Lucrezia Smith, also known as Rezia, is not given the exposure her character deserves in Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway." In the grand scheme of the novel, she is portrayed as Septimus's wife; nothing more. From the outside, she looks and acts like a normal British housewife, but only from her mind do we learn about the immense emotions she feels about her life in the novel. In the end, we never actually discover her true internal feelings about her life as we do with Clarissa and Septimus. Nonetheless, even with the lack of information we are given about Rezia, it is possible to infer a lot about her as an individual character.
We are first introduced to Septimus and Rezia in the motorcade montage, where Septimus is transfixed on the motor vehicle and Rezia thought to herself, "People must notice; people must see...Septimus had said, 'I will kill myself'; an awful thing to say. Suppose they had heard him?...But failure one conceals. She must take him away into some park" (15). Rezia, who is both embarrassed by Septimus's behavior and frightened by his threats of suicide, highlights her unhappiness with her marriage with Septimus; a man she is in love with, but unable to deal with due to the horrors he experienced in the war.
Rezia continues to express her unhappiness with her life when she finally is able to take Septimus with her to Regent's Park, stating, "No; I can't stand it any longer, she was saying, having left Septimus, who wasn't Septimus any longer...for herself she had done nothing wrong; she had loved Septimus..." (64). Here, we learn of Rezia's frustrations with Septimus. She can no longer tolerate his behavior. Septimus had changed; he was not the same person she had married, and she felt as if she were his caretaker instead of his wife. He continually makes references to killing himself, prompting Rezia to recall her previous life with her sisters where, "...she had been happy; she had had a beautiful home, and there her sisters lived still, making hats. Why should she suffer?" (64). She does not feel any positive emotions anymore, continually questioning her decision to stay with Septimus, who would not have cared at all if she had left him. Alone and isolated, Rezia felt only sadness. On one hand, Septimus is the only person who could keep her happy; on the other, he was incapable of doing so.
Near the end of the story, for a few moments, Septimus was exhibiting behavior that was characterized as being qualities of the old Septimus, and for once in the novel, we saw Rezia sharing an intimate moment with him; a true husband and wife interaction. Rezia looked truly happy, even sharing a few laughs with Septimus before he went to sleep. This event is very important to Rezia's character as it demonstrated that she was still in love with Septimus. In spite of all the suffering she had been through, Rezia was still willing to mend her relationship with Septimus. But unfortunately, we are unable to see their relationship progress as Rezia's story ends with Septimus's inevitable suicide.
What do you think Rezia will do now that Septimus has killed himself? Will she go back to Italy, or stay and suffer more?
3 comments:
I totally agree with this analysis and found it very interesting to think about, as this wasn't something I was thinking about as I was reading the book. The ups and downs of the relationship of Septimus and Rezia makes me unsure of the future for Rezia after the suicide of Septimus. As you stated, some scenes showed the pain of Rezia in the relationship but other moments really showed why she put through with Septimus. She must be hurt as she just lost a loved one, but can she move on? Interesting thought.
Rezia tries to care for Septimus throughout the entire book. She does not seem sad because of Septimus, she seems sad because she is watching Septimus suffer and is unable to do anything about it. I think she was genuinely trying to help Septimus, but unsure of how to do so. I think it's interesting to think about what happens to Rezia after Septimus' death, but somewhat fitting that we don't come back to Rezia's point of view.
This was a very interesting analysis of Lucrezia. You point out specific passages throughout the novel that depict that Lucrezia is frustrated and almost angered by the position she is in with Septimus, feeling more as his caretaker instead of his wife. The last moment in the novel right before Septimus' suicide shows that Lucrezia really still loves Septimus and for once we can see the happiness that both Lucrezia and Septimus share. Though, I found it interesting that after Septimus' suicide, Woolf never brings Lucrezia back into the spotlight, and after finishing the novel, I wonder if Lucrezia was able to find any closure and what her future possibly holds for her.
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