Soulmates become soulless

"But Lucrezia Warren Smith was saying to herself, It's wicked; why should I suffer? she was asking, as she walked down the broad path. No; I can't stand it any longer, she was saying, having left Septimus, who wasn't Septimus any longer, to say hard, cruel, wicked things, to talk to himself, to talk to a dead man, on the seat over there...Slightly waved by tears the broad path, the nurse, the man in grey, the perambulator, rose and fell before her eyes. To be rocked by this malignant torturer was her lot. But why? She was like a bird sheltering under the thin hollow of a leaf, who blinks at the sun when the leaf moves: starts at the crack of a dry twig. She was exposed; she was surrounded by the enormous trees, vast clouds of an indifferent world, exposed; tortured; and why should she suffer? Why?


This passage vividly illustrates the effect that Septimus's condition not only has on himself, but on those surrounding him. Septimus, a victim of PTSD after World War I is tormented by memories of his time on the warfront, hallucinations of his dead comrades, and recollections of his life as a soldier. However, Woolf's use of Lucrezia's narration makes it seem as if she is suffering as much as Septimus from his illness. Septimus's PTSD has completely erased any trace of what he used to be. Described as a "dead man", Septimus is essentially an empty shell. Septimus exists, yet lacks presence. Ironically, his death on every level except the physical one has freed him from the pain of his own life. Now, Lucrezia is the one being hurt. The "malignant torturer" that is Septimus's condition leaves Lucrezia feeling "exposed". A "bird" in a foreign land, she shelters under the only familiar thing- her husband. However, as his state begins to waste away, his "thin hollow" is blown away by the wind of his PTSD, and there is no help for her- only the "vast clouds" of the indifference of the world to her troubles. "Exposed" and "tortured", Lucrezia's feelings reflect the condition of their unholy matrimony.