8. Mrs. Dalloway

"He could reason...Dante for example...gently shutting the Inferno... that he could not feel" (88).

In Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Septimus is said to be reading the Inferno by Dante. This book gives Dante's impression of Hell and what he believes it will be like. It is actually considered a tour of Hell, for Dante goes into great detail and creates horrifying images inside the reader's mind. Septimus is not himself when he arrives back home from the war and he starts to read this book about Hell. By Viriginia Woolf including this book in her writing, it portrays the harsh reality of how one person can get down on themselves. The book also foreshadows how Septimus reacts to his depressed state. Because he is reading about Hell, the reader assumes that he is not doing too well and can expect a negative event to occur. In addition to Dante's Inferno, this quote also holds the impression that the world has made Septimus become emotionless. From Virginia Woolf including the world into her quote, one can think that maybe she notices how the world is corrupting people and making them emotionless. The war ruined Septimus, and in everyday life people are changed by society and more often than not people turn cold rather than pleasant to be around. Virginia Woolf in wording this quote the way she chose to could be expressing her views on how the world has affected her, or she could be talking about her general observations.

"Inferno." Sparknotes. 26 September 2009. 2009.
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/inferno/context.html