Dissecting Sir William

In Virginia Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway", the character of Sir William Bradshaw serves as a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing type of figure. He is widely renowned as a psychiatrist of exceptional skill, but under that benevolent guise he seeks to gain complete emotional dominance over his patients. Using his philosophy of "proportion" as justification for his actions, Sir William attempts to change the things the men and women under his care value into the things that he values (family, career-oriented, courage). While these are admirable things to desire and work towards, no one has the right to take advantage of how unstable a person might be to change who they fundamentally are as a person. Even if one of Bradshaw's patients is able to resist the ideology he/she is being pressured to adopt, then Sir William will simply deem that patient to be insane and attempt to isolate them by prescribing solitary bed rest. On the exterior Sir William Bradshaw appears to be a model excellence, but on the inside lies a power-hungry beast who seeks to impose his will on people with less mental fortitude.