Virginia Woolf's novels all deal with the topic of class, some novels more subtly than others. Mrs. Dalloway notes how class can affect many things such as illness. Two of the most prominent characters are Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith. Mrs. Dalloway is of the upper class with a husband in politics, allowing her to meet people of prestige and host parties for others in her class. Septimus Smith falls towards the middle class and is a war veteran suffering from PTSD. Throughout the novel, we switch between their different lives and perspectives that differ extremely from one another. In the novel, the character of Sir William Bradshaw is introduced and tries to "help" Septimus. In reality, Bradshaw only wishes to make Septimus conform to the society he desires to create, and until he can conform, Bradshaw sends him away. When Septimus commits suicide at the end of the novel, his death is mentioned to Mrs. Dalloway at her party as a simple inconvenience rather than the death of a person. Virginia Woolf criticizes the upper class in subtle ways throughout the novel by contrasting and comparing the lives of Septimus and Mrs. Dalloway and introducing unlikeable characters such as Sir William Bradshaw.
