Mrs Dalloway: Section 2 Summary & Analysis

The noise comes from a fancy car going by in the street. Passersby wonder if the car contains the Queen or the Prime Minister behind its curtains. Septimus Warren Smith, a young veteran of World War I, also hears the car backfire. The narrative slips into Septimus’s thoughts and it is clear that he suffers from “shell shock” or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the war. Septimus feels that he is the one responsible for the traffic jam that the passing car creates.

Lucrezia Smith, Septimus’s young Italian wife, is embarrassed and frightened by Septimus’s recent strangeness. He has recently threatened to kill himself, and Lucrezia wants someone to help her but is also afraid of showing her “failure” to anyone. She left Italy for Septimus’s sake when they were married, and she remembers their past happiness before he started acting strangely. She leads Septimus on to Regent’s Park.

Other people on the street reflect on the “royal” car and feel patriotic, as they feel they have been “within speaking distance of the majesty of England.” Clarissa thinks that it is probably the Queen in the car, and she conflates the Queen with her bazaar-opening idol, Lady Bexborough. Clarissa associates this regal car with Hugh Whitbread and his like, and she feels slightly guilty that she is fulfilling Peter’s old insult – throwing a party and waiting at the top of the stairs.

The tiny vibration of the car’s passing makes more people on the street think of “the dead; of the flag; of Empire.” A crowd has gathered at the gates of the nearby Buckingham Palace, and the narrative flits among the thoughts of people in the crowd. The car prepares to enter the palace’s gates, but suddenly everyone is distracted from watching it when they hear an airplane flying “ominously” overhead.

The airplane starts to spell out an advertisement in sky writing, and everyone looks up in amazement. Big Ben tolls that it is eleven o’ clock, and everyone is too busy looking at the plane’s advertisement (which seems to be for “TOFFEE”) to notice the royal car passing through the palace gates.

Lucrezia, who is sitting beside Septimus in the park, tries to distract her husband with the sight of the airplane. His doctor, Dr. Holmes, apparently said that Septimus “had nothing whatever seriously the matter with him but was a little out of sorts.” Meanwhile Septimus starts to weep at the “exquisite beauty” in the sky. He is overcome by every minute sensation, including a woman’s voice as she reads out the advertisement’s letters, and he feels that the sky writing is a coded signal just for him.

Septimus’s thoughts grow wilder, and he thinks about being connected with trees. Lucrezia is distraught at seeing her husband staring and talking to himself, so she walks to a fountain and leaves him on the bench. She clings to Dr. Holmes’ words and starts to get angry at Septimus for being “selfish,” as there is “nothing the matter with him.” She feels that for him to threaten suicide is cowardly, as the real Septimus is a brave man who fought in the war.

Lucrezia feels all alone, as she knows no one else in England. Meanwhile Septimus is taking note of the revelations he is having, including “Men must not cut down trees” and “There is a God.” Septimus suddenly feels that Evans, his dead friend from the war, is hiding behind the park railings.

Lucrezia interrupts Septimus’s visions and tries to distract him by pointing out a group of boys playing cricket. Septimus feels that he is “the greatest of mankind… lately taken from life to death, the Lord who had come to renew society.” A young woman, Maisie Johnson, asks the couple for directions, and as she walks away she thinks of how odd the couple (and all of London is). She now wishes she had stayed at home in Edinburgh.

Meanwhile Mrs. Dempster, an older woman, watches Maisie and thinks about her own youth. She thinks about the airplane and wishes she had explored more foreign places when she was young. As the airplane keeps progressing on, still writing about “TOFFEE,” a man stops by the gates of a nearby cathedral and decides to go in.