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Dr. Holmes is the first medical professional that appears in the novel, and right away, Woolf sows doubt about the validity of his perspective. Septimus’s jumbled, illogical thoughts strongly indicate that he is struggling, yet Dr. Holmes refuses to acknowledge his patient’s condition. Instead, he repeatedly tells Rezia that nothing is wrong with her husband and instructs him to take up new hobbies as a distraction. This unwillingness to accept the idea that traumatic events, such as military combat, can have severe, long-lasting psychological impacts renders Dr. Holmes a representation of post-war society’s response to veterans more broadly. Lacking the language and knowledge to truly express the suffering that Septimus experiences after returning home, Dr. Holmes assumes that the absence of any physical ailments signifies a clean bill of health. Such a perspective was common during this era, despite early discussions of “shell-shock.” Perhaps even more cruel than Dr. Holmes’s dismissal of Septimus’s condition, however, is the condescending and dismissive way in which he approaches it. Haunting visions, a sense of doom, and suicidal thoughts are the result of simply being “in a funk” according to Dr. Holmes. He even goes so far as to compare Septimus’s misery to his own occasional bouts of depression, suggesting that he follow the regiment he uses and go to the Music Hall or play golf to feel better.
With this seemingly endless amount of unsympathetic behavior, Woolf makes the reasoning for Septimus’s rejection of Dr. Holmes rather explicit. He and Sir William Bradshaw both serve as the antagonists that Septimus must face throughout the course of the novel, and they ultimately push him to take control of his life and kill himself. Septimus has a particularly strong hatred for Dr. Holmes, viewing him as an embodiment of “human nature” and its endless capacity for cruelty. Septimus feels that the impacts of Dr. Holmes’s slights, his air of superiority, and his inauthentic character are just as brutal as the horrors he witnessed in the war, and he desperately fears them. In the end, Septimus’s suicide marks his escape from Dr. Holmes’s constant and oppressive visits, or the painful reminders of the world’s darkness. The fact that Dr. Holmes cannot fathom why Septimus would kill himself serves as yet another example of his oblivious and dismissive attitude.
