Septimus Smith's Suicide

In Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Septimus Warren Smith, who suffers from shell-shock or post traumatic stress disorder, kills himself to escape society and human nature.  He did not want to die, yet he knew he was "condemned to death by human nature" for it was the only way to escape the doctors and conformation (Woolf 96).  To Septimus, the doctors represented human nature, which he felt was the enemy.  If Septimus had attended doctors Holmes and Bradshaw's therapy, he would have surrendered his soul and lost himself, so he, instead, kills his body to preserve his soul.  He sacrifices himself for free thought and free will.