To the Lighthouse

A detailed Summary of To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse is intended to 'criticize social system, and to show it at its most intense.'

Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse can readily be seen as a lambaste upon the then society. With regard such characters as Mrs. Ramsay, Woolf embodies servitude and self-sacrifice; womanhood is lost in this age. It appears that Mrs. Ramsay's chief role in life is as matchmaker, and housekeeper for the men. Mrs. Ramsay is set in opposition to her husband, who becomes a classic patriarch. He manifests the insecure male stereotype earnestly craving a distinct position. Thus an attack upon the institution of gender becomes apparent. However these characters are a lot subtler and multi-faceted than a simple feminist critique would allow. Also with these characters, Woolf appears to challenge the idea of a happy marriage. It is a marriage in which there is little conflict but even less discourse. Consequently offered to the readers are a series of repressed characters, each of who personifies the lighthouse 'a stark tower on a bare rock' .

With regard to the dinner party Woolf offers insight into a situation that is socially constructed. In this situation it is Mrs. Ramsay who takes the burden of hostess.

Thus the boots become a metaphor for Ramsay's self, and his sanctuary. Lily is saying metaphorically that he is well set to make his way past life's troubles. However the cost of this is what Ramsay craves most: authentic alterity, sincerity, and sympathy. Lily Briscoe, and others reject him this, and this is what Woolf critiques as well; a society seemingly unable to sincerely convey emotion at all. What is left is a society vacant of feeling: a society bereft of nature.

Consequently one can readily interpret Woolf offering the reader a particular intensely dysfunctional marriage. There appears little love expressed, and often the home becomes a battle ground for the establishment of a hierarchy. However these characters likewise appear so fragile and timid it might be a touch unjust to so mercilessly tear them apart. Evidently there is a degree of fondness between author and creation. The tenderness displayed by Mrs. Ramsay to James is a particular manifestation of this. Likewise the apparently stark character of Mr. Ramsay is softened through his literary passions. The fact that Mr. Ramsay's quoting of The Charge of the Light Brigade - 'someone had blundered' - enters his consciousness and then his speech offers a lot upon the character. Firstly the connotations of the poem imply the futility of his philosophical search for truth and enlightenment. This especially appears at the dinner party when people discuss trivialities, and Ramsay has little to do but delve into the arts for deliverance. It also manifests his fear of anonymity and namelessness; will people remember him, or even do people understand him? Tansley's observation that no one reads Scott's Waverley novels appears to compound Ramsay's fear.

One then could take To the Lighthouse as an indictment of society, a society that in Orlando, Woolf refers to as a 'miasma' and a 'mirage' . It is the artificiality that suffocates the characters in both books, to the extent that sanctuaries are sought away from their active selv

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Approximate Word count = 1350
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels