Shell Shock as a Metaphor in the Modernist Novels of Ford and Woolf
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| The soldier on the left exhibits the “hundred yard stare” associated with shell shocked soldiers of WWI |
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to explore modernist writers’ rendering of shell shocked soldiers on the basis of medical and historical accuracy, but more importantly their metaphoric role as the embodiment of key modernist concerns. More specifically, it will examine the portrayal of the characters of Septimus Warren Smith in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, and Christopher Tietjens in Ford Madox Ford’s Some Do Not.
Introduction to Shell Shock and Modernism
The First World War caused unprecedented physical destruction, emotional devastation and loss of life: “There had never been a war on the same scale, and no one had ever seen anything like the varying degrees of mental breakdown among soldiers or experienced it in such massive numbers” (Holden 7). Although the war was not fought on British soil, its after effects rippled through British society, affecting politics, art, and literature. One of the glaring problems facing British society during the war and long after, were the thousands of soldiers plagued by a destructive illness, largely unknown to British doctors before the onset of the war. They termed the condition ‘shell shock’ believing the cause to be close proximity to exploding shells. Veterans were exhibiting strange and seemingly unrelated symptoms that ranged in severity and baffled doctors as to the appropriate treatment. Many veterans suffering from shell shock were accused of malingering to shirk their military duty. The confusion surrounding the legitimacy of shell shock as an illness, the lack of effective treatment, and the veterans’ reintroduction into polite society while they still suffered physical, mental, and emotional effects of the horrors of war, created a considerable challenge and caused significant tension in a society still reeling in WWI’s aftermath.
In order to discuss the literature written after WWI, it is first necessary to explore some of the key aspects of modernism, the burgeoning literary movement developed by authors such as Virginia Woolf, Ford Madox Ford, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Joseph Conrad, and E.M. Forester, among many others. It is most helpful to think of modernism in terms of a “set of tendencies” and shared concerns rather than a consistent or unified mode of expression (Hanna x). Modernist writers innovated the form of the novel, breaking from Victorian tradition. Critic Vicki Mahaffey points out,“Violence, progressive social change, and literary modernism are all characterized by the breakdown of boundaries. Sometimes the breakdowns are liberating, and at others they are degrading and horrifying. E.M. Forester once wrote of modernist prose that ‘It is the product of people who have war on their minds’” (66). Modernism can be seen to espouse a starkly pessimistic view of the world, with its focus on the themes of disillusionment, alienation and isolation. The formal characteristics of fragmentation, non-linear timelines, and the use of the technique of stream of consciousness are all characteristics that fit in with these modernist themes, and were utilized by the modernist writers who sought to create literary works that truly reflected their perceived reality. Peter Leese, an authority on the social and cultural history of shell shock in WWI, points to the connection between the disease and its appropriation by modernist writers:“In popular imagination and memory as well as in the creations of the literary elite, shell shock changed its meanings to suit the preoccupations of British society through the twentieth century” (3).
The symptoms and social anxieties facing shell shocked veterans in many ways reflect the concerns of modernist writers, and an examination of the work of Woolf and Ford demonstrates the way in which shell shock becomes a stand in for modernism in their novels. Both Ford and Woolf use protagonists struggling with shell shock to communicate the tensions within modernity and the breakdown of social patterns. However, in doing so, both authors maintain a concern for accuracy in their presentation of shell shock’s symptoms and its medical treatment, and adhere to a careful depiction of the society’s reception of shell shocked soldiers returning home from the war.
Symptoms of Shell Shock
This video is an excerpt from a BBC program which outlines the symptoms of shell shock.
Leese praises Woolf’s exactness in the creation of the character of Septimus Warren Smith stating, “Virginia Woolf’s portrait of the world after the war has much wider ambitions, but one of the novel’s achievements is an intimate understanding of mental disorder and its treatment […] Woolf’s portrait of shell shock shows close attention to the public debates of the early 1920’s” (166). Ford as well achieves a similar level of preciseness in his depiction of the protagonist Christopher Tietjens as a shell shocked solider. Edgar Jones and Simon Wessely concisely outline the issue of diagnosis and the myriad of symptoms in Shell Shock to PTSD: Military Psychology from 1900 to the Gulf War:
There was no accepted definition of the disorder and patients suffered from a range of unexplained symptoms and disabilities. Typically soldiers complained of fatigue, poor sleep, nightmares, jumpiness, and had a variety of somatic symptoms such as palpitations, chest pain, tremors, joint and muscle pain, loss of voice or hearing, loss of memory and functional paralysis. (24).
Septimus and Tietjens experience a number of these symptoms in the novel. Septimus is plagued by nightmarish visions of the world around him, which Woolf drew from her study of poet Siegfried Sassoon’s personal account of his own hallucinations after the war (Leese 166). Septimus as well experiences jumpiness, and temporary paralysis. Tietjens describes the sensation of “numbness” of his brain and sufferers from memory loss. When his wife Sylvia presses him for details he responds, “The point about it is that I don’t know what happened and I don’t remember what I did. There are three weeks of my life that are dead… What I remember is waking up in C.S.S. and not being able to remember my own name” (Ford 193). In addition to its function as a symptom, Tietjens memory loss factors into the fragmentation form of the novel as well. As the second part of the novel progresses and Tietjens is unable to remember names, events, and historical facts, the increase in the use of ellipses begins to further fragment the narration of the novel and serves to reflect the gaps in Tietjens’ thought process.
Isolation
One of the hallmarks of modernism is the focus on the isolation of the individual from society. In the novels, Septimus and Tietjens are isolated from those around them due to their condition. Tietjens comments, “I’m not a whole man anymore […] Alone, a broken man” (Ford 202). Tietjens is overwhelmed by his sense of disconnection with his wife, social circle, and colleagues. He feels unable to cope with the stresses of his life now that he suffers from shell shock: “Tietjens found himself now faced by [death, love, and public dishonour] coming upon him cumulatively and rather suddenly […] He had to face these, moreover, with a brain two-thirds of which felt numb” (Ford 206). Tietjens’ shell shock has sapped him of his confidence in his own ability and his self worth. Once a renowned statistician with a government job and high status in society, now “Tietjens considered that he was dull-minded, heavy, ruined, so calumniated at times he believed his own infamy” (Ford 216). Tietjens is a man forced into isolation, unable to defend himself, because he is so firmly entrenched in self-loathing because of his perceived ‘failures’.
In Mrs. Dalloway Septimus and his wife Rezia each experience their own sense of isolation, largely disconnected from even each other. Septimus endures visions in addition to paranoia as he walks through the city: “The world wavered and quivered and threatened to bust into flames. It is I who am blocking the way, he thought. Was he not being looked at, and pointed at; was he not weighted there, rooted to the pavement, for a purpose?” (Woolf 15). He feels the eyes of each passerby on him as if he was an outsider, and imagines them signaling him out, mocking him. Visits from Dr. Holmes only serve to drive Septimus further into isolation, and he finds a strange peace in once he decides that he must kill himself, “Besides, now that he was quite alone, condemned, deserted, as those who are about to die are alone, there was a luxury in it, an isolation full of sublimity; a freedom which the attached can never know” (Woolf 65). He feels utterly detached from the world around him. It is Septimus’ own delusions and hallucinations that keep him isolated from his wife. He became trapped in his own thoughts and when Rezia spoke to him he jumped, started, and said “All right!” angrily as if she had interrupted him” (Woolf 15). His curt and oftentimes harsh replies only further to isolate him from Rezia. She herself is often plagued by her own isolation from family and neighbors as a result of Septimus’ behavior. Septimus reveals to Rezia his thoughts of suicide which weigh on her heavily, and become a painful secret she feels she must bear: “To love makes one solitary, she thought. She could tell nobody, not even Septimus now, and looking back, she saw him sitting in his shabby overcoat alone, on the seat, hunched up, staring” (Woolf 23).
Society’s Reception of Soldiers: Alienation
Another crucial theme within modernism is the alienation or estrangement of the individual from society. This differs from isolation in that is beyond the individual’s direct control; rather the act of alienation is perpetuated by an outside force, in this case from society at large. The medical community, as well as the public’s misunderstanding of the condition of shell shock created an atmosphere in which afflicted veterans were often alienated from their families and social circles. A respected physician of the time, Sir George Savage, first classified [shell shock] as an “attention seeking neurotic condition” that was usually the consequence of a “character defect” (Leese 17). This classification only exacerbated matters for shell shocked veterans, and became a popular school of thought among the public for many years after the war. The doctors in Mrs. Dalloway espouse this view, along with Sylvia and Mrs. Duchemin in Some Do Not, furthering the alienation of Tietjens and Septimus.
Sylvia is one of the first people in the novel to criticize Tietjens for his condition when she says, “’I wish you wouldn’t act forgetting people’s names. You overdo it’” Tietjens face went a shade whiter” (Ford 184). She accuses Tietjens of feigning his memory loss, as if he is acting out for attention. She responds extremely harshly when Tietjens continue to forget basic names: “Tietjens, his face pallid, was fingering a piece of toast. He muttered: ‘Met…Met… It’s Met…’He wiped his brow with a table napkin, looked at it with a start, and threw it on the floor and pulled out a handkerchief. He muttered: Met…Metter… Sylvia screamed with a passion of hatred: ‘For God’s sake say Metternich… you’re driving me mad!’” (Ford 190). She exhibits a cruel lack of patience and sensitivity for his condition. Once Tietjens opens up to her about his experiences in the war she begins to believe that his forgetfulness is more than an act, and indicative of a much more serious problem. In her thoughts she explains the current prevailing thought surrounding men Tietjens’ position:
[Tietjens] had at last convinced her that he had not been, for the last four months, acting hypochondraical, or merely lying to obtain sympathy or extended sick leave. Amongst Sylvia’s friends a wangle known as shell shock was cynically laughed at and quite approved of. Quite decent, and as far as she knew quite brave menfolk of her women would openly boast that, when they had had enough of it over there, they would wangle a little leave or get a little leave extended by simulating this purely nominal disease, and in the general carnival of lying, lechery, drink, and howling that this affair was, to pretend a little shell shock had seemed to her to be almost virtuous. (192, 193)
This passage clearly shows the dismissal of shell shock by society at large. Shell shock is deemed a “wangle”, a “purely nominal disease” and she insinuates that it is possible to “pretend a little shell shock” as if it is merely a ruse used by soldiers to evade their duty. Sylvia shows that public opinion regards shell shock as a scam. Among her circle of friends who are staunch pacifists and oppose the war, shell shock is a useful scam to avoid returning to combat, but nevertheless it is not respected as a true illness in any form. Mrs. Duchemin a society hostess who to some extent controls the social circle to which Tietjens belongs, demonstrates this when she completely dismisses Tietjen’s shell shock, “There’s not a more discredited man in London than Christopher Tietjens. It was all very well when the fellow had brains […] But now that, with his drunkenness and debaucheries, he has got himself into the state he is in; for there’s no other way of accounting for his condition! They’re striking him I don’t mind telling you, from the roll of his office…” (294, 295). Mrs. Duchemin shows how Tietjens has been alienated from polite society as the most discredited man in London, with his job in great jeopardy. She knows that something must be wrong with Tietjens’ brain but she chalks it up to his own decisions and character flaws, believing that the blame for his condition and subsequent alienation from society falls squarely on him.
Septimus experiences alienation at the hands of his doctors, Dr. Holmes and Sir William Bradshaw, because of their poor understanding of his condition. Dr. Holmes most severely underestimates Septimus’ symptoms, telling him he’s merely “in a funk” that absolutely nothing is wrong with him he’s “just a little out of sorts” (Woolf 23). He also blames Septimus in part for his shell shock, “Dr. Holmes came again […] he brushed it all aside — headaches, sleeplessness, fears, dreams — nerve symptoms and nothing more, he said […] But, he continued, health is largely a matter in our own control.” (Woolf 92). He believes that Septimus’ is in control of his symptoms, and is he merely had the drive he could eradicate them himself. His treatment plan includes maintaining his weight by eating porridge and trying to find a hobby. Dr. Holmes leaves Septimus feeling utterly dejected, and Rezia extremely confused, unable to understand why Septimus cannot cure himself, as Holmes suggests.
In contrast, Sir William Bradshaw has a much better grasp on Septimus’ condition. He recognizes immediately that he is a “case of extreme gravity” and that Septimus was in the midst of “a complete physical and nervous breakdown” (Woolf 95). However, although Bradshaw is quick to recognize the severity of Septimus’ case, he does not provide adequate treatment. He believes that Septimus’ breakdown is caused by a lack of proportion, which he could regain by spending time on bed rest in the country. In this way Bradshaw’s treatment plan involves further alienating Septimus; “you invoke proportion; order rest in bed; rest in solitude; silence and rest; rest without friends, without books, without messages; six months’ rest; until a man who went in weighing seven stone six comes out weighing twelve” (Woolf 99). Both medical professionals in the novel alienate Septimus in their lack of understanding of shell shock and treatment; he is either thought to be a hypochondriac, or he is ordered to be sent away to an asylum to regain proportion. Holmes and Bradshaw do a great disservice to Septimus in their miscalculation of his needs, which ultimately helps drive him to commit suicide.
In their creation of shell shocked protagonists, Woolf and Ford were able to use the true medical symptoms and the challenge of soldiers’ reintroduction into society after the war as the embodiment of modernist concerns. Septimus and Tietjens’ shell shock is a literal manifestation of the metaphoric alienation, isolation, and fragmentation of modernity that Woolf and Ford sought to reflect in their writing.
Works Cited:
Ford, Ford Madox. Some Do Not… New York: Grosset and Dunlap Publishers, 1924. Print.
Hanna, Julian. Key Concepts in Modernist Literature. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.
Holden, Wendy. Shell Shock. London: Channel 4 Books, 1998. Print.
Jones, Edgar and Simon Wessely. Shell Shock to PTSD: Military Psychology from 1900 to the Gulf War. New York: Psychology Press, 2005. Print.
Leese, Peter. Shell Shock: traumatic neurosis and the British soldiers of the First World War. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Print.
Mahaffey, Vicki. Modernist literature: challenging fictions. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Print.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc, 1981. Print.
Photograph courtesy of WikiMedia Commons