Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Human Nature

So, like I said in class, I'm going to use Dr. Holmes in conjunction with Septimus and his suicide to help "define" modernism and this "ego-centric predicament." The passage on human nature and Dr. Holmes on pg 92 will start my analysis, simply showing that Dr. Holmes is a type of symbol for the nature of humans to be ego-centric in the modernist's point of view. Fast forwarding to pg 149, Septimus' suicide, I'll use this "scene" to show how Septimus essentially rejects modernism. He commits suicide to escape Dr. Holmes and humans in general, who, according to the modernist, all live in their own 'bubbles' and each are central to themselves. I know I need to make all of this a little more clear by explaining it but, in a nutshell, that's what I want to write about.

1 comment:

David Lavender said...

Meghan,

I Like the focus on Septimus and Holmes (who does indeed seem to represent human nature), but you begin to lose me when you suggest that Holmes is a 'stand-on' for modernism. If anything, he seems a character designed to represent those who DON'T recognize the ego-centric nature of the human condition (he denies Septimus' madness--part of which is brought upon by the war, but part, too, seems to be due to an intensely subjective sensibility that he shares with Clarissa).