As I was writing my research paper, I was struck by the similarities between Septimus’s mental breakdown in Mrs. Dalloway, and Antoinette’s collapse in Wide Sargasso Sea. Both characters were intensely alienated for most of their lives. Septimus was isolated due to his social awkwardness, and Antoinette was solitary due to her race and family history. The course their respective disintegrations follow reflect the differences in their causes. Septimus breaks down because of a specific event: Evans’s death. He was lonely before, but he had found a true friend for the first time, and then watched him die. Afterwards Septimus was alone again, but he could not move on with his life. This was because he could not take meaning from his experiences by discussing them with someone else, a crucial part of moving past trauma.
Antoinette’s dramatic breakdown seems to begin when she tells Rochester her life story, after which and he totally disregards her, and shows that he will believe the rumors like everyone else. Unlike Septimus, Rochester is not the first person she’s had a meaningful connection with; there was Christophine, Tia, Sandi, and to an extent the girls at the convent. Nonetheless, he is the only person who, in Antoinette’s words, “made [her] want to live.” It is important that Antoinette’s breakdown, unlike Septimus, is not caused by a singular event she cannot move past. Rather, it is caused by the ever-present isolation and bullying that she suffered from the locals, continued now by her own husband, who she is supposed to live with forever.
Yet despite these differences, the deaths of Septimus and Antoinette share the key element of a tragedy – they did not have to happen. We can point to places in each story and say “if x was changed, things would have been better.”As we discussed in class, it appears that Antoinette was pushed towards despair and depression by the hardships and isolation she suffered as a child. It was not as though she was a ticking time bomb that would ‘go crazy’ eventually; the expectation of everyone that she would do so led her to irrational behavior, mostly in defense of herself or her reputation. When she was younger she still wanted to interact with people and join society, but over time her efforts just met with pain and failure, so she kind of gave up.
Septimus was alienated before he went off to the war, but then he meet his best friend, and subsequently watched him blown to pieces. When Septimus returned, not only did he have trouble communicating his feelings, but the doctors Holmes and Bradshaw didn’t try to listen to him, and wanted to impose their ideals of masculinity and normalcy on him. He was struggling, but like Antoinette he wanted to fit in. He had meaningful relationships - to Evans and then Rezia - but they were not enough to save him when no one else understand.
A source I read for my paper claimed that Holmes and Bradshaw represented British society. Assuming this, both Septimus and Antoinette were pushed towards suicide by the misunderstanding of others; Antoinette is not just pushed by Rochester, but the continual antagonism of the Jamaicans, and on a smaller level Grace Poole. Septimus is pushed by Bradshaw and Holmes. In particular, Holmes’s misunderstanding and malice run so deep that he calls Septimus a coward after he takes his own life. Antoinette’s death is likewise misunderstood. I viewed it as an escape from a terrible situation and an act of revenge towards an equally terrible husband. Everyone else doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on. It’s interesting how many similarities those afflicted by mental illness share in these novels, despite the circumstances that created their problems.
