The Growing Understanding of Septimus Smith

When we are first introduced to Septimus Smith it was a very brief segment and yet he already stood out from other characters in Mrs. Dalloway. When the reader is first introduced to Septimus it is as part of the motor car scene. His response when compared with the responses of the other people who see the car is quite different. While everyone else was looking at the car wondering who might be inside, Septimus was watching the car itself and instead of who might be inside he worried about what message the car was trying to deliver to him. And when his wife interrupts his thoughts by saying "Come on" to get him to start walking again, he seems to snap out of some sort of daze, showing that he really was seeing things in his own altered reality.
Later in the book when Septimus and his wife, Lucrezia, are in Regent's Park we enter the mind of Septimus for a third time (the second being shortly after the motor car scene) and it is then we the reader begins to get a growing understanding of Septimus. In this scene you are in his head for longer so you see his altered reality for longer. Because of this it become obvious that he normally sees things that other people do not. He sees things ranging from his dead friend Evans to a dog turning into a man. However, he also sees the simple things in nature with a sort of exquisite beauty. For example he sees a leaf floating in a breeze as an "exquisite joy." This helps us understand Septimus because it shows that he really sees the world differently. In the motor car scene it is obvious that Septimus is different but it isn't easy to pinpoint exactly how. This scene also shows that Septimus not only sees things but it hyper sensitive to the things he sees normally like the leaf in the air. By advancing our knowledge of Septimus it develops the character even though so little time has passed in the story.
Later in the book we learn of why Septimus became the way he is now when the narrator tells his story. We learn that he started out as an aspiring poet who was very romantic and not overly masculine. His boss at the firm he works at criticizes him for this and wants him to play football to become more manly. Instead Septimus volunteers for the army. The narrator doesn't describe his experience in the war with any specific detail but instead focuses on his relationship with his commanding officer Evans and the friendship that forms and how Septimus doesn't feel anything when Evans dies. Because of this we learn that the root of Septimus' emotional trauma is his lack of emotions when his friend dies and how he continued not to be able to feel permanently after the war. Because Woolf separates his story into segments like this we get a sense of character development despite the fact that the current day Septimus isn't changing. This realization only leaves us with the question of how will our understanding of Septimus change from now on.