More English soldiers died in the Great War than in any other conflict in the British Empire. At best, this would have been a difficult burden to bear. Moreover, the way of fighting shattered all romantic notions of noble and valiant war – there is nothing noble or valiant about trench warfare or poison gas. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is a novel about late-life trauma and the cruelty of not facing one's realities. Much of this feeling is expressed through the futile struggles of Septimus Smith, a psychologically maimed soldier returned from the Western Front. And, although the feeling of inability to love contributes to Septimus's demise, the immediate cause is the extremely perverse conduct of his physician, Sir William Bradshaw. Septimus suffers from both a frozen heart and a stricken soul. Since returning from the war, married for five years to Rezia from Milan, his life has been increasingly dull and unsatisfying, struggling as always to make sense of things, but without any real success, except for a few sporadic moments of clarity and self-understanding. . His mind and heart remain captive to his sufferings of war, which he never really overcomes. His affliction is omnipresent and all-encompassing, no matter where he is or what he is doing. Even his relationship with his wife appears null and non-existent, as content as he is, he appears: “talking to himself, talking to a dead man, on the seat over there” (65). His condition deteriorates so much in his post-war environment: “he takes another step down into the pit…he drops his head on his hands. Now he had surrendered; now others must help him” (90). Dr Holmes, a kind friend... middle of paper... went to see Sir William for a consultation. Her previous experience with Sir William now connects her to Septimus and also validates the Smiths' fears of Sir William. Sir William, for Clarissa, is a messenger of terrible news. “Oh! thought Clarissa, in the middle of my party, here comes death, she thought” (183). Sir William is a sinister and threatening force for her, and the sight of him “shrivels” her (182). She sees him recognized as an “extraordinarily competent” doctor (183), but “yet obscurely bad for her, without sex or lust, extremely polite to women, but capable of some indescribable outrage – straining your soul, that was all” (184) .In Septimus, Clarissa not only sees her own mortality, but also feels a fleeting and fragile human existence that questions sin, guilt, evil, death and redemption. excellence in the novel..