cw: mental illness, suicide, death
Already in Mrs Dalloway, we've witnessed depression, suicide, melancholy, and trauma. It's always said that authors draw from their own experiences, and looking at Virginia Woolf's life, she's had run-ins with many of these themes. Virginia Woolf published her novels in the early 20th century. In this time period, psychology looked nothing like what it does today. You couldn't go to the doctor and get Zoloft or get psychological counseling that meets modern-day standards as being clinically proven. Not much was understood about mental illness, and as such, not much could be done about it. I think Virginia Woolf took a frustration with this, as she really fixated on Sir William telling his patients to drink milk and rest. Virginia suffered trauma, prompted by the death of her mother. It is now believed that she had had bipolar disorder. After living alongside mental illness for much of her life, Virginia ultimately died by suicide. This is just some informal research using wikipedia and the primary texts, and I look forward to exploring journal articles related to this throughout the semester, which I might use to write a paper.