While reading "Mrs. Dalloway," Laura Brown thinks about Virginia Woolf and wonders, "How...could someone who was able to write a sentence like that - who was able to feel everything contained in a sentence like that - come to kill herself? What in the world is wrong with people?" (Cunningham 41).
Ugh. Suicide bothers me so. I have often wondered the same thing - why do people commit suicide? Well, here are my thoughts...
It is possible Virginia Woolf committed suicide for the same reason as Richard, and for the same reason that Laura attempted suicide. I believe that all three felt that they had lost control of their lives and wanted to do something to regain control.
In a study on suicide notes*, researchers discovered a note written by a 33 year old man that read, "Do realise [sic] it is my choice whether to go on or not. I have reached the stage where I say "No". I CHOOSE to cease to exist."
Similarly, Virginia Woolf felt out of control. In her suicide note to Leonard Woolf, she wrote, "I feel certain I am going mad again...I begin to hear voices, and cant [sic] concentrate...You see I cant even write this properly. I cant read" (Cunningham 6).
When Laura Brown checks into the hotel room to read "Mrs. Dalloway" in peace, Laura Brown thinks about suicide: "[S]he is glad to know (for somehow, suddenly, she knows) that it is possible to stop living...It would be as simple, she thinks, as checking into a hotel. It would be as simple as that" (Cunningham 152). The very thought of suicide comforts Laura Brown, as it makes her feel that she does have control in her overly idyllic life.
When Richard commits suicide, he leaves behind a life devoid of control - a life of suffering through AIDs and lamenting his mother's absence throughout his life. A very telling moment is when he says to Clarissa (shortly before slipping out of the window), "'I don't know if I can face this. You know. The party and the ceremony, and then the hour after that, and the hour after that'" (Cunningham 197).
Yikes, great topic for a final blog, right?
*McClelland, L., S. Reicher, and N. Booth "A last defence: the negotiation of blame within suicide notes." Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 10.3 (2000): 225-240. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. EBSCO. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.
I’m More Stupider When I Travel
4 months ago
Wow! You nailed it. I felt as I was reading it that these people, specifically Laura, were deeply depressed. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I suppose the control does have everything to do with the suicides. Virginia did feel like her disease was taking her control from her. Richard had no control over his life when his mom chose to leave and as an adult no control with aids taking over. Laura thought about killing herself, but found control by leaving her family.
ReplyDeleteVery true...I think oftentimes the root of hopelessness in suicidal people is their feeling of an absolute lack of control. In Virginia Woolf's case, I think that was enough to drive her "mad". She may have been depressed or suffering from mental illness, but being shut off in a small, quiet suburb left alone with nothing but the thoughts in her head, she began to go crazy...who could blame her?!
ReplyDeleteHave you heard of the 2006 documentary "The Bridge"? The filmmaker put cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge for an entire year, capturing footage of 23 of the 24 suicides that happened over the time. He also interviewed the families of the jumpers, as well as people who have attempted suicide and one guy who actually survived jumping from the bridge. He says that he actually regretted it as soon as he started falling.
ReplyDeleteFor me, that might be the worst part. It's so easy to be caught up in emotions of depression that one doesn't really realize the full extent of his or her actions. How many people started to regret it once it was too late?
Anyways, now that we're all done bumming each other out, here's a link to the trailer. So you can bum yourself out on your OWN TIME. :)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/thebridge/
Suicide is a great topic for a final blog! Especially, at the end of the semester with finals around the corner! Holding the power of life or death in one's, hands places the holder in a powerful position. It is unfortunate that individuals like Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Brown, and Richard's lives get to the point where they felt suicide was the only available control. The idea that suicide is a comfort to Mrs. Brown was really eerie. Suicide is portrayed as an act of simply walking away from life. Maybe that's all it was to these characters, a simple walk away from a living.
ReplyDeleteA wise man once told me, suicide is just a permenant solution to a temporary problem. I'm not sure whether or not Woolf was condoning suicide, but it certainly seems to permeate in a lot of her work. A friend of mine killed himself when we were in high school, and from then on suicide was a real touchy subject for me, yet I gotta give Woolf some credit here, when she talks about suicide, it's almost from a completely different perspective that I just can't quite put my finger on. She almost puts me at ease with the subject.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but dwell on how selfish suicide is. The idea really bothers me, especially in these instances where these amazing artists still had so much they could offer. It is as if their emotions and creativity and passion ran off ahead of them, like when you read faster than you can comprehend the words. It is also interesting that Woolf was creating up until the day she died. She never gave up on her art. I find that very admirable.
ReplyDeleteI think she just made the world make her, instead of her make her own world, and she lacked all motivation to do so.
ReplyDelete