Very patently modernistic yet very different!
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE is a semi- autobiographical novel by Virginia Woolf that meanders around the idea that -impermanence and unattainability underpin the construct of human life: It tries to hint that human existence is an asymptotic struggle to realize the intangible.
The novel may seem bleak on a glance, but the dullness never creeps in as Woolf lets the events unfold through the varied interpretations by her characters-thus the reader gets to watch from a combination of vantage points. The Ramsay house is a collage of individuals with a whole assortment of perceptions- be it Mrs. Ramsay, who found prevalence of domestic order reassuring, or be it Mr. Ramsay, a dissatisfied and rude metaphysician who craved for sympathy and pity. The novel is divided into three parts- THE WINDOW, TIME PASSES and THE LIGHTHOUSE.
The Window deals with making and rebuffing the plans to visit the lighthouse across the bay from the Ramsay house. Mrs. Ramsay is liked by all- family and friends- and has an almost protective attitude towards male characters, while Mr. Ramsay’s own children withdraw from him. Woolf’s writing, although very much in the modernist premise (in that the philosophical meaning is weightier than the plot), is quite different from what we have read in the course. In ‘To the Lighthouse’, meaning is reflected not in the complexities of language used but by the way sentences are structured and punctuated. It was difficult, at times, to decipher what Woolf was suggesting as some sentences (especially, Mrs. Ramsay’s thoughts) were unusually long -the verb came after about 80 words after the clause in some instances. She employs this technique to perhaps imply that the character is pondering over the questions asked (by herself) along with the reader to grasp the meaning. It’s worth noting that while doing so, the language is kept pretty straight forward and direct. These digressions in Mrs. Ramsay’s thoughts, for instance,
“Not for the world would she have spoken to him, realising, from the familiar signs, his eyes averted, and some curious gathering together of his person, as if he wrapped himself about and needed privacy into which to regain his equilibrium, that he was outraged and anguished. She stroked James's head; she transferred to him what she felt for her husband, and, as she watched him chalk yellow the white dress shirt of a gentleman in the Army and Navy Stores catalogue, thought what a delight it would be to her should he turn out a great artist; and why should he not? He had a splendid forehead. Then, looking up, as her husband passed her once more, she was relieved to find that the ruin was veiled; domesticity triumphed; custom crooned its soothing rhythm, so that when stopping deliberately, as his turn came round again, at the window he bent quizzically and whimsically to tickle James's bare calf with a sprig of something, she twitted him for having dispatched "that poor young man," Charles Tansley.Tansley had had to go in and write his dissertation, he said.”
reinforce the extent to which domesticity comforts her. This skill with which Woolf conveys so much- character attributes, relationships- just by punctuating or structuring a sentence in a certain way, takes away the dullness of reading stretched out monologues.
The guest painter, Lily Briscoe’s character echoes author’s attempt to justify the need for observing through various viewpoints.
"Oh, but," said Lily, "think of his work!" Whenever she "thought of his work" she always saw clearly before her a large kitchen table. It was Andrew's doing. She asked him what his father's books were about. "Subject and object and the nature of reality," Andrew had said. And when she said Heavens, she had no notion what that meant. "Think of a kitchen table then," he told her, "when you're not there."
She paints a portrait Mrs. Ramsay and eventually realizes that ‘fifty pairs of eyes’ are needed to do justice to the painting. She comes closest to the author with the painting being a parallel to the novel itself. Lily too fights against male chauvinists (Mr. Tansley- another guest) like the author did(through feminist writings).Woolf sometimes seems to be switching from the canonical third person narrative to a direct dialogue with the reader when voicing the views of Lily- again hinting at the similitude between Lily and her.
“Teaching and preaching is beyond human power, Lily suspected. (She was putting away her things.) If you are exalted you must somehow come a cropper. Mrs Ramsay gave him what he asked too easily. Then the change
must be so upsetting. He comes in from his books and finds us all playing games and talking nonsense. Imagine what a change from the things he thinks about.”
The second part- TIME PASSES, the shortest of all three, spans the longest period (ten years after the War). Half the family members die in this span. The narrator is displaced in this section. This kinked time scale shifts the readers’ focus from individuals to the changes time brings about. Inanimate objects like the Ramsay house replace the living characters from limelight. The change is reflected by the alteration brought about in the house conditions. And, the happenings in the lives of the characters are merely mentioned in brackets. The most striking point here is that even though practically the whole book is about Mrs. Ramsay, her death doesn’t get even one full sentence of mention. Doing so, Woolf masterfully highlights the enveloping impermanence.
[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.]]
The Lighthouse (last part) marks the return of the narrative style- viewpoint of various characters, and speed of time progress to that in THE WINDOW. The main feature of this section is the healing effects that beauty- of the lighthouse and Mrs. Ramsay’s memories, has. As the family finally departs for the lighthouse, grudges, which James and Cam Ramsay held against their father, dissolve. Lily starts painting yet again with new vigour and vision. Another point worth appreciation is that Woolf uses the same tool- the brackets- earlier marking death and violence, to give hope of survival in this section.
TIME PASSES -> [Prue Ramsay died that summer in some illness connected with
childbirth, which was indeed a tragedy, people said, everything, they
[A shell exploded. Twenty or thirty young men were blown up in France, among them Andrew Ramsay, whose death, mercifully, was instantaneous.]
THE LIGHTHOUSE-> [Macalister's boy took one of the fish and cut a square out of its side
to bait his hook with. The mutilated body (it was alive still) was
It would be apt to say that presence of Mrs. Ramsay, the undisputed lead protagonist of the story, is felt in glimpses in each of the remaining characters in this last section, with every subplot ending on the affirmative.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that "To the Lighthouse" is an allusion to autobiography of the author Virginia Woolf. There are indeed many similarities between the plot and her own life.
ReplyDeleteWhen she was thirteen, her mother died (as did Mrs. Ramsay) and her father moved into darkness and sorrow (as did Mr. Ramsay). Her brother was not allowed to go on an expedition to Godrevy Lighthouse, just as, in the novel, James looks forward to visiting the lighthouse but the trip is canceled. As for Lily Briscoe, her meditations on painting are a way for Woolf to explore her own creative process (and also those of her painter sister), since Woolf thought of writing in the same way that Lily thought of painting.
Woolf's sister wrote that reading the sections of the novel that describe Mrs. Ramsay was like seeing her mother raised from the dead. (information from internet)
Except in the second section i.e. Time Passes, the novel lacks an omniscient narrator; instead the plot unfolds through shifting perspectives of each character's stream of consciousness. Throughout the novel, no clear guide exists for the reader and that only through character development can we formulate our own opinions and views because much is morally ambiguous.
The final portion of the book is the most baffling for me. It seems that the author has tried to persist an ironical mood, to re-establish a scene with the pitiful changes that time has brought. By comparison with the rest this final portion seems pale and weak.
Perhaps there is a reason for this, perhaps the author meant to show that with Mrs. Ramsay's death things had fallen apart. Mr. Ramsay is no longer interesting. May be because he is no longer counterpoised against his wife.
Life seems drifting, as the Ramsays drift over the bay in their boat, and all their physical vigor and all their reaching of the lighthouse at last conveys no significance.
The story which opens brilliantly and carries on through a magnificent interlude ends with too little force and expressiveness.