Reading Journal: To The Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf

Title: To The Lighthouse
Author: Virginia Woolf
Publication Date: May 1927
Genre: Modern Literature

Context

Virginia Woolf was a modernist novelist, famously part of the Bloomsbury group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists. This period produced many works of experimental literature and To The Lighthouse is no exception. The structure and passage of time within the book are very unconventional with part one set over just one day while part two takes place over ten years. As a result, time becomes a manifestation of the characters' consciousness rather than a rigid following of the clock. Furthermore the extensive focus on psychoanalysis and the exploration of spirituality and religion reflects the recent scientific theories of the time which greatly influenced the Bloomsbury group. Most prominent is Darwin's theory of evolution as well as Sigmund Freud's psychology innovations. It is also suggested that To The Lighthouse is Woolf's most autobiographical novel with the characters of the Ramsay family a representation of her own family. It is indeed easy to make links, especially between Woolf's mother, who died young, and Mrs Ramsay whose death and the presentation of how this is dealt with is likely to mirror Woolf's own experiences of grief. 

Plot Outline

The novel is split into three parts:

Part 1- The Window

The first part of the novel follows just one day during the summer. The Ramsay's youngest son James begs to go to the family's lighthouse but Mr Ramsay harshly puts down the plan, telling him that the weather will not permit it.

Part 2- Time Passes

Ten years are covered in the middle part of the book which follows the family through death and change. Mrs Ramsay's, Prue's and Andrew's deaths are all mentioned parenthetically as well as an exploration of how all the other characters have dealt with and are dealing with this.

Part 3- The Lighthouse

A decade after the trip was first discussed, James, Cam and Mr Ramsay finally make their trip to the lighthouse. In this final part we also see a lot from the perspective of Lily Briscoe who finally completes the painting she has struggled with throughout.

Narration

In To The Lighthouse Woolf narrates using the technique of a stream of consciousness in the form of an indirect interior monologue. This means that there is a blend of different character's voices as well as the narrative voice, all of which continuously flow together- often in the same paragraph or even the same sentence. The style can be quite overwhelming and dense but it allows for the deeper exploration of emotion and enables the reader to better understand the characters, creating a view of events purely from a collage of their perspectives.

Characters

Complete Character List: 

The Ramsays- Mr and Mrs Ramsay, James, Andrew, Prue, Cam, Jasper, Roger, Rose and Nancy.

Lily Briscoe

William Bankes

Charles Tansley

Augustus Carmichael

Paul Rayley and Minta Doyle

Mrs McNab

Mascalister and Mcalister's boy

Mrs Ramsay:

Mrs Ramsay seems to embody the tension between female strength and female duty. She appears as the binding force surrounding all the characters and is viewed by many with a strange reverence. Especially for Lily Briscoe, there is a sense that that after her death all unity falls apart. Yet at the same time she feels the need to protect and nurture the men around her and is plagued by a kind of domesticated anxiety which complies perfectly with the traditional gender roles of the time.

Mr Ramsay:

In almost complete opposition to his wife, Mr Ramsay is rude and sharp. He constantly seems to be seeking sympathy from others, even before Mrs Ramsay's death, and is hyper aware of his own mortality, constantly fixating on the idea that he and his works will be forgotten.

James Ramsay:

At the start of the novel we see James as a child, defined by an immense love for his mother and hatred for his father. As he grows up, however, he becomes more and more like the man he hates until on the trip to the lighthouse right at the end his hate softens and, as with Lily Briscoe, he captures a fleeting sense of completion.

Lily Briscoe:

Arguably the character who develops the most, Lily Briscoe is characterised by her artistic struggle. Throughout the novel she battles with a painting of Mrs Ramsay, riddled with doubt yet angry at the stereotype expressed by Charles Tansley that "women can't write, women can't paint". At the very end she finally completes her painting and this sense of closure mirrors the way she finally seems to belong both in the artistic world and in the world she lives in.

Themes

Mortality

• The prominent deaths of Mrs Ramsay, Prue and Andrew shape the rest of the novel.
• Mr Ramsay's hyper awareness of death and fear of oblivion.
• The idea of things and situations unavoidably changing.

Subjectivity of Reality

• The stream of consciousness means that reality in the novel is purely made up of a collection of viewpoints.
• The lighthouse, for example, means very different things to different characters yet as a symbol is a collage of all of these things.

Men and Women

• Mrs Ramsay's character and the tension between strength and duty.
• Charles Tansley as the embodiment of restrictive gender roles.
• Lily Briscoe and her painting showing the development of her attitude to gender and where she fits in.

Opinions and Connections

Initially I struggled with this book as I found the stream of consciousness style quite difficult to understand and was frustrated by the seeming lack of a plot in the first section. However, as I got more used to the narrative I really enjoyed the depth it allowed you to explore the characters in. I also found Woolf's observations of human thought and interaction extremely insightful and interesting and found myself reflecting a lot on the book and the different levels of meaning. It made me realise that it is the characters in a novel which I value the most and that their thoughts and opinions are what make the other elements (plot, setting etc) engaging.

In terms of connections I made links with The Dubliners by James Joyce. This short story collection also uses the stream of consciousness technique and although they are separate stories with different characters they are all set in Dublin and so together they create one image of it. This mirrors the idea that in To The Lighthouse reality is just made up of the collective viewpoints of all the characters, just as Dublin is just made up of all the collective lives that Joyce presents.