“’Beautiful!’ She would murmur, nudging Septimus, that he
might see. But beauty was behind a pane of glass. Even taste (Rezia liked ices,
chocolates, sweet things) had no relish to him.” (87)
This short and simple passage is a complete depiction of
Septimus’ perception of his life. Dr. Holmes is only able to understand the
transparency of the glass—he can see the things that Rezia finds beautiful, he
can eat the “ices, chocolates, sweet things” that Rezia likes, but there will
always be something that stops Septimus from perceiving this beauty and from tasting
the ices, chocolates, and sweet things. Rezia fell in love with the Septimus of
who she thought was gentle and sweet (like ices, chocolates…). However, just
like the sweets that graze his taste buds with no effect, Septimus’ marriage
with Rezia “had no relish to him”.
With this passage, I found
a parallel between Mrs. Dalloway and “The
Death of a Moth”.
“Watching him, it seemed as if a fiber, very thin but pure, of
the enormous energy of the world had been thrust into his frail and diminutive
body. As often as he crossed the pane, I could fancy that a thread of vital
light became visible. He was little or nothing but life.” (The Death of a Moth,
2)
In both of these passages, Woolf uses pane as a pun. Both
the pane of glass isolating Septimus and the windowpane trapping the Moth can
also be interpreted as the sources of their pain. The transparency taunts them
with a life they cannot have. Rezia, Dr. Holmes, and Sir Bradshaw are all
ignorant to this barrier between Septimus and his existence.
