Now to begin with I want to stay that Peter Walsh doesn't actually have PTSD having not really fought in a war, but he lived in India in the years immediately following World War I and people around him were probably going through it and I think that that rubbed off on him as from what we see him thinking about and what I know about PTSD he seems to exhibit similar symptoms. When he came back and talked with Clarissa what went through him mind was just like what goes through peoples mind when they come back from war like, "how are these people living their lives just like normal after what happened to me?" Even though such a terrible thing happened to the people fighting in the war the people in the place you fought for doesn't even act like anything is different aside from congratulating you for fighting for your country.
Not only that but he seems to really regret not staying with Clarissa, along with being really disappointed she didn't love him back. But he appears to have fallen in love in India though I'm not entirely sure what he said as he sounded like he was divorcing the woman he just met, as he seemed really sad while talking about a divorce. He also chased after some unknown girl, which could've just been a figment of his imagination showing him the exact woman he wanted to marry, and showing him how he could never obtain her.
If you want to know where I got this information on PTSD, I really recommend watching this Synopsis of "All Quiet on the Western Front" which was made by Overly Sarcastic Productions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91bY9h35qTg
I agree that Peter's "romantic pursuits" in India were quite confusing, and I find it interesting that you point out how we have no real evidence that he is telling the truth about this romance he found. Even though we are aligned with his thoughts for an entire section, he barely mentions Daisy and is still obsessed with Clarissa.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting viewpoint. I didn't really consider the possibility of Peter having PTSD but that really fits in with everything we know about him (knife). One thing I want to know though is if Peter acted like this when he was younger as well, since to Clarissa it seemed as though he didn't change much.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that I hadn't even considered, and it's a really unique idea. However, I don't think the trauma from being rejected by Clarissa can be anywhere near enough to cause something of the severity of PTSD. I do think that he still carries a significant amount of emotional baggage related to Clarissa, but if we look at how Septimus' life is it's clear how much more intense trauma he has than Peter. You've done a good job of identifying some emotional trauma that Peter has, but I think PTSD is a bit too strong of an analogy.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very interesting perspective and not one I had ever considered before. Up until this point I hadn't looked at Peter as someone who might have been traumatized by the war (especially when we have someone like Septimus to compare him to). PTSD seems a little too strong of a diagnosis but I'm very open to the idea that the war could have had effects on him we aren't considering.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting perspective to consider: we've already been thinking in terms of possible parallels between Clarissa and Septimus, and Peter also makes a good point of comparison: they've both returned to England after being away, and they wonder about their place in the changed society. Peter has a certain paranoia and self-consciousness about him, which we see in much greater extremes in Septimus. In many respects he is a more extreme version of dynamics we see in Peter and Clarissa both.
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