Woolf, Virginia - To the lighthouse (3)

„To the Lighthouse" is a novel by Virginia Woolf. In the past the lighthouse was a kind of guide, it guided the ships and the boats into the harbor with her light.

Symbolism and main characters

It is a symbol of course, because Virginia Woolf loved these symbols of the lights on and the lights off. She also made a comparison, a simile with the lamps: sometimes the lights are on, sometimes the lights are off, just like our personality, sometimes we are fully concentrated, sometimes we are totally absent minded. Also sometimes life can be beautiful and bright, some other times it can be dark and look miserable. Who is the main character? In this novel the main character is a lady, Mrs. Ramsay. She's the centre of the novel and the centre of the family's life. She has a husband, Mr. Ramsay, and eight children. She's a very happy, determined, strong, independent woman, differently from her husband who seems to be a lazy person, he needs his wife's help in every single thing.

Setting and biography

The setting is a beautiful island in North Scotland where this family used to spend their summer. There are a lot of people who believe that there is a strong link with Virginia Woolf's biography, because the Woolfs family spent their holidays, not in Scotland but in Cornwall (in the south of England). „To the Lighthouse" is divided into 3 parts: Part 1 is called „The window" (this is a symbol). It gives us a kind of description of the Ramsay's family, we learn about their attitudes, feelings. They used to go to their summerhouse not only with the family, but also with some friends. There are two episodes to mention: one is when James, the youngest of the children, wants to have a trip to the lighthouse, but because of the weather condition they were not able to go there. The second thing to mention is that one of the family's friends is a painter, Lily Briscoe, and she wants to do a portrait of Mrs. Ramsay. Part 2 starts with „Time passes". This part takes 10 years, during these 10 years Mrs. Ramsay died together with her daughter. Another terrible event happened: the First World War and one of their children died in the war. Mysteriously we pass into the third part that is called „The lighthouse". The rest of the family, together with the painter, decided to go to their summer house. Here finally there is the trip to the lighthouse that James wanted to have starting from part 1. So James, his father and his sister went to the lighthouse, in the meantime the painter Lily finished her painting of Mrs. Ramsay, which was left unfinished in part 1. In doing so there's a kind of conclusion, of putting an end to the circle.

Main themes

What are the themes of this novel? Problem of communication: Mr. Ramsay had a lot of problems of communication with his children, in particular with James, and this problem was solved in part 3. “To he lighthouse": „to" is a preposition of direction, of movement; it's not about the lighthouse but to the lighthouse. We are talking about a journey, an emotional, psychological kind of journey. A journey towards life maturity, towards life experiences, awareness. Also in this novel Virginia Woolf made a massive use of omniscient narrator and also the stream of consciousness technique, because if we learn something about the characters is because Virginia Woolf gives us the description of characters thoughts, emotions and sensations.