To the lighthouse is a modernist novel, written by Virginia Woolf in 1927, which uses elements taken from Mrs. Woolf’s own life, as it will be mentioned below. As modernism establishes, To the lighthouse is a novel where the plot is not as important as the psychological development of the characters and where a principal value is deeply supported. The novel contains as well a deeper exploration into the human mind. It takes its setting in the Isle of Skye in Scotland in the early twentieth century, where the Ramsay’s spend some seasons with their close friends. This novel has few dialogues between the characters. It is divided in three sections or chapters. The shortest chapter represents the longest period of time and the longest one the shortest period.
The novel exhibits its argument with different kinds of devices; the two principal are narrators and dialogues. There is a third person omniscient narrator who takes different roles which are actually associated to some of the principal characters of the novel, Mrs. Ramsay, Mr. Ramsay, Lilly Briscoe. This association is not direct but formal; the narrator takes a particular way of narrating taking the appropriate language and form that each character could have taken. Besides these particular forms the narrator takes, the omniscient narrator shows its most important characteristic, which to know everything what is in the principal characters’ mind. Not every character is so strongly exposed, as Mrs. Ramsay or Lilly Briscoe.
This analysis of the different voices that the novel contains enables the reader to draw some important conclusions. The novel drifts basically between two minds, Mrs. Ramsay’s and Lilly Briscoe’s; both characters are the ones that make possible the novel’s development. However I would say that the very important character and mind is Lily. Why? Of course both characters are protagonists but Mrs. Ramsay’s position I would say is the axis that makes Lily Briscoe’s mind to and fro through the novel. Certainly Lily is the one that permits the novel being called Kunstleroman. The reader can appreciate Lily’s thought development throughout the novel, however its development is slow and discontinuous in considerably long time intervals in some aspects of her life. To be clear and concise I would bound this idea of Lily’s mind aspects just in two, the ones I consider that are what Lily has as principal concerns. The first one is her identity as a painter; the second one, her position regarding to marriage. The former is the central thesis of the novel and Lily’s personal implicit “goal”. The latter, rather than being a personal growth aspect is an obsessive thought that Lily couldn’t manage well and that certainly takes its origin in Mrs. Ramsay. Lily Briscoe constantly repeats in her mind that she is not interested in marriage. Both aspects are influenced by external factors, not only Mrs. Ramsay’s thoughts mark Lily’s mind but Mr. Charles Tansley also impacts Lily by his comments “women can’t paint” and “women can’t write”. The reader can appreciate during the novel how Lily deals with both problems. Actually in the last chapter Lily finishes her painting, the one that she began 10 years before and drawing upon that experience Lily could finally visualized herself as an artist.
Another important aspect of the novel is the use of time. As I wrote at the beginning of this essay, the novel has three chapters and certainly the shortest chapter corresponds to the longest period of time. This is very important to remark because it is a kind of proof of how what it is important in the novel is the character’s thought and not the novel’s plot. Mrs. Woolf assures herself that the reader knows her characters in the first chapter. This chapter is enough to determine precisely how are these characters’ minds, how they think, how they feel, what matters to them and how are the relations between them. The second chapter is used by Virginia to establish a division between the past and the present in the novel. The passing of time is visualized by the house’s decay. This chapter has also the quality of having harsh changes and apparently unpredictable changes. This unpredictability for the reader is because for him a few pages represent naturally just some minutes of his life, however they actually involve 10 years of the novel where strong events have happened. That is one of the magical aspects of the novel, the reader can pass through these hard events in a few moments and in real life it must had taken some years to experiment those situations with their involved emotions and feelings. On the other hand the last chapter takes place at the summerhouse and begins with Mr. Ramsay, Cam and James, finally going to the Lighthouse. James is the youngest of the Ramsay’s family. He starts out the novel as a six-year-old with his desire to go to the Lighthouse and in this last part his father makes him go there. This part enables and gives the reader the opportunity to know and presence the exact moment where some of the characters could finally transcend and solve their personal concerns. That is another important fact of the novel, it is not necessary for Virginia to develop what happened through all those years to show how her characters develop them selves, for her it is sufficient to show where the thought begins and where it is finally concluded. Because in this case Mr. Ramsay, Cam, James and particularly Lilly needed those of their life episodes to solve their issues. These statements just written above convey another important aspect of modernism, which was already mentioned above, modernism searches for some kind of truth or value that is not subjective, it supports an idea and looks for different sources to communicate it and transmit it. I would say that the principal thesis or argument is the search of personal development.
Another important feature in the novel is the use of symbolism and imagery. A significant image during the novel is the lighthouse. The meaning of the lighthouse in the novel comes from the actual definition of it. A lighthouse is a guide for the sailors who are navigating in the sea, finding their way. In the novel it could be a symbol for the characters that are actually finding their way to solve their concerns. Another important symbol is the window and its relation with Mrs. Ramsay, Mrs. Ramsay cares for everyone in the house, not only in the sense of a mother and the household but as a character who likes and uses to control everything. She has this big panorama in front of her and she likes to analyze every situation. Naturally, an example of this circumstance happens on the dinner in the last section of the fist part of the book, the window. During the dinner, Mrs. Ramsay constantly manipulates the situation. She defines and determines in her mind, what should happen, what do the guest should hear, not only because she wants to please her family and friends but I would say because she leads everyone where she thinks they should be.
This last statement also has to do with the fact that gender is significant in the novel. Women characters seem to be strong, able and influential, some times even clever. Men appear more like weak characters, or characters subordinated to women, depending on them. This could be not only because Woolf is a woman but because in the novel she apparently seems to see the world through women’s eyes, to depict and write down life as a woman.
Finally I would say that this novel is an important example of modernism, of women literature and a psychological novel.
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This is amazing! Thank you.