Septimus

"Was he not like Keats? she asked; and reflected how she might give him a taste of Antony and Cleopatra and the rest; lent him books' wrote him scraps of letters' and lit in him such a fire as burns only once in a lifetime, without heat, flickering a red gold flame infinitely ethereal and insubstantial over Miss Pole; Antony and Cleopatra; and the Waterloo Road. He thought her beautiful, believed her impeccably wise; dreamed of her, wrote poems to her, which, ignoring the subject, she corrected in red ink; he saw her, one summer evening, walking in a green dress in a square. 'It has flowered,' the gardener might have said, had he opened the door; had he come in, that is to say, any night about this time, and found him writing; found him tearing up his writing; found him finishing a masterpiece at three o'clock in the morning and running out to pace the streets, and visiting churches, and fasting one day, drinking another, devouring Shakespeare, Darwin, The History of Civilisation, and Bernard Shaw" (85).

    This passage brings to light what Septimus used to be before the war. It's nice to see how Septimus was capable of loving someone, of feeling. However, this also makes this current situation with PTSD even more tragic, for he does not think of  Rezia as beautiful or impeccably wise. Instead, whenever Septimus is with his wife, he's thinking of death, war, or Evans. Not only did Septimus lose his friend Evans in the war, but his ability to feel and his grasp on life.

    The mentioning of Antony and Cleopatra is quite interesting. Having pretty much the same ending as Romeo and Juliet (seriously the ending is ALMOST THE SAME... love causes them BOTH TO KILL THEMSELVES...), Antony and Cleopatra may be foreshadowing to something tragic later on in the book. Since Keats is giving him "a taste" of the play, and being the woman he loved before the love, the idea of the play should be somewhat imbedded in his mind. Whether it's him killing himself after his wife leaves him or dies from misery or him killing himself from survivor's guilt, the future of Septimus does not seem bright.
 
    Another detail beautifully crafted into this passage is the idea of how ordinary Septimus's life was before the war. Not the boring ordinary, but rather the normal, correct ordinary. This passage presents the idea that he would often experience all of the ups and downs of life. He had a crush on Keats, whom lit a fire that burns "only once in a lifetime." Also, he experiences the struggles of his poetry career, sometimes tearing up his writing in frustration, sometimes running out to pace the streets in satisfaction. His devouring of plays (Shakespeare), science (Darwin), history (The History of Civilisation) and journalism (Bernard Shaw) illustrates how he was involved in all aspects of life prior to the war, which ultimately emphasizes the tragedy Septimus's current state of mind.