Category: To the Lighthouse

In To the Lighthouse and The Life and Death of Harriett Frean, we come across women whom their intrinsic being is commensurate to the realities they are in and the social conditioning that has influenced them. The novels published in 1927 and 1922 repectively frame women and their setting within and against different contexts yet with common traits. In the case of Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Ramsay is the conventional married woman emboding the Victorian class requirements who according to her ‘an unmarried woman has missed the best of her life’. Mrs. Ramsay is contrasted with Lily Briscoe who is the new woman, is an independent painter and is not interested in marriage. On the contrary Herriette Frean sacrifices a lot of possible routes that at first she feels that are upholidng her traditional female expectations and class expectations. The discussion will be looking into the the women character’s gender role within the boundary of Victorian self-righteuosness and the move towards embracing Modernity and will look at four areas: the oppression of women by the partriachal society, the marginalisation of women, women as sexual beings, the equality and gender issues between men and women under the auspices of Feminist theory.

Feminist theory is an approach that focuses on the way women are represented in literature. This mode of interpretation is important not only to understanding how gender affects characters in a work, but also in understanding the societal values that are reflected by the work. The novels clearly show that there was an inherent expectation of what and how the role of women should be. Women are often depicted as submissive wives, dutiful homemakers, and selfless nurturers, considered virtuous by right of beauty and dominated by emotions. Feminist theory tries to answer the question of whether a character perpetuates traditional female stereotypes, and to what extent the text supports those views.

In both novels women are oppressed by a partiarchal society represented chiefly by the father Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Frean and some other secondary characters like Charles Tansley. The society presents man who occupies the role of the self, or subject; woman is the object, the other. He is essential, absolute, and transcendent. She is inessential, incomplete, and mutilated as Simone de Beauvoir highlights. The man as a father extends out into the world to impose his will on it, whereas woman is doomed to immanence, or inwardness. He creates, acts, invents; she waits for him to save her. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute – she is the Other.’

The category of the Other is as earliest as consciousness itself. In the most primitive societies, in the most ancient mythologies, one finds the expression of a duality – that of the Self and the Other. This duality was not originally attached to the division of the sexes; it was not dependent upon any empirical facts.

Why is it that women do not dispute male sovereignty? No subject will readily volunteer to become the object, the inessential; it is not the Other who, in defining himself as the Other, establishes the One. The Other is posed as such by the One in defining himself as the One. But if the Other is not to regain the status of being the One, he must be submissive enough to accept this alien point of view.

Mrs. Ramsay soothes her husband when his ego needs attention and Harriett and her mother do not like contradicting Mr Frean. Harriett would not want to make her parents unhappy.

Like Negros and Jews, a historical event has resulted in the subjugation of the weaker by the stronger. The scattering of the Jews, the introduction of slavery into America, the conquests of imperialism are examples in point. In these cases the oppressed retained at least the memory of former days; they possessed in common a past, a tradition, sometimes a religion or a culture. But in the case of women on one side there is Mrs. Ramsay who is happy to be married and to be a mother, Lily Briscoe who enjoys painting and being a spinster, whilst Harriett remains a spinster because of her moral standards and her myopic approaches.

The women are ready to accept that, save for Lily, who manages to find her space in the modern transition. However, men’s perception of women retains a top-down approach, remnants of the Victorian Empire. In fact Mr. Tansley whispered in Lily’s ear that women cannot paint and cannot write (Part 1) as well as having Andrew thinking that women had not control over thair emotions (Part 1). These phrases and thoughts would today be seen as mansplaining – looking at women as being the weaker sex. There is an innate need that the man needs to establish his authority and to feel ‘it necessary to assert himself’ as Mr. Tansely felt in Part 1.

This need is intimately connected to the place the woman should keep, which is that of a domestic figure and the importance of normalising the family unit.

Although Lily Briscoe is the heroine of the novel, Mrs. Ramsay is its emotional centre. As we have seen, she can wrap the negative (male) in her own positive frame, and she can enter the middle to prevent the frame from exploding. In addition, she brings people together and creates a unity, howsoever tenuous. Given her own warm centre, others seek her out—Lily, in particular, expresses a desire for a symbiotic union with her. Mrs. Ramsay also has a more private centre to which she periodically withdraws, and she has a wish for gratification that mirrors her own way of giving. We can speak of Mrs. Ramsay as a phallic woman in that she not only gives and absorbs, but also moves directly between others.

Mrs. Ramsay’s ability to contain negativity and inter vene in the service of unity is brought out again in a scene in the children’s room. Cam and James should be asleep but they are quarreling about a skull hung on the wall belong ing to James. They are in a bind because the skull casts a shadow that frightens Cam and prevents her from going to sleep, but James refuses to sleep if the skull is removed. Mrs. Ramsay replies with ‘we will cover it up’ (p. 83). The perfect solution—the skull remains hung, but no longer casts its threatening shadow. The skull has come between James and Cam; Mrs. Ramsay then mediates the dispute and embeds the negative – Mrs. Ramsay promotes cooperation, Mr. Ramsay, divisiveness. Mrs Ramsay is linked to light and darkness even towards the end of the novel as she was the one bringin everyone together, in fact when Paul Rayles repeats the words ‘lights, light, lights’ since the lights bring symbolically the people facing each other and together, removing darkness and separation. The skull could have been a reflection on future death, war and the change as a family unit.

In the case of Harriett she was always brought up to behave ‘beautifully’ like her mother, and not even God and Jesus were not more beautiful than her mother. Her father kept himself straight and slender and had could meddle and risk in business as he felt secure for most of his life. Like Mr. Ramsay, Mr. Frean read dangerous books of Darwin or Huxley and is fascinated by their ideas and discourse. Yet his wife highlighted confidently that despite his going there in those readings, he always comes back. Harriett looks at her father in awe. She tried to read the books and was not prevented from reading them. Yet she was prevented from taking up some kind of academic or business path and in fact her role in society is never really mentioned by Sinclair. The role Harriett’s parents expected from her was that she finds a husband but it was never imposed and domesticity grew on Harriett. The nondecisive attitude of Harriett because of her over-identification with her mother and the goodness she must keep, she declines her sexual identity to abide by parental authorty not to break up the family. Yet Harriett is also a recluse who wants no one but her mother shown when she says, ‘I shall never want anybody but you’ . Hence she displaces her sexual desire for altruism.

Virginia Woolf is one of the most famous writers of the modernist era, she was not merely a writer, at the same time she was a biographer, an essayist and also a feminist. Critics tend to agree that Woolf’s finest novel is To the Lighthouse (1927), which is certainly one of the central works of the modern imagination.

To the Lighthouse is Woolf’s most autobiographical novel, she uses the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse as surrogates for her own parents, Leslie and Julia Stephen.

Being a female writer in a patriarchal society, Woolf raises issues on gender and gender roles, and challenges the role of the Victorian woman, both in her novels as well as in her essays. The ideas of women, their role and identity become especially obvious in her novel To the Lighthouse. Woolf in this novel clearly juxtaposes the two images of women, namely the Victorian ideal and the New Woman. Woolf herself contributes greatly to shaping the new woman’s identity, as she sets out to destroy the stereotype of that time which suggested that only men can be important writers.

The Victorian Womanhood

The Victorian woman was often seen as the ideal woman, the Angel in the House, even long after the Victorian era. The term “angel” stems directly from Coventry Patmore’s 1854 poem “The Angel in the House,” in which he described his meek and pious wife. Central of the Victorian ideology of the feminine was the idea of ‘true womanhood’. The four ‘cardinal virtues’ in the true woman were piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. This was not totally new, but the emphasis was different. Idealisation of women became heavily domestic in the nineteenth century. The notion of the domestic idyll and woman’s place in it, was essentially middle class.

To rationalise this domesticity, the notion of the separate spheres of the sexes was popular. During the Victorian era (1837- 1901) the public and the private sphere were increasingly identified with ideas of gender, so that the life of a woman in Britain revolved entirely around the private sphere of the home, the family and motherhood. Whereas men, being in a superior or privileged position, were able to be part of both spheres, the public and the private. The nineteenth century was confident that it knew the difference between the sexes and that these differences were total and innate.

Marriage was the major goal for most women, ignoring their possibilities to emancipate themselves. Staying single meant that a woman lost her social position and only attracted disapproval of society. The odd woman – the woman who could not marry -undermined the confortable binary system of Victorian sexuality and gender roles.

Politically the New Woman was an anarchic figure, who criticized the society’s insistence on marriage as woman only option for fulfilling life. Women were taught at a young age that they were to get married and have children, and thus also their education was targeted at these goals. A large proportion of their education included domestic duties such as sewing and preparing her for marriage in general. As Woolf pointed out for women in the nineteenth century” Marriage was the only profession open to her.”

Mrs. Ramsay

Woolf’s novel is set in the Ramsay family’s summer home in the Hebrides, on the Isle of Skye. The gender landscape of the book is highly traditional despite of the fact that the novel is set between 1910 and 1920. Mrs. Ramsay devotes herself to her family and friends. She embodies the virtue of duty, subservience, self-sacrifice and other qualities which are proper for a Victorian woman. Mrs Ramsay’s character symbolizes the essence of the Victorian womanhood. There is no clear reference to her first name or maiden name in the novel, she exists only as Mr. Ramsay’s wife. We don’t know any information, details about her life before her marriage, before she became Mrs. Ramsay. Mr. Ramsay, the patriarch – known only by his surname – is an authoratian, emotionally distant philosopher. Mrs. Ramsay is described in the novel through the technique of interior monologue.

Mrs. Ramsay’s first word in the novel’s opening scene is “yes”, which discloses her affirmative and positive nature. This opening scene represents an idillyc picture about Mrs, Ramsay and her son. The tenderness and protectiveness likens this picture to the Madonna and child paintings. Mrs. Ramsay is the generative force in the novel who must literally provide and create life for all of her family. ”They came to her naturally, since she was a woman, all day long with this and that; She often felt she was nothing but a sponge sopped full of human emotions.”

Lily Briscoe’s reflection about Mrs. Ramsay at the end of the novel emphasises her giving character. ”Giving, giving, giving, she had died — and had left all this. Really, she was angry with Mrs. Ramsay. With the brush slightly trembling in her fingers she looked at the hedge, the step, the wall. It was all Mrs. Ramsay’s doing.”

According to Mrs. Ramsay the universal law in life is marriage. The contemporary society was committed to marriage as a cultural imperative. Lily Briscoe is unconventional and strictly rejects marriage, which Mrs. Ramsay disapproves, evaluating this situation as a deficiency. Mrs Ramsay strictly assures that “An unmarried woman has missed the best of life.”

Mrs. Ramsay asserts that no matter what Lily has, it is not worthwhile as she is alone. Mrs. Ramsay is afraid of being alone and that’s why she wants everybody around her and she has this unifying force. Mrs. Ramsay has limited possibility for the intellectual life. ”Books, she thought, grew of themselves. She never had time to read them…. disgraceful to say, she had never read them.

Mrs. Ramsay knitting complies with ideals of traditional femininity, reflects her role as the creative center of the house and the family. Mrs. Ramsay lives mostly in silence. This silence is connected to her repressed emotions. She and her husband have seemingly an ordinary marriage, but they both have some reservations about their own selves. Mrs. Ramsay can’t tell her love overtly to Mr. Ramsay even though she knows that he really wants this revelation; ”heartless woman he called her; she never told him that she loved him. But it was not so — it was not so. It was only that she never could say what she felt.”

Mrs. Ramsay’s experience of being unable to find her voice in this intimate situation signifies that she inhabits an inadequate traditional role.

Mrs. Ramsay couldn’t create her own independent self, she interiorized the dominant norms of victorian womanhood. But she can reflect on her life objectively in the opening part of the dinner scene, and she begins to question her place in life. The dinner scene is the central climax of the novel, which is narrated both from Lily Briscoe’s and Mrs. Ramsay’s perspectives. “But what have I done with my life?” asks Mrs. Ramsay in the the dinner scene. Mrs. Ramsay looks herself and her family life more realistic way than before without illusions. She even questions her feelings for her husband.” She could not understand how she had ever felt any emotion or affection for him.”

According to the dominant image about the Victorian womanhood Mrs Ramsay’s main task is to create a beautiful home for the comfort of her family. To decorate the ideal home was an artistic activity for middle class women, the beautiful home is a work of art. When Mrs. Ramsay sees her home shabby, she realises her failure. ”The room (she looked round it) was very shabby. There was no beauty anywhere.”

Moreover Mrs. Ramsay realises her failure as the unifying power of her social circle, people are separeted around her, they do not merged. The turning point of the dinner scene when Mrs. Ramsay starts to play again her social role, and continues to create beautiful illusions for herself, for her family and for their guests. As soon as Mrs. Ramsay leaves the dining room, the magic begins to fail.

Mrs. Ramsay even after her death, is still dominant in the lives of the characters in the novel. Mrs. Ramsay’s tragedy is the tragedy of ”The Angel in the House”, which was a social construction, and a harmful fantasy. Woolf staged the symbolic killing of the ”Angel in the House” in To the Lighthouse. Woolf struggled for her personal freedom and the autonomy of female artist. She wrote in her essay ”Killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer.”

Woolf depicted a realistic portrait of the gender structure of the first decades of the 20th century in her novel. Only Lily Briscoe’s character represents a new role for woman in To the Lighthouse. She could struggle for her art and for her self in a world which is full of Victorian prejudices of the role of women in the family and society. (‘Women can’t paint, women can’t write …”) Lily Briscoe could finish her painting about Mrs. Ramsay at the end of the novel: ”It was done; it was finished. Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.”

REFERENCES

1. Allen, Elisabeth. A Woman’s Place in the Novels of Henry James. London: Macmillan Press, 1984
2. McIntire, Gabrielle. Feminism and Gender in To the Lighthouse /The Cambridge Companion to To The Lighthouse. (Edited by Alison Pease) Cambridge University Press, 2015
3. Showalter Elaine. Killing the Angel in the House: The Autonomy of Women Writers. The Antioch Review Vol. 50, No. 1/2, 50th Anniversary Issue (Winter – Spring, 1992), pp. 207-220
4. Showalter, Elaine. Sexual Anarchy. London: Virago, 2009
5. Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations) New York: Chelsea House, 1988
6. Woolf, Virginia. Three Guineas. New York, Harcourt, 1966
7. Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. London: Penguin Classics, 2000

Have you ever wanted something so hard in life that you chased after it to the ends of the earth? Or did you idly sit by wishing and dreaming? “Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision”. To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is a story about people trying to achieve what they want most in life while battling the norms of their society – all set by the unremitting sea.

Virginia Woolf, born Adeline Virginia Stephen, took her first breath on January 25, 1882 in London, England. Virginia’s father, Leslie Stephen, was the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography. Julia Jackson, her mother, possessed prestigious social and art connections. Virginia had three siblings: Vanessa, Thoby, and Adrian, not including her half-siblings from her mother’s previous marriage. In 1895, at the age of forty-nine, Virginia’s mother died. Virginia was still very young when this even happened and fell into a depression. Almost a year later, she wrote her first letter since her withdrawment to her brother, Thoby. In 1906 after the family took a trip to Greece, Thoby died at the age of twenty-six from typhoid fever. Instead of slipping back into the black hole of depression, Virginia began to write and soon began to express her skills publicly. Wanting to write something that greatly differed from the average novel during this period, she experimented with a novel she named Melymbrosia. In 1911 Leonard Woolf returned after resigning from the colonial service. In August of 1912, Virginia and Leonard were married. Renaming Melymbrosia to The Voyage Out, Virginia continued to work on this as her first novel. The plot of this novel separated Virginia from the everyday authors who wrote conventional novels, and marked her journey into surrealism. In 1913 her manic-depression returned and she attempted suicide, which pushed back the release of The Voyage Out until 1915. After this episode, Virginia was mostly able to keep these deadly thoughts and feelings at bay. After purchasing a printing press, Virginia and Leonard began the Hogarth Press in their basement in 1917. Several other novels were printed on the Hogarth Press by both Virginia and Leonard. Later in 1922, the Hogarth’s largest scale novel by Virginia would be published, Jacob’s Room (Reid). In December of 1922, a new and sensual romance would spark between Virginia and Vita Sackville-West. The two women were truly the fire of each other’s loins. After their first meeting, Virginia invited Vita to a dinner party. The women had a long and romantic affair together. The two continuously wrote many love letters to each other over the course of their love affair. Virginia later released her new and cutting-edge novel, Orlando, in 1928. The novel was inspired by her secret relationship with Vita, and she received the first copy of the novel in a package sent to her by Virginia. The novel follows the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman for centuries. Virginia and Vita ended their love affair but remained very close friends up until Woolf’s death in 1941 (Popova). In 1925 Woolf published one of her most acclaimed novels: Mrs. Dalloway, which was tessellated as a Post-Impressionist painting. And again in 1927 Virginia released another novel, To The Lighthouse, which is based on Woolf’s life as a child growing up. She became distraught in 1934 and 1937 due to more deaths in the family. Later in 1937, she released a new novel, The Years, that quickly became a best-seller due to its radicalism. With World War 2 and the London bombings looming over her head, Virginia’s depression returned in 1941. Feeling as if she was a failure, Virginia could no longer write. On March 28 she wrote two letters, one addressed to her husband, and the other to her sister. She walked behind her house to the River Ouse, filled her overcoat pockets with stones, and slipped into the iridescent water, never to emerge again (Reid). “To look life in the face, always, to look life in the face, and to know it for what it is…at last, to love it for what it is, and then, to put it away.”

Thirteen years before the release of To The Lighthouse, the First World War broke out, large and threatening. The war lasted from 1914 to 1918. Thousands of British men were sent off to fight in the most treacherous of conditions; six million of them wounded, over 700,000 killed (Snow). Families were shattered, hearts broken. The destruction and upheaval of lives caused a ripple of desolation to spread among many modernist writers, including Virginia. They needed a break from the grisly past and desired new delineation in literature. They needed to create, to free their minds of tragedy. The cloak of darkness needed to be lifted from their battered country, to be made new and beautiful again. With the destruction over with, a long period of recovery followed. Virginia was able to write three novels during this recovery period, which included: Jacob’s Room, Mrs. Dalloway, and, of course, To The Lighthouse. To The Lighthouse provided a beacon of light during this incontestable time. The lighthouse represented the hope and rejuvenation that people so craved. To The Lighthouse was an instant best-seller, Woolf said herself that “it was easily the best of my books”. The novel had sold so well that she and her husband were able to purchase their first car. It was additionally one of her many novels to be published in her basement on the Hogarth press. This novel is also the most autobiographical novel about Virginia’s childhood. The setting is based upon the family summer trips she took as a child to St. Ives, Cornwall (Scutts). While this era had its many rough patches, it had its good ones too. Many important and luxury items we have today were invented during this “fall from grace” period. Some of those advancements include: Sanitary napkins, sonar, crossword puzzles, bras, and brillo pads (Trueman).

Lily Briscoe is easily one of Virginia Woolf’s most iconic characters in To The Lighthouse. She is described as being a short woman with “screwed up” little Chinese eyes. She is single and independent, and described as not possessing physical beauty. Unlike the rest of the characters in the novel who have a set mentality, Lily mixes “masculine rationality with feminine sympathy”. She is able to hold thoughtful conversations with the men in the novel and is also able to sympathize with Mrs. Ramsay with they talk gossip and other topics. Many of the women throughout the novel are described as having the basic female dream of the time, acting and thinking as women were expected; that they had to get married, have children and raise them, and handle things around the house (Yang). The women who conform to these expectations die while they are fairly young in the novel. Lily, however, does not wish to married and live the conventional life. Lily enjoys being alone and does not believe that she was made for marriage (Woolf). She wants to focus mainly on her art. This is also a sore spot for Lily because she doubts herself as a painter because of her sex. She fears that her work will be thrown into the attic and lost among the many other miscellaneous objects up there. During the period of the novel, women were not thought of as painters and writers, etc. Because of this, Lily faced many criticisms on her art from many male companions. Throughout To The Lighthouse, she contemplates how she should go about her painting, whether or not to move the tree here or there. Her brush is her vessel to create, yet she hesitates to show her paintings to other people for fear of negative criticism. At the end of the novel, after several years, and in a moment of exasperation, she has her vision and completes her portrait (Yang).

Throughout the novel Lily has relationships with several other characters. One of the most important relationships was the one that she had Mrs. Ramsay. Lily viewed her as a mother figure and greatly admired her strength. In turn, Mrs. Ramsay admired Lily’s independence. Lily enjoyed the many conversations she and Mrs. Ramsay had in the kitchen when they were all alone. She also loved the idea of uniting people and tried to pair Lily and Mr. Bankes together. While the two admired one another, the union did not prosper. Mrs. Ramsay was also the central figure for Lily’s painting that she had been working on since the beginning of the novel. When Mrs. Ramsay passed away in the second portion of the novel, Lily was a little on the fence about how to feel about the life-altering news. She becomes angry with Mrs. Ramsay for dying and starts to question her principals. By the end of the passage, she is yearning for Mrs. Ramsay, screaming and crying into the abyss for the mother figure she was knew and loved. Charles Tansley, another guest at the Ramsay’s home, constantly preaches to Lily about the inability of women to paint and write. Lily does her best to not let his rantings undermine her confidence in her work. Mr. Ramsay is the husband of Mrs. Ramsay, and is a complicated character. Although she respects him for his intelligence, Lily doesn’t really care for him because of the way he treats his wife and children. He constantly puts them down and denies them to go to the lighthouse. He loves to be pitied and often begs for it from many characters, including Lily although she doesn’t give it to him. Mr. Bankes is a young man also visiting the family at their beach house. Lily admires him and he in turn doesn’t doubt her as a female artist. Mrs. Ramsay pushes for the two to unite in marriage, but her attempt in in vain. Lily wanted to focus on her work instead of starting a family. She felt that a family life distracted one from their work. At the end of the novel, Lily is middle-aged and still not married (Yang).

To The Lighthouse has many great themes throughout, two of which include art as a means of unity and preservation and the dichotomous representation of water. Lily Briscoe is the main artist of the novel and begins to paint a portrait of Mrs. Ramsay sitting with James. The ultimate way to preserve someone for centuries to come is to have a picture of them, whether it be a photo or a painting. Even after Mrs. Ramsay’s death, there is a portrait to preserve her memory. In the memories of others you are preserved, but only until they forget. Lily’s painting also shows what Mrs. Ramsay was like. She loved and cared about her children, wishing the best for them, always wanting to protect from the dream crushings of their pessimistic father. In the portrait, James is perched upon Mrs. Ramsay’s knee. James was her favorite child out of all them. He was also the one who suffered the most from their father. She always wanted to protect him and wished that he didn’t have to grow up in those circumstances. The painting immortalizes their close relationship. Mrs. Ramsay enjoys the idea of uniting people and does this frequently throughout the novel, whether it be at dinner or trying to start romances. She likes the idea of solid remaining after she is dead and gone. At one of their many dinner parties, she is “disturbed by the lack of cohesion” and isn’t fulfilled until everyone comes together in unit. In her preoccupation with art and unification, Mrs. Ramsay herself becomes an artist, one who creates lasting moments between people. By the end of the novel, Lily recognizes this and forms another lasting connection with her (Gradesaver).

The second theme recognized throughout the novel is the dichotomous representation of water. Everything in the novel changes, the people, the atmosphere. The only steady thing is the water. In the second passage of the novel Time Passes, many changes come to the family. Mrs. Ramsay passes away, her daughter dies during childbirth, her son dies in the war, and their beach house is being worn away by the elements. The only constant aspect is the sea, wide and unwavering. Mrs. Ramsay often reflects on the consistency of the sea and is comforted by its eternity. It provides her with stability. However, Mr. Ramsay is vexed by the ocean, by its destructive and erosive nature. He focuses on the fact that it will inevitably wear away and swallow up the land he is standing on (Gradesaver).

To The Lighthouse is abundant with symbols, some of which include the lighthouse, the sea, and time itself. The lighthouse represents what the characters want most in the novel. James wants the acceptance of his father, Lily wants her paintings to matter, Mrs. Ramsay wants to create unity, and Josh wants to complete his essay. The characters go through the whole novel trying to get what they want the most and never succeed until the end of the novel. The sea represents the stability among an already out of control and changing world. The biggest symbol, however, is time. The characters are running out of it, and they continue to try and find new ways to make it worthwhile and obtain their goals before they run out of it. Time wears away everything, including relationships and the house where they all started (Litcharts).

In conclusion, To The Lighthouse is a novel where its characters fight to get the things they want the most. Some of the characters sit by idly, and lose the precious time they were given while the others race to the end of the earth trying to obtain their goals. Virginia Woolf was an author of her time, whose writing reformed the way the world felt towards female writers. “Writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter” (West).

Works Cited

1. LitCharts. “To the Lighthouse Symbols.” LitCharts, www.litcharts.com/lit/to-the-lighthouse/symbols.
2. Popova, Maria. “How Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West Fell in Love.” Brain Pickings, 21 Mar. 2018, www.brainpickings.org/2016/07/28/virginia-woolf-vita-sackville-west/.
3. Reid, Panthea. “Virginia Woolf.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 6 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Virginia-Woolf
4. Trueman. “Inventions 1900 to 1990 – History Learning Site Inventions 1900 to 1990.” History Learning Site, History Learning Site, 18 Sept. 2018, www.historylearningsite.co.uk/inventions-and-discoveries-of-the-twentieth-century/inventions-1900-to-1990/.
5. Woolf, Virginia. “To the Lighthouse Themes.” GradeSaver: Getting You the Grade, www.gradesaver.com/to-the-lighthouse/study-guide/themes
6. Yang, Amy. “To the Lighthouse: Lily Briscoe.” Prezi.com, 4 Mar. 2013, prezi.com/iqdnrwxvwnsy/to-the-lighthouse-lily-briscoe/.
7. “Historical Context for To the Lighthouse.” Columbia College, www.college.columbia.edu/core/node/1767.
8. “Viewpoint: 10 Big Myths about World War One Debunked.” BBC News, BBC, 25 Feb. 2014, www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25776836.

Superficially, nothing could be more disparate than the Dig and To the Lighthouse. From being worlds apart in time to the complete contrast in setting and focus of interest, the lowbrow, simplistic concerns of a middle class family in their holiday home could not be further from the unmerciful realism of life in the Welsh countryside. However, on a much closer study, they have much greater affinity.

In To the Lighthouse, the initial focus is the Ramsay’s marriage. A sense of complexity in ‘being’ overshadows the novel. The entangled relationship between the Ramsays demonstrates their particular approaches towards daily life rather than actual interaction. The Edwardian era was limiting for women, although as Woolf was known for her contemporary thinking, uses this marriage to illustrate the alternating expressive and instrumental roles adopted by man and wife which was the social norm at the time. Mrs Ramsay appears mostly submissive and subordinate to her husband to avoid challenging the constraints of the period. However, hidden beneath, Mrs Ramsay is much more intelligent than is first depicted, but any demonstration of this intelligence is suppressed by fear. This is clear in the ways they illustrate their own desires. Mr Ramsay in fact is far more expressive than Mrs Ramsay by continuously searching for compliments from her – “It was sympathy he wanted, to be assured of his genius” showing his insecurity in sensing her overpowering intelligence. The stream of his constant commentary on his feelings also helps to make us more aware of the way his mind operates. At the start, Mr. Ramsay desires more than anything to hear the words “I love you” from his wife, though she instead decides a smile is enough to convey her equally loving feelings towards him. It is as though he is trying to grasp her sense of security in the world but never manages to. On the other hand this also proves their closeness in their mutual understanding despite their lack of verbal communication, which is also shown in their behaviour at the dinner table “it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscriptions on tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men”, presenting their unspoken bond. Mrs Ramsay protects her family, friends – even enemies – and other strong female characters (such as Lily Briscoe) even admire her for her “astonishing power”, yet Mr Ramsay never manages to fulfil his role of being a husband or father well. This could be because of their completely contradicting personalities – his insecurities a result of being an introvert, heightened by his wife’s extroversion, threatening his masculinity. Attempting to assert himself, Mr Ramsay never allows Mrs Ramsay to contradict him “there wasn’t the slightest possible chance that they could go to the Lighthouse tomorrow” emphasising his dominance over her, putting it down to her foolish ideas. This completely contrasts to the relaxed equality of Woolf’s own marriage, as she was proposed to three times by Leonard, and denied the first two abruptly writing in a letter to him “As I told you brutally the other day, I feel no physical attraction in you”. The relationship became even more modern after it was discovered that Woolf had a same sex affair with writer and aristocrat Vita Sackville-West whilst surprisingly, Leonard knew all about the relationship and didn’t object, which would be even astonishing to a modern audience.

In The Dig, there is no internal access into Daniel’s thoughts as such, instead, his feelings of loss are conveyed instead through his actions. Woolf in comparison is much more concerned with the psychological depth and syntactic complexity. Daniels’ isolation adds to how deeply scarred he is by the loss of his wife. The repetition of the word ‘chain’ in the first paragraph gives a sense of him being imprisoned, maybe in his own head, due to this loss, making him an introvert, much like Mr Ramsay. This image also illustrates a sense of dominance similar to Mr Ramsay as he controls the dog’s freedom with chains. The setting becomes a description of his own self “From the beams hang compact discs, strange astral things in this half-light, now ignored by the sparrows and starlings they are there to keep out”. The building is neglected, and reflects how he is unkempt and neglected too. The discs symbolise the wife, now covered in dust showing how time begins to cover original memories, much like To the Lighthouse, the discs are also a sign of femininity as they were her decorations, and therefore the dust could be a symbol of the male dominance erasing femininity in both books. He is now lost in the world without her, like a ‘drifting piece of loose ash’ showing the similarity between the books, both husbands relying on their wives, like a pillar to support them. In this case however, the character Daniel, is exposed to a brutal reality of losing a significant other, and instead of grasping compliments from his wife like Mr Ramsay, he instead grasps onto any sense of comfort he can, implied by the words “familiar”, “comfortable” and “warmth” as he physically guides the birth of a lamb inside the uterus of an ewe. In his overpowering loneliness, Daniel turns to the animals for comfort. The dogs, cows and sheep give him purpose and although he “craves her help, for some company”, he looks to them as a second best.

Jones’ use of the setting is particularly important in understanding Daniels’ feelings towards the loss of his wife from how the animals are described. “The sheep sighed and crunched, the cattle’s feet slapped as they moved in the mud” which perfectly symbolises the callousness Daniel is going through, with the harsh reality of being. Woolf similarly uses this technique with the actual lighthouse, which stands alone – knocked repeatedly by the solid waves representing the isolation in the character of Mr Ramsay and his pessimistic thoughts knocking him over. Jones and Woolf also similarly use objects to illustrate their characters’ feelings. “He lifted the boots out of the doorway and set them next to hers” in The Dig conveys how the shoes show togetherness and the complementary difference between man and wife whilst “the backs of the shoes were so long crushed that they had moulded by now to his heels” shows how the shoes remind him of her; although they are worn out, he doesn’t want to replace them in fear of replacing a part of her. Mrs Ramsay in To the Lighthouse similarly uses ‘boots’ as an analogy exclaiming how she won’t let Mr Ramsay be the ‘broken shoe’ almost as though she loves him too much to let him become a distant memory like Daniel’s wife

Stream of consciousness, a modernist narrative, is an important part of understanding why Woolf chose to write in indirect speech. This technique is one of an anti-romantic free viewpoint which often encouraged questioning the value of cultural norms. To the Lighthouse was in fact one of the most accomplished of the Modernist movement, though Modernism was criticised for disregarding the social world in favour of it’s obsession with language and the act of writing.

Woolf said that a good story didn’t always have to start with ‘Once Upon a Time’ and end with a ‘happy ending’ as it simply wasn’t life. In To the Lighthouse, Woolf becomes the omniscient narrator so that the story appears in a way that reflects the consciousness of the dramatic characters rather than external events, which occupy very little space in the novel. For example, we follow James’s thoughts from the kitchen, to the terrace with Mr Ramsay and Charles Tansley, and later at the dinner table before following him to bed. It creates the feeling of an unstructured, conscious flow of thoughts to give the illusion that we are inside the mind of a character. This conveys their mental process and therefore helps to connect the reader to the level of being Woolf is wanting to show through a sequenced series of selected moments of consciousness, like the wind that blows through the house.

Indirect monologue is used by Woolf to describe her thoughts “let us record the atom as they fall upon the mind in order in which they fall”, supporting this further with a comment in her diary, “the method of writing smooth narrative can’t be right. Things don’t happen in one’s mind like that”. In To the Lighthouse Mrs. Ramsay’s thoughts overlap, at one moment in deep thought about how her children will one day endure “suffering” and “death” and then suddenly interrupted by “the bill for the greenhouse would be 50 pounds.” This illustrates a sense of realism in how the minds of humans actually work, one thought intersecting another all the time.

The indirect monologue also acts as a link between interior monologue and omniscient narration “I respect you (she addressed him silently)”, signalling new perspective and clarifies the narrative which could become a chaotic switching between two techniques

In contrast, the Dig constantly shifts from first to third person making it more personal, but also giving multiple perspectives on the characters and their actions. This technique highlights Daniel’s grief as his wife constantly talks over his stream of thought “She had wanted that fixed he thought. She was right” giving the impression he is still emotionally living as a married couple and struggling to move on. Furthermore, both Daniel and the Big Man seem unpredictable to the reader, as if Jones’ only has control over half the story, and is not omniscient. Woolf, on the other hand is almost an omniscient godlike figure, whilst Jones’ structure suggests that he is experiencing the story along with the reader. Although the visual aspect of the Dig is prominent, there is little internal access to thought, instead relying heavily on actions such as when the boy capturing his first badger having a “panicky lump in his throat”. This doesn’t show the psychological depth and syntactical complexity that To the Lighthouse achieves, although both novels use free association to convey the characters’ disordered consciousness. Both texts continuously shift character perspective interspersed with detailed descriptions of events such as the badger culling and “the strange hernia of bag split and bulbing from the uterus” describing the weak lamb in the Dig, or Mrs Ramsay telling James the story of the fisherman’s wife in To the Lighthouse, offering alternate views of reality. Direct narration is used in both. In To the Lighthouse, “For how would you like to be shut up for a whole month at a time, and possibly more in stormy weather, upon a rock the size of a tennis lawn? she would ask;”, represents Mrs Ramsay’s consciousness by writing “she would ask” and later changing it to “she asked”. The semi colons further physically indicate a continuation of consciousness. The Dig similarly, shows this, when the man asks the boy if it was his “first dig? The boy nodded”. It’s been suggested that the boys’ first dig also represents Jones’ first successful book. Finally, as in To the Lighthouse, omniscient narration is found in the Dig critic Max Liu suggests; “omniscient narration allows Jones to show every aspect of a landscape which connects past and present, living and dead, people and animals, as his two protagonists proceed along a tense narrative collision course.” Combined, these techniques help to present the sense of realism and existence, conveying evidence for the question of the presentation ‘being’ in both books.

Art is an important part of To the Lighthouse as it helps to mirror the meaning. The structure illustrated in the design of two blocks joined by a corridor in Woolf’s own notebook, perfectly represents how the book was written. Part One of the novel, which is only a day long, is the block on the right. Part Three, ten years later is the block on the left. The two blocks of time are connected by a corridor of time, the middle section, and illustrates that the surface of To the Lighthouse is only a series of little moments of perceptions, such as Lily Briscoe wanting her painting to look like “the light of a butterfly’s wing lying upon the arches of a cathedral”. This symbolises the fleeting impressions lying on top of a solid foundation and represents how our lives are rooms of moments bursting with intensity. Woolf is trying to illustrate that life isn’t full to the brim of excitement; there are long corridors of boredom with a room here and there to make our lives thrilling. Critics such as Eric Ourback, on the other hand, claim there is no particular kind of narrative structure.

With this in mind, Lily’s painting could be seen to symbolise the difficulty of capturing the essence of her vision. This is underlined by certain characters reactions to her paintings. Mr. Ramsay’s fixed ideas of art, make it impossible for her to paint when he is near by “…he imposed himself. He changed everything” and he concludes that art is unnecessary despite avidly reading and reciting literature. Art is also used to symbolise the lack of admiration men had for women in the Edwardian era. Charles Tansley confirms this view, remarking “Women can’t write, women can’t paint”, reiterating this gender prejudice, which gets in the way of Woolf’s feminist belief in a woman’s ability to make contributions to cultural life. The painting also symbolises the strong bond and mutual respect of women when seeing each other stand up for whatever they believe in, therefore Lily Briscoe becomes a reflection of Woolf by using her art and creativity as a way to escape the domestic constraints of being a woman in that era, although there is also a likelihood that she is also based on Woolf’s sister Vanessa, who used her art to go against the social norms, just like Lily and Woolf herself.

In The Dig, Cynan Jones writes about the rough Welsh countryside portraying an atmosphere which matches the feelings that Daniel would be experiencing whilst grieving; an empty, rawness. The detailed, visual description of the bleak, harsh countryside places Daniel away from rest of the world. The symbolism in “the bare ash branches” is almost like his illness is his physical surroundings keeping him prisoner. Completely alone, it shows how his world was quiet and empty after the loss of his wife “a barking fox could sound as if it were right the other side of the farm” causing him to experience the art of the suffering of being, and succumbing to the myth of a tortured artist. This is almost a reflection of Woolf similar struggle with mental health, attempting suicide three times, succeeding on the third. Finally Jones’ and Woolf’s setting, both illustrate the harshness of the grieving that takes place after losing a loved one. In the background we are aware that the Ramsay’s are grieving for the loss of their son taken by the First World War, however much it is suppressed. More positively, The Dig portrays Daniel’s appreciation for his wife by the use of poetic description of her absence “You can just walk into it and have the chemical sense of her”. His devotion is evident by his actions of holding on to her smallest trace, reminding us of Mr. Ramsay’s need for reassurance from his wife.

Time is another key element with which to compare and contrast To the Lighthouse and The Dig structurally and chronologically. Woolf’s opening with “Yes of course” is in ‘medias res’ which is Latin for in the middle of the plot. This facilitates the theme of time as it opens in mid conversation from the critical point of action, adding a sense of realism, as we are merely looking in to a section of their lives and their experience of being. It also goes against the expected beginning of a story from the 19th century, conveying once again her uniqueness. Homer, in the Iliad also used this technique, to open the poem by beginning in the middle of an argument between Agamemnon (king of the Greeks) and Achilles (best warrior) in the same way as To the Lighthouse opens with an argument between Mr and Mrs Ramsay about whether or not they can take their son to the lighthouse. The Homeric similarities are clear. The fluidity of the use of time, with the book having a ten year interval at one point, also helped to explain the recorded history which gives context to the story explaining the death of Andrew Ramsay from the First World War. Although the book appears to have a very small focus, we are always aware of the existence and effect of World War One continuing in the background and its significance to the characters. Mrs Ramsay was remarkably anxious about her children growing up, wishing James and Cam would never become her “long legged monsters”. She also feared her own decline “When she looked in the glass and saw her hair grey, her cheek sunk, at fifty” though Bankes regarded it as “classical beauty”. Nevertheless it shows an engaging feeling every reader can relate to as aging is just a part of human experience.

Likewise, Jones’ The Dig begins in ‘medias res’, although, unlike the tension of the argument which begins To the Lighthouse, here the atmosphere is initially calm and quiet “the dog stirred as Daniel came between the buildings and got up in its chain and stretched and yawned”. The effect of the polysyndeton also begins in the middle of things, in the morning on a random day. However, differently to Woolf’s portrayal of time, Daniel is almost spared from the anticipation of aging that Mrs. Ramsay suffers from as he seems to romanticize death. This can be seen after a failed attempt to nurse a lamb back to health “The lamb was dead. It was dead and comfortable”. The “comfortable” suggests death is an enviable state; depressed and lonely, the possibility that Daniel wished to be with his wife once again is more than likely. Crushed from the loss he “could not accept that it was permanent and that it was three weeks since she’d died” illustrating the worsening affect time was having on his grief. The torturous thoughts continuously enter his mind, leaving an essence of timeless repetition and rhythmical unease like the symbolism of the sea relentlessly crashing into the lighthouse in Woolf’s novel, or the unrestrainable course of time that eventually led to the houses deterioration.

Strength is an important element in how both authors reveal the theme of ‘being’ through the characters reactions to the brutality they experience. Subsequently, the Dig offers the sense of strength that Daniel is compelled to develop through experiencing Nature’s harsh reality mostly through the use of symbolism in Jones’ language. The setting around him mirrors his mentality, such as the ‘reeds’, “crushed”, “spread” and “trodden over”, abused by the weight of his thoughts. This is represented again with the shard, symbolising Daniel, a solid mound which “wouldn’t move” and the presentation of his thoughts as sheep which “over the years had rubbed against [him]” illustrates how Jones’ figurative language is important in understanding the depth and effect it has on Daniel.

Jones also uses symbolism through the use of animals such as “The black lamb [which] looked tired and beaten under the lamp” to accentuate further the profoundness of Daniel’s suffering. Furthermore, the Big Man, similarly alone in the world, is symbolised by the badger, whilst the terrier is like his loneliness which “tapped and nipped” at him, though he contradicts himself by taking his anger out on the poor creature, creating a self fulfilling prophecy to become a bully. Ultimately the characters battle each other with affiliating symbolism in the stripes of the badger, the white to embody the goodness in Daniel, and the black for the evil in the Big man. Yet, coupled with the ending of the novel, the “extra patches of black in the badger from the coal” illustrate that in this case the evil wins, the badger is killed, and Daniel succumbs further into the depths of depression no matter how much strength is shown while they fought for their lives.

There are also similarities with the Iliad found with the brutality in To the Lighthouse and The Dig. Homer’s use of the long strong sentences explaining hunting “hounds go circling in to attack, and under the hue and cry a gnashing sound of tusks and teeth is heard; even so now, around rugged Odysseus, the Trojans ran” is also illustrated in Cam’s mind “and it sometimes happens, when a cloud falls on a green hillside and gravity descends and there among all the surrounding hills is gloom and sorrow. And it seems as though the hills themselves must ponder the fate of the clouding, the darkened”. It shows how Woolf compared feelings to rational domestic thoughts, whereas Homer compared feelings to war and hunting, much like the Dig. With this in mind, the harshness of Jones’ writing is comparable to the harshness of the sea, or the deterioration of the house as time progresses in To the Lighthouse as though humans are fighting a losing battle. In addition to this, Woolf’s characters are similarly used to show a progression of strength, such as Mr. Carmichael who although initially seemed quiet and lost, searching for an inspiration in Mr. Ramsay, became “entirely contented” having found his strength after regrettably being unable to fight in the war for being too old. Furthermore for context, as Woolf found inspiration in the war for brutality and strength, Jones makes a strong case that the ethos of his violent attention to detail on either how his wife was killed, the savage killing of the badger, or the explicit birthing of the lambs could be inspired by the Aberfan slate disaster; the natural disaster in 1966 killed 116 children and 28 adults and became a tragedy in Welsh history, all because the NCB had ignored concerns by local authorities. Finished two years before the 50th commemoration, it is almost as though the badger culling is a reflection of what can happen when being is ignored.

Class becomes the finality that ultimately divides the sense of being, not stopping at The Dig and To the Lighthouse. In The Dig, the setting of the rural empty land and the stereotype of farmers strongly contrast with the Ramsay’s Edwardian middle class family.

Although Woolf was brought up in a Victorian upper-middle-class family, her understanding of the class conflict was circumstantial but intricate. At the time of writing To the Lighthouse, the 1926 General Strike of the Labour movement took place which caused national unrest. Therefore, Mrs Ramsay’s compassion for knitting a stocking for the lighthouse keeper’s son, or Mr. Ramsay’s concern over the fisherman’s wages could well be an example of Woolf’s own discomfort with her privilege. Using her art for the greater good, Woolf created the characters of Mrs McNab a “toothless”, “trodden down”, “caretaking woman”, to help represent the economic climate of the time, illustrating similarities to Daniel’s “alienated” and “weak” position. Furthermore, Mr. Tansley, a working class chemist who had been looking after himself since the age of thirteen, shared a devotion for mathematics and philosophy with Mr. Ramsay, proving that they both have highly educated minds, despite the class difference.

Differently, although Jones’ background is left more to the imagination, there is a possibility that the characters are a reflection of the author. On one hand is the wife, whose death equates to the General Strike in that she “felt a great feeling of wealth and happiness”, and then out of the blue “the horse kicked her”, causing great shock and sorrow. Daniel on the other hand chose a job he put his heart into, without concern for the money involved, and therefore there is reason to believe this is an impression of Jones’ choice to become a writer

In conclusion, the physical brutality of the explicit, raw world of The Dig conveying a shocking degree of realism shown through the Big Man could not be further from the less overt, more subtle brutality in To the Lighthouse; existing in the deep divisions of class, gender, family relationships and the First World War. Nevertheless, in the style leading us through the characters’ consciousness in the deep well of grief and dissatisfaction there’s a great commonality in their experience of being

Bibliography

1. Woolf’s marriage facts http://virginiawoolfblog.com/the-marriage-of-virginia-and-leonard-woolf/
2. Critic on the Dig omniscient narration https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-dig-by-cynan-jones-book-review-tough-guy-breaks-new-ground-with-a-beastly-story-9047447.html
3. 1926 General Strike of the Labour movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_United_Kingdom_general_strike
4. The 1966 Aberfan slate disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster

There is no shore of Time, no port of Man. It flows, and we go on. Literature introduces various conceptions of time depending on the literary genres. For instance, romantic poets like Alphonse de Lamartine and John Keats take into account the eternity of time by focusing on the ephemerality of men in order to share their melancholy. On the contrary, in response to Romanticism, realist novelist like Émile Zola and Charles Dickens set their feelings aside and tend to rely on scientific data to portray life as it is. The scientific conception of time, whether it is based on Einstein’s theory of relativity or Quantum Physics, relies on clock time, that is to say the succession of the past, the present and the future. However, according to Henri Bergson’s theory of duration, there are two aspects of time: objective, based on clock time and subjective, based on the human experience of life. Under the influence of Bergson’s philosophy, Virginia Woolf argues that ‘life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged [for it] is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end’. As a matter of fact, this essay will show that her novel To The Lighthouse illustrates the theory of duration and pushes the reader to a critical reflexion on the ephemerality of men, by analysing the discrepancy between the physical conception of time and the human perception of it.

The novel introduces two aspects of the physical conception of time. In a first place, there is a human perspective of the physical time, as the use of the stream of consciousness demonstrates. Not only does it show that the characters belong to the present, but it also proves that they cannot escape it. For instance, Mrs Ramsay’s opening line ‘Yes, of course, if it’s fine tomorrow’ shows her helplessness since the use of the conditional tense and the adverbial phrase ‘tomorrow’ demonstrate that the characters cannot physically escape the present nor foretell the future. This idea is reinforced by Mr Bankes’s statement ‘we must wait for the future to show’, for the modal verb ‘must’ and the verb ‘wait’ turn the characters into spectators of life and time. In a second place, as Paul Sheenan explains To the Lighthouse also introduces a non-human perspective of the physical time.

But what after all is one night? A short space, especially when the darkness dims so soon, and so soon a bird sings, a cock crows, or a faint green quickens, like a turning leaf, in the hollow of the wave. Night, however, succeeds to night. The winter holds a pack of them in store and deals them equally, they darken. Some of them hold aloft clear planets, plates of brightness. […] The autumn trees gleam in the yellow moonlight, in the light of harvest moons, the light which mellows the energy of labour, and smooths the stubble, and brings the wave lapping blue to the shore.

Time goes by ‘without interference’ as the enumeration of the seasonal elements shows. The continuity of time highlights the absence of human activity and the change of narrative perspective, which allow Virginia Woolf to control the passing of time for there is no human present. Besides, the metaphor of the wave illustrates the endless cycle of seasons. It also emphasises the lack of human intervention since time is only measured by natural phenomena. The only human activities are in brackets such as Mrs Ramsay’s death, World War I or Prue’s marriage. It emphasises the ephemerality and insignificance of the human time compared to its physical conception.

Contrasting the physical concept of time, there is the human perception of it, which changes according to the characters because of the use of stream of consciousness, as Michael Levenson points out. First, there is the viewpoint of Mrs Ramsay, who is not only a wife and a mother but also the representation of the Angel of the House and the embodiment of Victorian values. As her obsession with the past shows, she wishes her present to last forever. Oh, but she never wanted James to grow a day older! or Cam either. These two she would have liked to keep for ever just as they were, demons of wickedness, angels of delight, never to see them grow up into long-legged monsters. Nothing made up for the loss.

The opposition between childhood and adulthood illustrates her melancholy of the past and her fear of the future. For instance, she uses metaphorical and hyperbolic periphrases in order to draw a parallel between children and adult, and highlight the evilness of grownups. It allows her to criticise the passing of time and the notion of change, which threaten the Victorian values and express her fear of the future. Furthermore, Mrs Ramsay’s need to objectify time reinforces her apprehensions. She creates a parallel between both material and mental worlds in order to set memories in time and make them last forever.

She righted herself after the shock of the event, and quite unconsciously and incongruously, used the branches of the elm trees outside to help her to stabilise her position. Her world was changing: they were still. […] Now one thought of it, cleared of chatter and emotion, it seemed always to have been, only was shown now and so being shown, struck everything into stability. They would, she thought, going on again, however long they lived, come back to this night; this moon; this wind; this house: and to her too. It flattered her […] to think how […] she would be woven; and this, and this, and this, she thought, going upstairs, laughing, but affectionately, at the sofa on the landing (her mother’s); at the rocking-chair (her father’s); at the map of the Hebrides. All that would be revived again in the lives of Paul and Minta; […] it was all one stream, and chairs, tables, maps, were hers, were theirs, it did not matter whose, and Paul and Minta would carry it on when she was dead.

The enumeration of furniture and the antonomasias in parentheses show that Mrs Ramsay considers objects to be passed on to have a temporal value, as a way to remember one’s existence. Besides, the metaphor of the tree shows the discrepancy between human and non-human time because it reinforces the insignificance of human life compared to nature. Nevertheless, Mrs Ramsay’s pathetic fallacy draws a parallel between the two by associating her memories to the trees, hence anchoring her ephemeral mind onto the eternal nature. It is strengthened by the parallelism ‘her world was changing: they were still’ in which the shift of tense also highlights the discrepancy between the physical and the human conceptions of time. The branches of the tree is also a metaphor for these of a family tree because Mrs Ramsay mentions both her parents, who belong to the past, and the Rayleys who represent the next generation, hence belong to the future. It emphasises her wish to last over time.

Then, there is the perspective of Mr Ramsay, who contrary to his wife, does not focus on the past nor fear the future, for his objectification of time is turned towards it:

How many men in a thousand million, he asked himself, reach Z after all? Surely the leader of a forlorn hope may ask himself that, and answer, without treachery to the expedition behind him, ‘One perhaps.’ One in a generation. Is he to be blamed then if he is not that one? provided he has toiled honestly, given to the best of his power, and till he has no more left to give? And his fame lasts how long? It is permissible even for a dying hero to think before he dies how men will speak of him hereafter. His fame lasts perhaps two thousand years. And what are two thousand years? (asked Mr Ramsay ironically, staring at the hedge). What, indeed, if you look from a mountain top down the long wastes of the ages? The very stone one kicks with one’s boot will outlast Shakespeare. His own little light would shine, not very brightly, for a year or two, and would then be merged in some bigger light, and that in a bigger still.

Not only do the rhetorical questions reveal his curiosity about the future, but it also reinforces the idea that the characters are physically stuck in the present and cannot foretell the future, as aforementioned. Nevertheless, even if his body is stuck in the present, his mind is not, for it does not belong in the physical world. Therefore, it allows him to travel through time. As a matter of fact, the light is a metaphor for Mr Ramsay’s philosophical knowledge and theories, which illustrates his posterity and also echoes Virginia Woolf’s statement, mentioned earlier. It also shows that he is not afraid of being forgotten, like his wife, because he is aware of how little his impact is regarding the different time scales.

Finally, there is Lily Briscoe, whose perception of time is a combination the Ramsays’. For instance, she is using her painting as a way to capture time, like Mrs Ramsay with her parents’ furniture. The parallelism ‘Mrs. Ramsay making of the moment something permanent (as in another sphere Lily herself tried to make of the moment something permanent)’ highlights the comparison between Mrs Ramsay and Lily’s conception of time. It is also emphasised by the parentheses, which creates a hierarchy between the two conceptions, for Mrs Ramsay’s appears to have had influenced Lily’s. It illustrates the transmission of Victorian values. Nevertheless, contrary to Mrs Ramsay, Lily is able to move on and does not wish for time to stop.

There it was – her picture. […] It was done; it was finished. Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I had my vision. The possessive adjective ‘her’ shows that Lily has gotten rid of Mrs Ramsay’s influence and has set free from the values she preached. Besides, the gradation ‘it was done; it was finished’ and the use of past tense in the last sentence illustrate Lily’s detachment from the past.

To conclude, Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse explores two aspects of clock time – a human and a non-human conception, which allow her to expand and contract time itself. Comparing different perspectives is a way to account for the ephemerality of men, because throughout the novel, the conception of time changes. At first, it is focused on the past through Mrs Ramsay’s eyes, then it turns towards the future in Mr Ramsay’s mind and finally it considers both past and future in order to create the present as Lily’s painting shows. The variations of the conception and perception of time push the reader to a critical reflexion on the ephemerality of men.

In the novel To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf dives deep into the consciousness of her characters through her versatile writing style. She writes in a way that permeates between the inside and outside world of each character, mirroring how the mind speaks. By utilizing both a stream of consciousness and concise writing style, Woolf forces her audience to view the paradoxical duality of time in a different light. Throughout her novel, Woolf shows how the relationship between ephemerality and permanence of time drives the plot.

Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse poignantly captures the ephemeral nature of life by utilizing the internal thoughts and emotions embedded within the characters. Each of the main characters, the Ramsay’s and Lily, struggles with this awareness, thus, forcing them to helplessly grasp for symbols of permanence and stability. Mrs. Ramsay is consumed by a need to connect herself to enduring experiences; as a result, this causes her to fear the future. This is evident when she laments about how “…she never wanted James to grow a day older! or Cam either. These two she would have liked to keep for ever just as they were, demons of wickedness, angels of delight, never to see them group up into long-legged monsters” (58). In this passage, we can see how Mrs. Ramsay resists the passage of time, desperately wishing her children would stay young forever. In a way, Mrs. Ramsay becomes a prisoner to the transient nature of life because of her dismal attitude towards life. In addition to fearing the future of her children, Mrs. Ramsay “…had always seized the fact that there is no reason, order, justice: but suffering, death, the poor. There was no treachery too base for the world to commit; she knew that. No happiness lasted; she knew that” (64). From Mrs. Ramsay’s point of view, humans are rendered powerless in the face of nature and time. This perception of the transient nature of life is ultimately something that was constructed by her deepest fears. To the disagreement of her husband, Mrs. Ramsay is convinced that happiness, without any exception, is innately fleeting and ephemeral. Her awareness of death and sense of the inevitability of suffering lead her to search for such moments of bliss from the beauty of the physical world. As a result, Mrs. Ramsay finds comfort in the steady stroke of the Lighthouse light as it unites her experience with stability and endurance. Not only does she seek to create communion with permanent objects, but Mrs. Ramsay also unites her family, friends, and guests in the creation of long-lasting beauty, such as the infamous dinner party.

The infamous dinner party is a perfect example of how Woolf depicts the tension between ephemerality and permanence that takes place in a span of only a few pages. In Mrs. Ramsay’s eyes, the dinner party begins as a disaster with the stars of the party, recently engaged Paul and Minta, absent and the attendees, such as Mr. Ramsay, Charles Tansley, and Augustus Carmichael, who exacerbate the hostility and tension in the atmosphere. However, there is this progression of rhythmic movement from chaos to order as the darkness descends outside and the candles are lit. Content, Mrs. Ramsay thinks “It partook… of eternity… there is a coherence in things, a stability; something, she meant, is immune from change, and shines out (she glanced out the window with its ripple of reflected lights) in the face of the flowing, the fleeting, the spectral, like a ruby; so that again tonight she had the feelings she had had once today, already, of peace, of rest. Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that endures” (105). The development of the dinner party produces these priceless moments that take on a kind of psychological permanence. The guests will surely remember this evening for the rest of their lives, serving as a moment of refuge for peace in the midst of the destructive and chaotic world. Nothing in the world is permanent; yet, with endurance also comes transience. As Mrs. Ramsay leaves the room “with her foot on the threshold she waited a moment longer in a scene which was vanishing even as she looked, and then, as she moved and took Minta’s arm and left the room, it changed, it shaped itself differently; it had become, she knew, giving one last look at it over her shoulder, already the past” (111). Despite the fact that the dinner party ends successfully, Mrs. Ramsay reflects and cannot help but notice that the experience of the evening has already become part of the past, which darkens the once hopeful tone of the book. Although ephemerality and permanence originate from opposite spheres, they are effortlessly woven to show that time and life do not remain constant but actually ceaselessly shift forms. Even though ephemerality and permanence are contrasting ideas, the dynamic between the two creates this tension and force that pushes and pulls each other from one instantaneous moment to another.

While the tension in “The Window” focuses on the internal world of Mrs. Ramsay, the tension in the section “Time Passes” moves to the external world. “Time Passes” portrays the fleeting nature of life by illustrating the effect time has on objects in the vacant Ramsay’s summer house. The irrefutable effects of nature and time on objects that were once filled with color is evident when Woolf asserts, “What power could now prevent the fertility, the insensibility of nature?… It was beyond the strength of one woman, she said… There were things up there rotting in the drawers – it was a shame to leave them so, she said. The place was gone to rack and ruin. Only the Lighthouse beam entered the rooms for a moment… Nothing now withstood them; nothing said no to them” (138). The housekeepers put in a tremendous amount of effort to clean up the house and get it back in order, battling the destructive effects time and nature had on the furniture and the house. This passage accurately reflects that no matter what happens, life keeps moving on, sometimes at an overwhelmingly fast pace. Woolf also portrays the overwhelming influence time has on the characters and the readers by utilizing brackets like in “[Mr. Ramsay, stumbling along a passage one dark morning, stretched his arms out, but Mrs. Ramsay having died rather suddenly the night before, his arms, though stretched out, remained empty] (128). These brackets quickly summarize the deaths of fundamental characters like Mrs. Ramsay in order to emphasize the traumatic suddenness and ultimate lack of impact these events have in the grand scheme of things. Woolf kills off her characters abruptly in mere brackets to show how fragile and fleeting life is in the face of the relentless and conventional passage of time. The cruel and indiscriminate power of nature can accentuate the ephemeral property of life that Mrs. Ramsay feared until her last breath. In “Time Passes,” it seems as if time and nature triumphs over all events, even those that may seem to hold permanence and stability.

Even though Mrs. Ramsay passes away in the middle of the novel, she continues to influence Lily’s actions and thoughts until the very end in the section “The Lighthouse.” In fact, Mrs. Ramsay’s influence is so great that it leads to a major transformation in Lily’s perspective towards life. Whenever Lily struggles with finding inspiration to finish her painting, she remembers “Mrs. Ramsay saying, “Life stand still here”; Mrs. Ramsay making of the moment something permanent (as in another sphere Lily herself tried to make of the moment something permanent) – this was of the nature of a revelation. In the midst of chaos there was shape; this eternal passing and flowing (she looked at the clouds going and the leaves shaking) was struck into stability” (161). This saying of Mrs. Ramsay resonates deeply within Lily, allowing her to view her surroundings through a lens that slows down time; due to this effect, the rustling leaves and changing clouds seem to stop, bringing her vision into focus. Lily’s memories of Mrs. Ramsays propels her forward and gives her enough motivation to finally finish her painting. “It would be hung in the attics, she thought it; it would be destroyed. But what did that matter? She asked herself, taking up her brush again… With a sudden intensity, as if she saw it clear for a second, she drew a line there, in the centre. It was done; it was finished. Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision” (208-209). By relinquishing herself of the need for a permanently significant existence, Lily is able to achieve a sense of fulfillment. As a result of surrendering this need, she is finally able to fulfill her artistic vision and complete the unfinished painting that once haunted her. Lily accepts the ephemeral nature of the countless experiences that constitute a lifetime and finds comfort in the fact that she was able to make “life stand still” and “make of the moment something permanent.” By changing her perspective and capturing the moment through her painting like what Mrs. Ramsay did, Lily is able to achieve a different kind of endurance and stability.

Although it may seem like humans are mortal and powerless in the face of nature and time, we have a special ability to achieve spiritual immortality. The complexity of the human mind gives us the means to transcend the physical world that confines us, allowing us to achieve immortality that even time cannot hinder. Even without religion or god, Woolf shows that we can live on even after our death. For example, the memories of Mrs. Ramsay continue to influence Lily long after her death, eventually leading Lily to finish her painting. The lack of Mrs. Ramsay’s presence and the stark change in the summer house is a constant reminder of how much space she occupied and the vitality she added to the family. By portraying the effects of ephemerality and permanence on the characters, Woolf reassures her readers that like Mrs. Ramsay and Lily, we can also transcend our physical body and let our souls continue to exist through other means.

In a social system of patriarchy, where men have the power and authority, women are chained by the society’s code of behavior. Patriarchy has deprived women of their rights. Hence, men have been the owners of properties, decision makers and dominators of the public sphere. Moreover, women are limited to the image of “the angel in the house”. They are regarded as biologically and culturally inferior which lead to a lack of self-esteem. Women are seen through sex-role stereotyping as submissive, dependent, passive, and accommodating mothers and housewives who must stick to the private sphere. Thus, in the nineteenth century, feminism has emerged to change the status quo and curb these chains. It seeks autonomy and equality between sexes and opposes the hierarchical structure. These principles of feminism are represented in the works of many feminist writers such as Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf is a feminist female writer that belongs to the first wave of feminism. Thus, she portrays women’s resistance in her works. She represents her fundamentals of resistance through two of her works which are: her essay A Room of One’s Own, and her novel To The Light House. The essay is regarded as an integral part of her feminist perspective. She states that for a woman to become a successful artist, she needs to gain financial independence, and have a separate sphere. These ideas are portrayed in Lily Briscoe; the female protagonist of the novel. Woolf depicts many of her own life events in Lily’s character, hence, she is considered Woolf’s counterpart. Lily suffers from many inner conflicts that have lead to a transformation in her character. She walks along a way full of hesitations and obstacles to finally become a new woman who is not marginalized, inferiorized, subordinated, or commodified. Hence, she guides women to unfold their true potentials. Woolf succeeds in opposing the patriarchal ideology and represents the gender issue through the feminist character of Lily Briscoe.

The character of Lily Briscoe is a representation of a chained artist. Patriarchy, represented in the male figures in the novel like Mr. Ramsey and Charles Tansley, imposes a specific code of behavior or a ‘universal law’ by which women must abide. Despite those pressures, Lily seeks to be a female painter. She attempts to finish her painting but the interference of those male figures hinders her. She uses her art as a rebellious tool against the external world. Hence, White states that “outwardly timid, awkward, and unprepossessing, Lily carefully guards the secret of how much her art means to her’ (To The Lighthouse 86).Furthermore, she keeps struggling due to the patriarchal ideology. For instance, Mr. Ramsey requires sympathy and pity from the other sex. He views this as one of the women’s main roles. On the other hand, Lily keeps resisting this ideology that imposes on her specific gender conventions. Her internal conflict arises upon hearing Tansley saying ‘Women can’t paint, women can’t write…'(lighthouse 48).His words affect her psychological state. Thus, she begins to doubt her dreams and true potentials as a woman artist. “Why then did she do it? She looked at the canvas, lightly scored with running lines. It would be hung in the servants’ bedrooms. It would be rolled up and stuffed under a sofa. What was the good of doing it then, and she heard some voice saying she couldn’t paint, saying she couldn’t create…'(Lighthouse 126).Regardless, she has a desire to continue painting even without knowing the fate of her art. Her purpose is to finish the painting in order to see the complete view in front of her. With these conflicting feelings, she struggles to reach a resolution.

Throughout the novel, Lily is torn out between what she believes in and what patriarchy imposes on her. Thus, her transformation as a female artist has been full of obstacles. Furthermore, she stands against sex-role stereotyping of the patriarchal ideology by falling upon her work “…there’s my painting; I must move the tree to the middle; that matters – nothing else.” (Lighthouse 17).She decides to draw attention to her work despite Charles Tansley’s words, “…and if she wanted revenge take it by laughing at him?” (Lighthouse 17).Hence, as a woman who can actually paint Tansley’s words no longer strangles her. Moreover, staying with the Ramsays has emerged a conflict inside Lily that she manages to settle-“…staying with the Ramsays, was to be made to feel violently two opposite things at the same time…” (Lighthouse). Although, in her opinion love is“puerile, and inhumane” it is also “beautiful and necessary”. Nevertheless, art, independence, and autonomy are what she chooses over love and marriage. Lily decides that what matters is; to finish her painting even if its destiny is unknown. Her success at finishing the painting symbolizes the victory of the woman artist and the failure of the hierarchical structure of patriarchy. Accordingly, her Painting is a representation of Woolf’s feminist artistic view. According to A Room of One’s own, Lily is a different person when she returns to the house ten years later at the end of the second section and throughout the third. The way her painting is described is much more confident and she doesn’t fear having anyone near.”Burt, John.

Lily views the Ramsays as the typical Victorian couple. Mr. Ramsay represents the patriarchal ideology, while Mrs. Ramsay represents “The Angel in The House”. Mrs. Ramsay is a good wife, a caring mother, and the manager of her household. She has a rigid mentality about women’s role. Lily believes that she doesn’t need a man in her life because she is more than capable of earning her own living. She struggles with her thoughts, and rebels against Mrs. Ramsay’s views on marriage that “they all must marry […] there could be no disputing this […] an unmarried woman has missed the best of life.” (Lighthouse 43). Even when Lily is attracted to William Banks she pleads that ‘she liked to be alone; she liked to be herself; she was not made for that; and so have to meet a serious stare from eyes of unparalleled depth, and confront Mrs. Ramsay’s simple certainty (and she was childlike now) that her dear Lily, her little Brisk, was a fool.’ (to the lighthouse 42). Men gain power and authority from inferiorizing Women and placing them in the position of the “Other”. As a result, women become a mirror held up to men and that is what Lily considers Mrs. Ramsay. Furthermore, Mrs. Ramsay obeys her husband blindly and attends to his every need. For example, she depends on him, and she is unable to live without him. In addition, she states before her death that she would be happy to die before him because she wouldn’t be able to provide financial support for her children.

Virginia Woolf represents the mandatory elements that help Artists to be Creative in her extended essay A room of one’s own by suggesting that ”a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (A Room of One’s Own 4). Thus, art requires a private income and a separate sphere. Lily Briscoe manages to complete her painting because she has those elements. Her income is enough to make her live comfortably among the middle class. Moreover, she has her own place where she can paint by herself. According to Woolf that is what makes women artists finish their art. Briscoe’s painting is structurally and thematically linked with the voyage to the lighthouse. The entire action of the novel is unfolded symbolically in Lily’s paintings. For example, the final line in Lily’s painting is a symbol of Masculine achievement. Also, Lily’s use of a purple triangle to represent Mrs. Ramsay and James (lighthouse 52) could symbolize many different things. According to Lily, “It was a question [of] how to connect the mass on the right hand with that on the left hand” (Lighthouse 53). To connect one with two requires three, the completion of a triangle, the third stroke. Mrs. Ramsay is a representation of that third stroke. The artist before starting to paint is struck by some scene or objects, not necessarily because it is beautiful, but because of the arrangement of the scene. Its formal relation and her visions of them, the artist is overwhelmed by a glimpse of the reality and enveloped by aesthetic emotion “idea’ which she feels compelled to transmit it through her art form as in Lily’s Painting. There was an obstacle to the completion of the picture until the end of the novel. Thus, to overcome this obstacle Lily must first come to grips with the personal relations enveloping her. For example, Mrs. Ramsay must become a part of the system formal relation and in order to accomplish that, Lily must overcome Mrs. Ramsay’s ability to dominate her emotionally. This then frees her to pursue her creative task.

The third space of Lily is represented accurately by Woolf. It is the imaginative space which enables lily to overcome the restrictions of the unjust patriarchal society. Moreover, it is highlighted through her successful portrait that she crafts by the end of the novel. According to Maze, The novel ends at the same time Lily finishes her painting which projects that the conflict ends once she actually manages to create this space. She used to struggle because of Mr. Ramsay’s interruptions. However, in the end she manages to overcome these struggles through the creation of the third space. In addition, this portrait is highly symbolical as it symbolizes the destruction of the patriarchal beliefs regarding women. Furthermore, it damages the moral double standard of the patriarchal society. Thus, upon the end of the portrait and the novel, Lily Briscoe becomes a new woman.

After Lily faces a lot of internal and external conflicts, she is finally capable of breaking the chains and set herself free from the patriarchal ideologies. She rejects the stereotypical image of women as the “Angel in the House” portrayed in Mrs. Ramsey. Thus, Lily resolves to be a single woman by her own choice. Hence, Mrs. Ramsey’s words that an unmarried woman could be missing the “best part of her life” (Lighthouse 43) no longer have any power over her. She knows for sure that marriage is doomed to fail by time. As evidence, she reminds herself of three different incidences: first Paul and Minta’s marriage has failed although Mrs. Ramsey put so much effort to make it work. Second, the Rayleys marriage has failed too although they have been together for a very long time. They no longer feel love or affection towards each other. However, they were able to be great friends. Third, her relationship with Mr. Banks is going well as it is; friendship and companionship, not as his wife. Thus, Lily’s stance towards marriage is undoubtedly clear; it’s destructive to art. Furthermore, Lily rejects to pity men as a mean of rejecting the role of women imposed by patriarchy; they are expected to be “looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size” (A Room of One’s own 36). (

“…she pretended to drink out of her empty coffee cup so as to escape him — to escape his demand on her, to put aside a moment longer that imperious need… she turned her back to the window lest Mr. Ramsay should see her. She must escape somehow, be alone somewhere” (Lighthouse 110))Thus, when she meets Mr. Ramsey after Mrs. Ramsey’s death he tries to reveal his desperate loneliness because he wants sympathy. However, Lily tries to ignore and avoid him.

Finally, Woolf portrays Lily as the opposite of Mrs. Ramsey. Then by the death of Mrs. Ramsey, she symbolizes the death of the “Angel in the House” and declares rebellion against patriarchy. Thus, Lily represents a bridge between the two worlds of the ideal woman and the new independent, autonomous and self-reliant women.

Citation

1. Aleeba, Fatima. ‘A Feminist study of Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse’. International journal of English language and literature.V.VI (2007). Academia.edu.15,Dec,2018.
2. Burt, John. “Irreconcilable Habits of Thought in A Room of One’s Own and to The Lighthouse.” ELH 49.4 (1982): 889-907. JSTOR. Web. 20, Feb, 2014.
3. Deivecchio,Marina. ‘Feminist Book Review: Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse’. Feministbookreview.com.N.P.9,july.2014.Online.19,Dec,2018.
4. Munca.Daniela.’virginia Woolf’s answer to ‘women can’t paint, women can’t write’ in the light house’. Journal of International Women’s Studies.10.4 (2009):289.bridgew.edu.1,Dec,2018.
5. Proudfit, Wood. “Lily Briscoe’s Painting: A Key to Personal Relationships in ‘To the Lighthouse”. Criticism.13. 1, (1971): 26–38. JSTOR.org.11,Dec,2018.
6. The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica.’Lily Briscoe’.Britanica.edu.Encycloaedia Britannica, inc.4 May2010.online.1,jan,2019.
7. White, Roberta. A Studio of One’s Own. Fictional Women Painters and the Art of Fiction. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2005.
8. Woolf, Virginia. A Room Of One’s Own: Hogarth, 1935.print.
9. Woolf, Virginia. To The Lighthouse. London: Hogarth, 1927.print.

In Victorian age, a glorious period in British history, marriage meant the husband was the dominator and bread earner of the family while the wife was supposed to support him and attend the family well. The Ramsay couple is the typical model of Victorian marriage. Both of them play the conventional roles of gender according to the criteria of the society. Mr. Ramsay is a respectable husband and intelligent scholar, enjoying high reputation in the academic circle. Mrs. Ramsay is a submissive wife and tender mother who is pure, immensely charming, intensely sympathetic, and utterly unselfish, just like “Angle in the house”. (Woolf, 1973: 100-101)

At the very beginning of the story, Mrs. Ramsay is doing the knitting work which shows her traditional character and maternal instinct, unlike Lily who is interested in painting, Mrs. Ramsay is keen on domestic art. Actually, like knitting, Mrs. Ramsay always endeavors to unify her family and create a harmonious atmosphere for people around her. When her little son James Ramsay asks whether they could go to lighthouse where he has been longing for, Mrs. Ramsay comforts him with “yes, of course, if it is fine tomorrow.” On the contrary, Mr. Ramsay, a realistic and rigid philosopher, never compromises on truth for others’ pleasure, saying abruptly, “but, it won’t be fine.” (Woolf, 1994: 3) Although Mrs. Ramsay is dissatisfied with her husband’s stiffness, she dares not breathe a word of it to Mr. Ramsay and only turns to confirm James that they will go there soon. But the family does not make it to the lighthouse until the death of Mrs. Ramsay. This delay indicates that man has the authority over woman in the household and woman’s voice is neglected and suppressed by the men-centered world.

According to Simone de Beauvoir (1972: 267), an influential figure of feminism movements, it is social function defines women. “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” Living under the patriarchy, Mrs. Ramsay believes that she must behave as an understanding woman so as to make men feel superior and proud. For instance, she takes an indifferent attitude to the masculine discussions because “being trained to be intellectually inferior has the desired effect on Mr. Ramsay. The stupider the wife appears to the husband, the more desirable she becomes.” (Marcus, 1981: 152) Without doubt, in Mrs. Ramsay’s mind, her husband is far more important than herself, “there was nobody whom she reverenced as she reverenced him.” (Woolf, 1994: 23) Her maximum admiration as well as obedient towards Mr. Ramsay, to a large extent, is the conventional virtues required for all Victorian women.

Furthermore, it is women’s duties to produce offspring and take care of the family because marriage is considered as the most important thing for them in Victorian age. Perhaps, this is the reason why Mrs. Ramsay is so enthusiastic about making matches. Indeed, she strongly believes that only by getting married can women achieve felicity. Thus, she keeps on persuading young people to get married. For example, she insists Lily should marry, saying that “an unmarried woman has missed the best of life.” (ibid. 36) Actually, Mrs. Ramsay’s unshakable faith in marriage precisely demonstrates the limitations of women at that time. Such short-sightedness can even lead to tragedy like the unhappy marital life between Paul and Minta whose marriage is arranged by Mrs. Ramsay.

When talking about women’s status in the history, Virginia Woolf pointed out that “Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant.” (Woolf, 2001:36) To some degree, the portrait of Mrs. Ramsay is the best illustration of this statement. In the first part of the story, Mrs. Ramsay seems the focus among all the other characters. Mr. Banks is fascinated by her. Tansley is obsessed by her. Everyone admires her, “they came to her, naturally, since she was a woman, all day long with this and that; one wanting this, another that;” (Woolf, 1994:23) But deep in her heart, Mrs. Ramsay feels empty, “there was scarcely a shell of herself left for her to know herself by; all was so lavished and spent.” (ibid. 28) It can be inferred that Mrs. Ramsay is confused by her role as Mrs. Ramsay but she can only keeps silent about it. Throughout the novel, she is a representative of the tragic women and victims of the patriarchal society. She does not have the first name. What people know about her is her identity as Mrs. Ramsay. Her sudden death is only described with few sentences which are given in parenthesis as if they could be omitted. This cruel reality is exactly what women are confronted with. No matter how many sacrifices they make for the family and men, their low status in the men-centered world still render their life worthless in the end.

“By the 1890s there was an emphasis on self-fulfillment rather than self-sacrifice among women.”(Williams, 1984: 40) The transition from 19th century to 20th century witnessed a small group of women emerging from the fetter of men-controlling lives to strive for their equal rights. Among them, Lily was a representative. In contrast with Mrs. Ramsay as an ideal Victorian woman, Lily is a new modern female. She pities Mrs. Ramsay self-sacrificing life and confined horizon. In Lily’s opinion, marriage is like a yoke in which women’s personal development and professional achievements are hampered. Rejecting to meet the expectations of long-standing Victorian women role in the family, Lily chooses to lead a single and free life.

Apart from remaining unmarried, with rebellious consciousness in her mind, Lily also takes initiative actions against the old-fashioned relationships between men and women. Instead of being subordinating to men, she tries to develop an unprejudiced and pure friendship with the opposite sex. For example, she refuses to soothe Charles Tansley at the cost of her dignity. Meanwhile, she successfully forms a true friendship with Mr. Bankes who treats her without discrimination.

Obviously, Lily has suffocated the “angel in the house”. But Virginia Woolf suggests that if women want to have their own values, in addition to kill the angel in the house, they have to tell the truth about their own experiences as a body. (Woolf, 1979:62) As an awakening woman with feminine consciousness, Lily takes painting as life career to tell the truth inside herself. Nonetheless, her pursuit of art is incompatible with the men-dominating values because art is exclusive to males. Under such circumstances, the process for Lily to realise her values is full of obstacles. Frequently, she is haunted by the voice of Charles Tansley, “Women can’t write women can’t paint”, (Woolf, 1994: 35) which distracts her from her works. Despite such distain, she also suffers from the annoying interruptions of Mr. Ramsay who often dampens her enthusiasm. Gradually, the pressure from patriarchy shakes her confidence. Lily hesitates to show her inner thought on her canvas, “she kept a feeler on her surroundings lest someone should creep up, and suddenly she should find her picture looked at.” (ibid. 13) In some senses, Lily’s quandary implies the path to women’s liberation is arduous since the biased attitudes towards women have been deeply embedded in the society.

However, Lily never yields to the growing pressure easily. As a progressive female, she perseveres in fighting against patriarchy and seeking for self-recognition. After the death of Mrs. Ramsay, she is inspired to tell the truth through painting. Summoning up the courage to make the last brush on the canvas, she eventually completes the portrait and expresses her own values as a body. Compared with the self-sacrificing life of Mrs. Ramsay, Lily’s success to self-fulfillment indicates that new women will replace the conventional Victorian women and equal society will triumph over the patriarchal society.

In terms of androgyny, Virginia Woolf (2001: 84) claims that, “The normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two (male and female) live in harmony together, spiritually co-operating.” According to her, androgyny is a perfect integration of males and females. In To the Lighthouse, Woolf tries to establish such unification and create a world with androgynous consciousness.

Before the death of Mrs. Ramsay, Lily is confused about the image of her, thereby finding it hard to finish the portrait of Mrs. Ramsay. On one hand, she disagrees with Mrs. Ramsay’s deference to her husband. On the other hand, she respects her as a caring and considerate mother. Her ambivalence about Mrs. Ramsay hinders her from completing her painting. In order to see through Mrs. Ramsay, a decade later, Lily returns to Mr. Ramsay’s house and reminisces about the days when Mrs. Ramsay is alive. Sitting in front of her canvas, Lily begins to contemplate Mrs. Ramsay’s images from women’s perspectives. The mysterious side of Mrs. Ramsay comes to her mind and she finally understands her greatness. Facing the patriarchal society, Mrs. Ramsay never complains about any unfairness but puts more effort in bringing peace and love to others. With her kindness and generosity, Mrs. Ramsay artfully erases the mess and disorder of life. For instance, she always carefully makes her home as a comfortable and warm shelter for her families and other guests. In addition, she helps to improve the situation of disadvantaged groups and smooth away people’s distress. Viewing the whole picture of Mrs. Ramsay, Lily learns the importance of harmony which is what Mrs. Ramsay pursues during her lifetime.

Consequently, when Mr. Ramsay turns to Lily for sympathy, instead of refusing him directly, she said, “Ah, but what beautiful boots you wear!” (Woolf, 1994: 115) Although it is just simple praise, Mr. Ramsay is surprised and delighted at the change of Lily who begins to give her solace to men. Both of them are relieved and satisfied. In this way, the two sexes achieve harmony.

Similarly, Mr. Ramsay gradually understands his wife and casts off his patriarchal thoughts. Before The Ramsay’s family arrives at the lighthouse, James loathes his father and is hostile to him. “He had always kept this old symbol of taking a knife and striking his father to the heart.”(ibid. 137) For Cam, she thinks “they must fight tyranny to the death.” (ibid. 126) But the tyrant image of Mr. Ramsay is at last removed from his children’s heart. During the journey to the lighthouse, Mr. Ramsay unprecedentedly pays James a compliment which is entirely unexpected in James’ eyes. Being praised by his father for his performance in steering, James is in ecstasy and Cam is also glad for him. No longer being a demanding dictator, Mr. Ramsay finally identifies with Mrs. Ramsay and fosters harmonious relationship with his children like her. In this sense, Mr. Ramsay succeeds in blending with Mrs. Ramsay to become wholeness.

Seeing the unification of The Ramsey’s family and their landing on the lighthouse, Lily draws a line in the middle of her canvas and finishes her painting. Likewise, the achievement of Lily’s vision is the accomplishment of Woolf’s androgyny. All in all, the visit to the lighthouse is the trip to androgyny and what the lighthouse sheds is harmonious light.

Aston (1998: 107) made comments on Virginia Woolf’s works, saying:

In her writing, Woolf makes a sifting appraisal of women’s problem, their peculiar dilemmas and conditioning in the traditional Victorian society… Woolf was the most vociferous and vehement on feminist issues such as subjectivity, class, sexuality and culture.

Undoubtedly, Woof’s feminine thoughts, be it obscure or be it radical, have profound insights which are well worth studying. Through the analysis of To the Lighthouse from the perspective of feminism, this paper demonstrates that only by balancing masculinity and femininity to reach androgyny, can women free themselves from the patriarchal society and realise self-fulfillment. In that case, a harmonious world, which Woolf advocated, is no longer an illusion but a better place. The essence of To the Lighthouse is harmony. Instead of being antagonistic towards each other, women and men should live in peace to achieve integrity, which is indeed the real perception of Woolf’s feminism.