him” (80). Even when Septimus met Rezia with her fascination with making hats, he could not feel, though “he could add up his bill; his brain was perfect” (81). After Septimus and Rezia marry, she expresses her longing for a child, but “[o]ne cannot bring children into a world like this” (83). Not even Rezia’s tears of disappointment inspire feeling in Septimus, and finally, “he dropped his head on his hands” (84) and agreed to get help for his inability to feel.
Dr. Holmes came to treat Septimus, but the situation was clear to the war veteran: he deserved only death for committing the sin of not being able to feel. When Dr. Holmes comes for the second time and asks Septimus about his talk of killing himself, the doctor concludes that “there was nothing whatever the matter with him” (85). Despite this diagnosis, the doctor comes to see Septimus every day, which oppresses Septimus, and one day, when Rezia leaves him in the flat, the servant girl hears him talking in response to the voice of Evans, his dead officer: “Evans, Evans!” (86). Rezia returns and immediately sends for Dr. Holmes, who sends them to seek medical care on Harley Street.
As Big Ben strikes twelve, the Smiths walk to their appointment with Dr. Bradshaw on Harley Street. Dr. Bradshaw’s credentials and work history are impressive, and he looks like a man who has worked hard his entire life: “by the time he was knighted [he had] […] a heavy look, a weary look” (88). After questioning Septimus and Rezia about the war and Septimus’s threat to kill himself, the doctor prescribes “rest, rest, rest; a long rest in bed” (89) at one of Dr. Bradshaw’s residential homes, under supervision. Despite the doctor’s confidence in his own cure, “[n]ever had Rezia felt such agony in her life!” (91). She and Septimus leave the doctor’s office, and Rezia, feeling abandoned by the doctor, reflects that “Sir William Bradshaw was not a nice man” (92).
Pages 59-92 Analysis
The cinematic qualities of the novel become apparent as the lives of characters who do not know each other intersect, such as when Peter Walsh and Rezia Smith very nearly cross paths in the park. These intersections cause London to feel smaller than it actually is, which makes an interesting point about life in cities in general: how often do the citizens of a city interact with each other, if only they noticed? This question illuminates the theme of isolation Woolf explores throughout the novel, emphasizing the unwitting closeness of strangers who live in dense urban areas.
The character of Peter Walsh comes into focus as the reader begins to understand the depth and complexity of his romantic tendencies. Peter is characterized somewhat as an adolescent who hasn’t quite completely matured into adulthood despite his age; he romanticizes the conversation he observes between Rezia and Septimus, assuming it to be a young lovers’ spat of some description, which indicates his lack of understanding of the potential interpersonal difficulties that some couples must endure. Perhaps because Peter is not yet married and he is already in his fifties, Peter has enjoyed a delayed appreciation for the challenges of partnership.
The Smiths’ meeting with Dr. Bradshaw has a disillusioning effect on both husband and wife, which speaks to the inadequate understanding and care for mental health issues at this time. The intellectualization of Septimus’s pain and trauma contrasts with the infantilization of his issues as reflected in Dr. Bradshaw’s paternalistic recommendation that Septimus simply rest. Woolf’s own experiences with insufficient medical care with her own psychological problems may be reflected in the passages that describe these conversations between patient and doctor.
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