Mrs. Ramsay's version of love, determined by her gender identity, i

Mrs. Ramsay's family emotionally and physically drains her all day as she yields her protection and compassion to them. Her maternal sympathy with Cam and James in the boar's skull scene involves her giving time, comfort, and support. The skull terrifies Cam, but James wants to display it as a trophy, so Mrs. Ramsay compromises by covering it up with her shawl, thus comforting Cam, while supporting James' pride in the adornment. In trying to get Cam to sleep, she uses language, like she does with Mr. Ramsay, by calling the skull "lovely," and describing it as a "beautiful mountain, a bird's nest, a garden" (115). Like Mr. Ramsay dropping off content and fulfilled, Cam drifts off to sleep. Also important in the scene is Mrs. Ramsay's giving of her shawl:

Lily combines the two genders' traits and finishes her painting with one final stroke, "as if she saw clear for a moment, she drew a line there in the center" (209). One reading might be that this line represents the lighthouse, a phallic symbol for the male. She draws the male lighthouse right through the triangle, the symbol for the window with Mrs. Ramsay sitting there. In Lily's final stroke, Woolf portrays her position that the male and female gender identities need to exist together within an individual.

This indifferent air she breathes seems to foreshadow Mrs. Ramsay's death. Although it is the war that seems to negate Mrs. Ramsay, Woolf never reveals the physical cause of her death. The only mere implication of a possible cause is the chill she gets at the window. Woolf personifies the airs in the beginning of "Time Passes" as the only occupants of the summerhouse for many years (during the war); "Certain airs, detached from the body of the wind, crept round corners and ventured indoors" (126). These airs slink through the house, wondering how long it will take for it to fall apart. As "time passes" and only airs pass through the house, Mrs. Ramsay's passing occurs. Mrs. Ramsay's giving of her shawl is not only selfless, but also possibly fatal, if one interprets her death as a result of the "chill night air." Thus far, it seems that love only has destructive effects, but it does have positive effects as well.

s giving too much sympathy. Mr. Ramsay is worn by her love because by giving him comfort, she weakens his self-esteem or self-assurance. He relies on her for reassurance. As Bankes points out, "It was astonishing that a man of his intellect . . . could depend so much as

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1670
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)