To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)

 Introduction:

To the Lighthouse is divided into three sections: “The Window,” “Time Passes,” and “The Lighthouse.” Each section is fragmented into stream-of-consciousness contributions from various narrators.

The Window: “The Window” opens just before the start of World War I. Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay bring their eight children to their summer home in the Hebrides - a group of islands west of Scotland.  Across the bay from their house stands a large lighthouse. Six-year-old James Ramsay wants desperately to go to the lighthouse, and Mrs. Ramsay tells him that they will go the next day if the weather permits.

The Ramsays host a number of guests, including the Charles Tansley, who admires Mr. Ramsay’s work as a metaphysical philosopher. Also at the house is Lily Briscoe, a young painter who begins a portrait of Mrs. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay wants Lily to marry William Bankes, an old friend of the Ramsays, but Lily resolves to remain single. So Mrs. Ramsay arranges another marriage Paul Rayley and Minta Doyle. But it does not end in marriage.

Later, Mrs. Ramsay joins her husband in the parlor. The couple sits quietly together, until Mr. Ramsay’s characteristic insecurities interrupt their peace. He wants his wife to tell him that she loves him. Mrs. Ramsay is not one to make such pronouncements, but she concedes to his point made earlier in the day that the weather will be too rough for a trip to the lighthouse the next day. Mr. Ramsay thus knows that Mrs. Ramsay loves him. Night falls, and one night quickly becomes another.

Time Passes:  War breaks out across Europe. Mrs. Ramsay dies suddenly one night. Andrew Ramsay, her oldest son, is killed in battle, and his sister Prue dies from an illness related to childbirth. The family no longer vacations at its summerhouse.  Ten years pass before the family returns. Mrs. McNab, the housekeeper, employs a few other women to help set the house in order.

The Lighthouse: Mr. Ramsay declares that he and James and Cam, one of his daughters, will journey to the lighthouse. He appeals to Lily for sympathy, but, unlike Mrs. Ramsay, she is unable to provide him with what he needs. The Ramsays set off, and Lily takes her place on the lawn, determined to complete a painting.  James and Cam bristle at their father’s soft behavior and are embarrassed by his constant self-pity. Still, as the boat reaches its destination, the children feel a fondness for him. Mr. Ramsay gives a gift to James which pleases him a lot. Then they return to the shore. Mr. Ramsay finds that now Lily is so caring. Ramsays find that Lily has completed the painting.

Themes:

The Transience of Life:

The main theme in To the Lighthouse is that “human experience is varied and complex”. The novel illustrates this theme through its structure, which features shifting perspectives between characters. Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay take completely different approaches to life: he relies on his intellect, while she depends on her emotions. But they share the knowledge that the world around them is transient.  Frustrated by the inevitable demise of his own body of work and envious of the few geniuses who will outlast him, he plots to found a school of philosophy that argues that the world is designed for the average, unadorned man, for the “liftman in the Tube” rather than for the rare immortal writer.

Art as a Means of Preservation:

In the face of an existence that is inherently without order or meaning, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay employ different strategies for making their lives significant. Mr. Ramsay devotes himself to his progression through the course of human thought, while Mrs. Ramsay cultivates memorable experiences from social interactions. Neither of these strategies, however, proves an adequate means of preserving one’s experience. Only Lily Briscoe finds a way to preserve her experience, and that way is through her art. Finishing the painting of Mrs. Ramsay after ten years,  Lily reflects that “nothing stays, all changes; but not words, not paint.”

The Restorative Effects of Beauty:

At the beginning of the novel, both Mr. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe are drawn out of moments of irritation by an image of extreme beauty. However, beauty retains as a soothing effect throughout the novel.

Conclusion:

Virginia Woolf has adapted the stream of consciousness technique in the novel to tell the story of Ramsays’ family in To the Lighthouse. However, the novel views human world as a transient one. In To the Lighthouse, the lighthouse seems to symbolize truth and meaning. Throughout the book, different characters search for the truth about the meaning of life and death, but it takes a long time to figure it out. This is similar to how James keeps asking to go to the lighthouse, but the family evidently never goes for ten years until they finally do, which occurs at the same moment that Lily discovers her own personal meaning of life and death.