Compare And Contrast How The Novels Explore Sanity

Compare And Contrast How The Novels Explore Sanity And Insanity: For one to define sanity in both novels would appear to be a somewhat dubious and difficult task. Firstly, one must consider their own interpretations of what they perceive as sane and what is insane. Both novels by Woolf and Cunningham contain characters which have shortcomings or flaws in their character that some may interpret is what makes them unstable or insane. Woolf presents Clarissa as vision of sanity, a woman who displays a social and moral conscience, the wife of a respected politician. Clarissa is a symbol of stability and in contextual terms the personification of the perfect wife and the sheer embodiment of a perfect hostess. However, perhaps one can wonder whether Clarissa¡¦s sanity is in fact also her insanity. Within the two novels Mrs Dalloway and The Hours, there are many ideas, which explore the ideas of sanity and insanity.

Drawing of a Philippine Frogmouth (Batrachostomus ...

Mrs Dalloway

Arch of Septimus Severus

Such an example of this can be seen within characters within both novels. For example, the character of Septimus within Mrs Dalloway is a good example of the popularly categorised insane. The character of Septimus¡¦s insanity is the result of him being in the war in which he witnessed a friend and fellow soldier named Evans die.

The character of Septimus is the personification of what was seen as insane in the context of the time it was written. His perception of life appears deranged due to the ¡¥shell-shock¡¦ he received as a result of war. For example, Septimus is unable to extract pleasure from a passing moment. This seemingly mundane and normal cognitive process does not appear to be present in the psyche of Septimus. This can be contrasted to the character of Clarissa who unlike Septimus can extract pleasure from a passing moment, thus giving...