Woolf's Criticism of Treatment of the Mentally Ill in Mrs. Dalloway

          The treatment of mental illness seems to be a recurring theme in my writing throughout this year. Indeed, during Woolf’s and Faulkner’s writing years, many young men were returning from the Great War (World War I) and had seen unprecedented amounts of horror and violence. To worsen matters, in society, there were little to no resources for war veterans coping with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which was referred to as “shell shock” at the time. In Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf uses Septimus Warren Smith to bring to light the poor treatment of war veterans. She presents two doctors with differing views, Sir William Bradshaw and Dr. Holmes, but both ineffective, in order to criticize the cruel treatment of the mentally ill.

            At first, Sir Bradshaw seems to be caring. After all, Woolf describes him as “understanding of the human soul” (95). Moreover, Bradshaw appears to disapprove of Dr. Holmes’s work, for he states, “It took half his time to undo their [general practitioners such as Dr. Holmes] blunders” (95). However, as Septimus and Rezia spend more time with Bradshaw, the readers begin to understand his own flaws. Bradshaw suggests that the best way to “cure” Septimus is to isolate him from everyone he knows and to place him in one of Bradshaw’s homes. This diagnosis presents many issues. On one level, Bradshaw attempts to place Septimus in one of his own homes, which would be very expensive for Septimus and very profitable for Bradshaw. On another level, Bradshaw admits that he tries to keep all his patients in accordance with his own “proportions,” meaning values, and sends away those who disagree. He thinks, “[he] made England prosper, secluded her lunatics, forbade childbirth, penalised despair, made it impossible for the unfit to propagate their views until they, too, shared his sense of proportion” (99). Thus, Woolf portrays Bradshaw to be selfish, judgmental, and hungry for power.

            Equally as unsettling is the character of Dr. Holmes. Dr. Holmes completely misunderstands the gravity of PTSD, and instead considers Septimus a coward for contemplating suicide and worrying his wife. He constantly suggests that all Septimus must do is find a hobby. Septimus’s hatred for Dr. Holmes’s becomes most clearly evident as he commits suicide. As he hears Dr. Holmes approaching, he thinks, “He would wait till the very last moment. He did not want to die. Life was good” (149). Yet, as soon as he sees the doctor, he jumps over the railings. Rather than helping Septimus’s illness, Dr. Holmes’s presence itself seems to drive Septimus over the edge.

            Through these two ineffective doctors, Woolf criticizes English society’s treatment of veterans and the mentally ill.