“Here he opened Shakespeare once more. That boy’s business
of the intoxication of language- Antony
and Cleopatra- had shriveled utterly. How Shakespeare loathed humanity- the
putting on of clothes, the getting of children, the sordidity of the mouth and
the belly! This was now revealed to Septimus; the message hidden in the beauty
of words. The secret signal which one generation passes, under disguise, to the
next is loathing, hatred, despair.” (Woolf 88)
This passage helps the readers truly experience the change that
Septimus had gone through due to the war. His current analysis of Shakespeare makes
him hate it, as his views on life become more pessimistic and bitter. The “secret
signal” described is like the codes that he hallucinates now, as on page 21. With
his PTSD, Septimus applies his wartime codes that he had received to his
current life events. The “message hidden in the beauty of words” is what his
life used to be like. Pre-war, he was a charming young man in a promising world,
which is the beauty of words. However, after going to the war, Septimus finally
finds the hidden message that discloses the reality of human nature and what
the world is actually like. Cold and cruel.
I also think it’s strange how he uses the word “sordidity”, even though it is not a real word. However, sordid is a word and means “to be dishonest or dirty”. It’s symbolic of how Septimus is immersed in his own world that he built off an established environment. He is living off his own creations, like his vision of Evans and codes that are taken out of the context of the past.
On a less dramatic scale, I sort of feel the same way as
Septimus- kind of, not really, but a little bit. In freshman year, when we
first began reading Shakespeare, I was really excited because his works are
universal, and I thought it would be so
cool to be reading such high level of literature like the older students. The
more analysis (or hidden messages) our class covered about the book, the more
depressing the work seemed to be. Like Septimus, I soon developed a more dark
perspective on life and society. Needless to say, Romeo and Juliet did not seem like such a cute love story, after
all.
Septimus is absorbed in his past and the war.
Jenny--nice analysis of the changes war has wrought on Septimus's outlook on life. That analysis of the fictional word 'sordidity' was deep; it connected very well to your point here.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I like how you really broke down the quote to dig down to Septimus's attitudes, farther than I read when I read the passage. However, (this might just be my misplaced idealism), I find Shakespeare a bit optimistic. Romeo and Juliet's love my have burned a short time, but at least it burned brightly.
ReplyDeleteNice connection to Romeo and Juliet at the end and the analysis of pre and post war Septimus. I also blogged about Septimus pre and post war and how his perspective of humans has changed.
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