“
She felt somehow very like him — the young man who had killed himself.
ClarissaMrs Dalloway · Section 12
11:00 PM — London
Section 12 of 12 · A Wednesday in June
At her party, Clarissa hears that a young man has killed himself. She withdraws and imagines his death. She feels a kinship. He preserved something by dying. They are mirrors of each other across the novel’s structure.
Why This Matters
The novel’s great structural revelation: Clarissa and Septimus, who never meet, are doubles.
doublesempathydeath
Still Life on Corner of a Mantelpiece
Vanessa Bell, 1914 · Public Domain