Septimus was a soldier in WWI and throughout the novel Woolf focuses his character on the negative effects the war had on him. Internal effects that were a major part of his life after the war  were hallucinations and flashbacks. In a scholarly article I read By Luhrman, he defines flashback as a sudden and disturbing vivid memory of an event in the past, typically as the result of psychological trauma. A quote from Mrs. Dalloway that references septimus’s flashback is “For God’s sake don’t come! Septimus cried out. For he could not look upon the dead. But the branches parted. A man in grey was walking towards them. It was Evans! But no mud was on him; no wounds; he was not changed. I must tell the whole world, Septimus cried” (Woolf 69) The scene of this flashback was in Regents Park, London. As peter is walking across the park, Septimus sees him as Evans which was his good friend who died in war. This flashback resulted in Septimus to panic and scream because seeing his friend brought up strong emotions. When Septimus has that flashback, he thought Evans was still alive and is excited to tell everyone. War was still a little new to septimus, which is why his experience was such a setback in his life. The flashbacks are always going to stay with him because there was no cure to prevent them or help him with these thoughts he was having. The flashbacks were holding Septimus back when he was trying to come back to his normal life because it came down to him feeling so paranoid and miserable, he wanted to be isolated, this was a huge factor that even interfered in his relationship with his wife.

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