For, now that it was all over, truce signed, and the dead buried, he had, especially in the evening, these sudden thunder-claps of fear.

 “For, now that it was all over, truce signed, and the dead buried, he had, especially in the evening, these sudden thunder-claps of fear. He could not feel. As he opened the door of the room where the Italian girls sat making hats, he could see them; could hear them; they were rubbing wires among coloured beads in saucers; they were turning buckram shapes this way and that; the table was all strewn with feathers, spangles, silks, ribbons; scissors were rapping on the table; but something failed him; he could not feel. Still, scissors rapping, girls laughing, hats being made protected him; he was assured of safety; he had a refuge.”

Ans – Reference: In the context of the War, the war-veteran Septimus Warren Smith becomes a symbol of the modern-day violence and cynicism. That is where the First World War comes out in its true colours. At first, it appeared a necessary event to Septimus. In spite of losing his close friend Evans on the front, Septimus remained unruffled by the loss and thought of bright prospects. He thought nothing of the destructiveness he witnessed first-hand.

Explanation: See the effect of the War on Septimus’ mind. Septimus is not deprived of affects, since he is struck by “thunder-claps of fear”; he also perceives and identifies his surroundings precisely, so that his lack of feeling refers in fact to the discrepancy he feels between his mood and the young women’s, Similarly, in the next passage. his wife's tears plunge him into despair but his feeling nothing means that he is unable to reach out to her, Septimus’s “feeling nothing” suggests by contrast that feeling involves sharing and empathizing, 

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