“
The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?
SeptimusMrs Dalloway · Section 2
10:30 AM — London
Section 2 of 12 · A Wednesday in June
A motorcar with drawn blinds passes through Bond Street. But in Regent’s Park, Septimus Warren Smith, a shell-shocked war veteran, sees the car as a harbinger of doom. His wife Rezia tries to calm him, but he is slipping further from reality.
Why This Matters
Septimus’s paranoia rendered as a universal threat — the world itself as persecutor. Woolf’s depiction of shell shock.
traumafearwar
Gassed
John Singer Sargent, 1919 · Public Domain