Comparing "Mrs. Dalloway" to "All's Quiet on the Western Front"

     For my blog post, I’ve decided to compare the works of “Mrs. Dalloway” and “All’s Quiet on the Western Front.” Released in September of 2022, “All’s Quiet on the Western Front” is an anti-war German film which depicts the loss and horror of World War I, focusing primarily on the late stages of the war from the German side. While this comparison may seem strange, as “Mrs Dalloway” is a book based on a middle-aged woman- Mrs. Dalloway- who details her everyday life, Virginia’s Woolf book does turn focus onto a character by the name of Septimus, a soldier who experiences post-traumatic stress disorder from his time as a soldier in World War I. While “Mrs. Dalloway ''focuses on the aftermath of the war on soldiers, “All’s Quiet on the Western Front” showcases the horrors of the war in its present moment. I watched the movie early in January before reading “Mrs Dalloway,” but I found that through being able to understand the events on the battlefield, I was able to understand why Septimus was acting in the way that he did, especially in his hallucinations. On the battlefield, soldiers-who were mainly young men with a romanticized idea of war- were faced with the horrors of trench warfare, where death by mustard gas, bombing, and artillery fire can come at any moment with no warning. These young men watch their friends die one by one, with the whole point of the war in the first place lost in their minds. One character, by the name of Kat, begins to worry if he could even re-integrate back into society at one point in the movie. Virginia Woolf, with her character of Septimus, is able to portray Kat’s fear of the inability to do so. Septimus, due to his PTSD, is unable to go about daily life because he gets triggered by loud sounds, bright lights, and seems to hear his friend’s Evans voice- who died minutes before Armistice. More so, the treatment he gets for reintegration into post-war society is lacking. The doctors hardly ever communicate with Septimus, and instead do so through Rezia-his wife. His feelings are dismissed and Rezia is even told that there is nothing wrong. Septimus ends up killing himself, with-in my opinion- the lack of treatment regarding his mental health greatly playing a role in his ultimate demise. It makes me think about how Kat, or any other character from “All’s Quiet in the Western Front,” were at least able to die in battle, and thus missed out on the painful experience of living trapped within their own mind after the war has supposedly ended. 

Another way in which “All’s Quiet on the Western Front” and “Mrs. Dalloway” compare is that all of the characters who experienced the war never really left the battlefield. Paul, from “All’s Quiet on the Western Front,” is the last character to die in the movie, and funnily enough, he dies right at 11:00 when Armistice takes effect- just missing the end of the war. Septimus, with his predicament, has seemingly  never left the battlefield with his continued flashbacks to his former soldier friend and feelings of attack. It seems to me that the message of these two modes of media, despite being created within an almost 100 year gap, both present one that points to war as a lose-lose situation, no matter the side you’re on. Septimus was on the winning side of war, yet still ended up dying because of the after effects the war caused onto his psyche. Paul is barely able to taste victory and watches his friends die gruesomely over the course of it. Essentially, both mediums share a similar message on questioning the validity of war and the hurt it unlocks onto the people who participate, whether through the eyes of Septimus and post-war care or in its present enactment as in “All’s Quiet on the Western Front.”