To The Lighthouse
“Examine for a moment an ordinary mind on an ordinary day. The mind
receives a myriad impressions—trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved
with the sharpness of steel. From all sides they come, an incessant shower
of innumerable atoms; and as they fall, as they shape themselves into the
life of Monday or Tuesday”.
This work is divided into 3 parts:
- The Window (about 120 pages) takes place in the space of one day
and introduces all characters, see the conflict (before WW1)
- Time Passes (about 20 pages) covers a ten year passage of time in
the middle of the novel in which WW1 occurs.
- The Lighthouse (about 60 pages) covers the return of the summer
home after ten years; many of the other characters resurface.
Woolf recognises that earlier writers focussed on external events but for the
moderns the “emphasis was not on external events but on psychology and
phenomenology: on the dance of consciousness in characters’ internal lives
as they confront the dichotomies and tensions between inner and outer
realities, interior thoughts and outward behaviour.
Mrs Ramsay: the beauty of this world is ephemeral and should be protected.
She is based on Woolf’s mother. Model of the Victorian woman, as her life is
spent entirely within her domestic space, taking care of her 8 children. She
is a nurturer, very invested in her child, and she develops a very dense and
complex emotional life, which is seen thanks to the narrative technique of
consciousness that Woolf uses.
Mr Ramsay: he is a university professor and philosopher. He can often seem
like a tyrannic, as he often demands attention and has no patience about it.
Eccentric behaviour and is very concerned about his intellectual status.
Lily Briscoe: Lily is the embodiment of New Woman and figure of modernity
while Mrs Ramsay typical of Victorian womanhood. Lily lacks room of her
own, which for Virginia is a necessary thing for women to develop their art
and everything without the censorious look from men.
James Ramsay: youngest son, highly sensitive and very linked to his mother.
Hatred of his father (Oedipus complex, as Freud had such a big influence on
those times).
William Blankes: a botanist and old friend of the Ramsays. Mrs. Ramsay
hopes that he will marry Lily Briscoe, and although they don’t get married
they remain close friends.
Charles Tansley: a young philosopher and pupil of Mr. Ramsay who stays
with the Ramsays on the Isle of Skye. Unpleasant man with a lot of
insecurities about his humble past. He often insults other people, particulary
women such as Lily, who are very talented and self-sufficient. This comes
from a need of assurance, such as Mr Ramsay.
Tansley: working class and provincial, descendant of fishermen and
lighthouse keepers – hard work, educational advancement, - “his presence
and social mobility provoke anxieties that the middleclass characters
attempt to contain. That Tansley is depicted as an odious character,
selfseeking, egoistical, and narrow minded, could be read as indicative of
Woolf’s own class anxieties, exposing the limits of her own class sympathies
and political visión
Macalister: The fisherman who accompanies the Ramsays to the lighthouse.
Macalister relates stories of shipwreck and maritime adventure to Mr.
Ramsay and compliments James on his handling of the boat while James
lands it at the lighthouse.
Macalister’s Boy: The fisherman’s boy. He rows James, Cam, and Mr. Ramsay
to the lighthouse.
