“Fear no more the the at o’ the sun/Nor the furious winter’s rages (9).”
On page 9 of Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf quotes a section of prose from Cymbeline, by William Shakespeare. In this writing, Shakespeare says that one should not fear “the heat of the sun,” or “the furious winter’s rages,” or anything else for that matter because everyone is going to die eventually (“Golden lads and girls all must/as chimney-sweepers come to dust”). Mrs. Dalloway quotes this poem as she’s looking through a shop window, remembering her past and wondering if her life is as she would have wanted it. Perhaps Woolf chose this poem because of the realistic meaning-- don’t fear life because everyone must die. And this is exactly what Mrs. Dalloway might secretly be thinking (or trying to convince herself of) as she stares into that small shop window. This is also a theme that the book as a whole explores, for Septimus faces a similar train of though. In the end of his life, he truly takes the meaning of this quote to heart and accepts his death by throwing himself out of a window.
"Cymbeline." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 28 May 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymbeline>.
Shakespeare, William. "Fear No More the Heat O'the Sun." Poetry Foundation. Web. 25 May 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176855>.
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