ESSAY ON

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

WRITTEN BY VIRGINIA WOOLF

BY

Amanda Rocha Cidri – 098207719 - LEI

Carina Fleckner Pereira – 102007376 - LEI

Natália Gerasso – 102017630 - LEI

Essay presented to the professor

Vera Lima, English Literature IV

UFRJ – Faculdade de Letras

Rio de Janeiro, 1º semestre de 2005.

CONTENTS

  1. INTRODUCTION ...... 2
  1. DEVELOPMENT

2.1. SUMMARY OF CHAPTER VI (THE WINDOW)……………...... 2

2.2. COMMENTARY ON ISSUES CHOSEN BY THE

PROFESSOR ABOUT CHAPTER VII (THE WINDOW) ………….. 4

2.3 COMMENTARY ABOUT TWO PASSAGES SELECTED

BY THE GROUP FROM CHAPTER V (THE LIGHTHOUSE) ...... 5

  1. CONCLUSION ...... 7
  1. BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 7

1. Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to comment and analyse the novel To the Lighthouse by the author Virginia Woolf. This was done by expressing the group’s ideas about issues found in it.

The development of this essay is sub-divided to contain: a summary of chapter VI from the section entitled The Window; a general commentary on some issues chosen by the professor about chapter VII, also from the section The Window; and a commentary abouttwo passages selected by the group in chapter V from the section The Lighthouse.

Our analyses were based on discussions we had in our classes taught by our professor Vera Lima. However, it is important to bear in mind that our commentary on these matters are also the development of the group’s opinions and, because of that, most observations might be subjective regarding that each person has a different point of view.

2. Development

2.1. Summary of Chapter VI (The Window)

The section The Window is marked by Mrs. Ramsay’s voice. There is a shift in voice throughout the section but it starts with her and ends with her. In chapter VI we can see one of these shifts of point of view, which turns from her to Mr. Ramsay. The chapter is opened with a question and an immediate response: ‘But what had happened? Someone had blundered’[1]. To understand this reference we must turn back to the former chapters. The novel is introduced by Mrs. Ramsay – she is sat down at the front window of her holiday house with her six-year-old son James. She had just promised the boy that they might go to the lighthouse if the weather is fine tomorrow when Mr. Ramsay, followed by his pupil Charles Tansley warns them that the weather will not be fine, for the boy’s frustration. This scene will lead Mrs. Ramsay to a series of considerations about her family and guests’ lives and finally to her own. Meanwhile she hears what seems to be a ‘loud cry’ but it was Mr. Ramsay declaiming poetry. The vision of Mr. Ramsay walking up and down will shift the point of view to Lily Briscoe and William Bankes, two of the guests. William Bankes is Mr. Ramsay’s friend and he will inform the reader that Mr. Ramsay is a philosopher who produced some brilliant work during his youth but after having got married and becoming the father of eight children his career stuck in a somewhat academic limbo. This issue is going to be rescued along chapter VI.

In chapter V, Mrs. Ramsay was concerned about his children, first trying to solace James, which led her to start thinking about her other sons and daughters, so that we are introduced to some peculiarities of the Ramsay’s children. Then in chapter VI Mrs. Ramsay turns her eyes to Mr. Ramsay. ‘Someone had blundered’ is a passage of the poem Mr. Ramsay was declaiming but it also acts as the motto for Mr. Ramsay’s life. It is important to mention that while she fulfills the ideal Victorian woman Mr. Ramsay also represents the typical Victorian scholar – both figures that are to become out of date. They live in a time in which the portrait of the Victorian family they represent is starting to be questioned. The Victorian values had not been set apart but there was a pervasive question hovering society. The Ramsay couple is depicted as sensitive people and they manage to perceive this feeling surrounding their lives and family. However, they cannot handle the change because they were raised in a different world. As a result, what comes out is anguish and anxiety, especially from Mr. Ramsay’s part. He is somewhat aware that in his struggle for acknowledgement he will eventually be defeated.

Therefore, what is depicted in chapter VI is the couple’s relationship, marked by the love and respect they felt for each other but at the same time marked by the boundaries between the husband and the wife established by the Victorian society. Despite their deep love, they keep a distance from one another on the grounds of their need to be tied up to the roles they had committed themselves to follow. This can be seen by Mr. Ramsay’s aggressive reaction to Mrs. Ramsay’s remark about the possibility of fine weather tomorrow. As the Victorian husband he has the right to address her the way he pleases, but as a man who really loves his wife he notices his rudeness and apologizes by offering himself to ‘ask the Coastguards if she liked’[2], restoring her sense of safety and her reverence to her husband.

Another issue brought up in chapter VI is Mr. Ramsay’s perception of having his life on the spot. It suddenly becomes clear how meaningful the passage ‘someone had blundered’ is to his own life. Mrs. Ramsay accounts for that and rushes to restore his privacy. But it is not enough to keep him from questioning his life. At the same time he attempts not to blame himself for not achieving the position he sought, he cannot restrain himself from hearing those imaginary voices that usually turn against us in moments of frustration saying that he was a failure.

The chapter ends in a mood of reconciliation, with Mr. Ramsay comparing himself to a soldier, to the leader of a doomed expedition. He might have failed but, in his own words, “who will blame him if he does homage to the beauty of the world?”[3]

2.2. Commentary on issues chosen by the professor about chapter VII (The Window) – items 2.2 and 2.3

The section The Window,especially chapter VII, presents us very interesting and controversial issues. Itbegins with the problem of James’ antagonism towards his father. However, we will only restrain ourselves by analysing what comes next, that is to say, the relationship Mrs. Ramsay has with Mr. Ramsay and the characteristics she has for being a Victorian woman.

Since its beginning, the novel informs us about Mr.Ramsay’s thoughts towards his own academic studies. He feels he could not have continued making intellectual progress for he got married and now he is the patriarch of a family with eight children. There is a passage presented in this chapter in which Mr.Ramsay asks for sympathywhile his wife holds their little son James in her arms. Although Mr.Ramsay keeps repeating he is a failure, Mrs.Ramsay manages to assure him of his genius and to bring his senses restored to him by soothing his pain while she speaks sweet and caring words. It is important to notice, though, that the more Mr.Ramsay pities himself, the more she feels embarrassed and worried about him, for this situation takes hisconfidence away. Moreover, this also makes her feel superior which is considered neither normal nor appropriate for the typical Victorian woman she is. She truly believes she must reverence him for he must be superior as a man. This passage in chapter VII leads us to think that Mrs.Ramsay is a typical model of virtue who is very much concerned with family matters for she feels responsible for taking care of everybody around her. As a consequence of having eight children and a husband to take care of, she does not think about herself but it does not stop her from doing other things as giving her guests advices.

Throughout the novel we can easily notice other features that show Mrs. Ramsay as being the model of virtue and generosity of the Victorian woman. At first, she tries to keep stability among her children until her death and shows herself a benevolent mother because she is aware of her children’s different personalities.James seems to be her favorite child and she gives him hope concerning their visit to the lighthouse and is always trying to sooth his agony by distracting him and making him feel more comfortable. She is also concerned with other people’s lives and creates a warm atmosphere by trying to keep chaos away.Consequently she pleases one by one for she gives them all the attention they need.Besides that, she believes she has the “duty” of marrying people,even if they do not show any interest in it, so that they would have the chance of living a perfect life with a perfect family as hers.

All in all we have tried to prove that Mrs. Ramsay’s response to Mr. Ramsay’s demand for sympathy and her way of treating every one around her, are totally connected issues for she presents typical Victorian woman characteristics. For this reason, we could not analyse both matters separately and since these features are shown throughout the entire novel, it was not possible to analyse it completely.

2.3. Commentary about two passages selected by the group in chapter V (The Lighthouse)

In chapter V Lily’s inner thoughts are presented in a different and stronger way comparing to how it had been presented before. This time her mind is confused because all the repressed feelings and pain are finally appearing, and all the chaos, which is part of everybody’s reality, is being revealed to her at once.

Throughout the novel we could notice that Lily, who is a modern woman, is constantly thinking about Mrs. Ramsay, who represents the Victorian woman. In this chapter, Lily criticizes the authoritarian way Mrs. Ramsay dealt with things, and for having such Victorian thoughts. She even feels a little triumphant because “Mrs. Ramsay has faded and gone” and that now they would be able to “over-ride her wishes, improve away her limited, old-fashioned ideas”[4]. And she continues her thoughts against the authority of Mrs. Ramsay calling the attention to the great change to the modern era:

And one would have to say to her, It has all gone against your wishes. They’re happy like that; I’m happy like this. Life has changed completely. At that all her being, even her beauty, became for a moment, dusty and out of date.[5]

Then she has a strong need to share these thoughts with someone else but she does not know who could help her. Even worse, she does not know how to express everything she was feeling with words and, for the first time, she starts feeling an enormous emptiness and pain inside. Lily thinks about her painting and gets to the conclusion that the effort she has been putting into her art will live on, even if it is hidden in the attic. Suddenly, though, the thought of the possible end her painting was going to reach, led her to something she was not expecting and all this chaos inside her finally turned into tears:

...when, looking at the picture, she was surprised to find that she could not see it. Her eyes were full of a hot liquid (she did not think of tears at first) which, without disturbing the firmness of her lips, made the air thick, rolled down her cheeks.[6]

Lily’s suffering became clearly evident when she noticed she could not control herself at that moment. She could not help crying and feeling this increasing pain inside her anymore. She starts to question herself why she was crying and finds herself calling out for Mrs. Ramsay, showing the climax of her emotions.

We believe that what Virginia Woolf was trying to show us is that Lily’s art by itself was not everything. Her painting needed to be enlightened and enriched by life to be complete. Since life consists of good and bad sensations and reactions, she could only attain the fullness of vision when she reached this chaos in her.

3. Conclusion

This paper was an attempt to analyse some issues that come out in the novel To the Lighthouse. Therefore we selected three chapters that are somewhat linked by these issues and brought up some comments upon them.

These issues have to do with the role of art and human relations as points of reference against the forces of chaos. In the novel it is depicted how two feminine characters deal with the resources they chose to struggle against the chaotic forces. Mrs. Ramsay, a woman who was raised according to the Victorian society values, turns herself to the power human relations have to provide meaning to our lives – family, friendship, love.

On the other hand, we have Lily Briscoe, a painter who chose the paths of art as a way of giving shape, form to life. Their search for shape is depicted in chapters VII – in The Window section – and chapter V – in The Lighthouse section. In the middle we have chapter VI, which shifts the voice to a male character – Mrs. Ramsay’s husband. Mr. Ramsay’s anxiety about the merit of his work raises an issue that is somewhat related to both human relations and art – the way we will be remembered. The possibility of passing to posterity as one of those irrelevant Victorians haunts him. This has to do with human vanity and also the search for the true meaning of life. We have so little time, so many things to do and so many forces against us that it is no wonder that, as Mr. Ramsay says, “Z is only reached once by one man in a generation”[7]. However it is always worth trying because, paraphrasing Lily’s words, ‘there are little daily miracles”.

4. Bibliography

WOOLF, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. 3rd edition. / s.l. /: Eudora Welty, 1981

ROBERTS, Andrew. “Culture and Consciousness in the Twentieth-century English Novel”. WILLIAMS, Linda [Editor]. The Twentieth Century. London: Bloomsbury, 1992

1

[1]WOOLF, V., 1981, p. 30

[2]WOOLF, V. , 1981, p. 32

[3] WOOLF, V. , 1981, p. 36

[4] WOOLF, V. , 1981, p. 174

[5] WOOLF, V. , 1981, p. 175

[6] WOOLF, V. , 1981, p. 179/180

[7] WOOLF, V. , 1981, p. 34