Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (excerpt) Traffic accumulated. And there the motor car stood, with drawn blinds, and upon them a curious pattern like a tree, Septimus thought, and this gradual drawing together of everything to one centre before his eyes, as if some horror had come almost to the surface and was about to burst into flames, terrified him. The world wavered and quivered and threatened to burst into flames. It is I who am blocking the way, he thought. Was he not being looked at and pointed at; was he not weighted there, rooted to the pavement, for a purpose? But for what purpose? This excerpt from Mrs. Dalloway reveals the state of mind of Septimus Warren Smith, a war veteran with a outlook on the world. The last two sentences also illustrate , which is a common characteristic of modernist literature.