The film The Hours makes a lot of ties with the book Mrs. Dalloway. But, even though there are similar themes and characters, those in the movie don't exactly match up with those in the book.
An example would be that many characters in The Hours have Septimus-like tendencies/actions. Virginia Woolf drew upon her own experiences to write Septimus's character, so it makes sense that she would have similar behavior to Septimus as well. Like Septimus's spouse, Virginia's spouse worries about her and wants to do what the doctors say. Both Rezia and Mr. Woolf don't exactly understand what is wrong which seems to irritate their perspective spouses. Virginia and Septimus share a sort of distance from the rest of the world. They don't always respond to those around them, and tend to get buried deep in their own thoughts. They both, of course, end up taking their own lives.
Laura Brown's story also mirrors that of Septimus. Although one major difference is that Laura's husband doesn't realize that anything is troubling her, while Rezia is constantly worrying over Septimus. Laura and Septimus both share somewhat depressive tendencies, and while Laura never actually ends up killing herself, she comes very close and leaves her family to start a new life after her second child is born because she "can't bear" to go on living like that. On a sidenote, I can't really bring myself to forgive Laura for leaving her family. I understand that she wasn't completely well and that she must've felt trapped in her housewife role, feeling like she had to please her husband who went through the war, but it seems so selfish to just run away from the people who love and who depend on you, especially after you've just added another member to that group. Her husband must've been so devastated, it's a wonder that he didn't kill himself. This also emotionally scarred her son, Richard, who as we find out in the third story of The Hours also turns out to have parallels with Septimus.
We see that Richard has grown up to be a poet and a writer who is very successful and has won an award. But he doesn't seem to care about his success. He is somewhat unstable and experiences similar things to Septimus, such as animals speaking in Greek to him, and voices inside his head. Richard, however has an added layer of difficulties because he also suffers with AIDs, and is barely keeping himself alive for Clarissa's sake. He, just like Virginia and Septimus also takes his life because he doesn't feel satisfied with living the way he is, and it's the only way for him to end it.
It was really heartbreaking to see how even though Laura did not commit suicide, her actions still affected Richard and haunted him all his life. I also don't agree with her choice to leave her family, but I understand why she did. She felt so constrained in her life as a married woman that she believed that her only two choices were to either kill herself, or leave her family. Her absence was really hard on Richard, who seemed to sense beforehand she was going to leave because he put up such a fuss when she left him with a neighbor. I can't imagine how awful it must have been for him to have his mother just walk out one day and never contact him again.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how this movie had kind of a "butterfly effect" theme, because everything the character's did affected everyone else. Like, by writing "Mrs. Dalloway" Virginia Woolf made Laura Brown re-evaluate her life, and as a result, she left her family. In turn, by leaving her family and never contacting them again, she left Richard very emotionally scarred. After years of battling with AIDS, he ends up killing himself which deeply affects Clarissa. Even though these three women live during different times, they are all connected. These connections remind me of that passage in the novel where Ms. Kilman talks about how she is connected to Elizabeth by a thin thread, which stretches and stretches until it finally snaps. I think the movie is reminding us that our actions, no matter how important or inconsequential they seem, always have consequences and effect those around us.
You mentioned the whole thing with Richard having AIDS, and I definitely think there is a parallel between his having AIDS and Septimus having PTSD. There was no cure and much wasn't known about PTSD in the 1920s, so the "cures" used on Septimus seemed to only make him worse. This, combined with the death of someone close to him in the past, eventually lead him to look at suicide as the only means of escape. Meanwhile, Richard has AIDS in present day (or I guess, a little time ago, in 2001), and AIDS is still somewhat of a mystery to most scientists an doctors today. Because there is no known cure for AIDS yet, Richard had to suffer through the pain that only he was living through while his loved ones around him were living their lives to the fullest. This, combined with the loss of his mother, who he seemed to admire and look up to, led him to end his life.
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