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Dimensions in Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse

This paper aims to discover the dimensions of time and space in Woolfs writing, and how
the theories of physics appear in terms of the characters in the book; furthermore, it will attempt
to form a conclusion on how painting and writing differ in capturing the same group of
interconnected objects, the same unity, balance that has been created by the forces of nature or
in this case, by Mrs. Ramsay.

Woolfs type of writing aims to capture the hidden pattern behind the cotton wool, therefore
utilizing the tool of the stream of consciousness method, meaning that the plot and the
characters in their connected state uncover before the reader through a flow of thoughts that
relies on the characters perception and interpretation of their surroundings. This technique that
became relevant in modern literature, supplies Woolf with the opportunity to create a new kind
of fiction that lacks a fix, outsider narrator and all those constrictions that bound the authors of
previous eras, for example, to produce a see-through plot for the reader that is in the humanly
conceivable realms of time and space and the characters act upon emotional motivations that
are based on logically sound cause-and-effect correlations. Although, stream of consciousness
would suggest some kind of freely flowing, spontaneous writing, Woolf manages to create a
complex, unified world for her characters through it, relying on the readers comprehension,
their ability to fill in the gaps, if necessary, and to realize the pattern that is hidden in between
the clouds of thoughts and emotions that is the novel itself.

In several of Virginia Woolfs works, one is able to identify the significance of her use of the
description of time, most importantly, the division of external and internal time. Since the
characters exist in a certain place and time, there must be an objectively perceivable passing of
time that is the external time, of which the reader is constantly reminded throughout the book,
by recurring motives, such as the clock in Mrs. Dalloway, the poems recited by Mr. Ramsay in
To the Lighthouse, or even the steady strokes of the Lighthouse. The reason why the reader
have to be reminded of the evenly passing time is that the characters seem to be experiencing
time relatively in their minds, creating the internal time that can stretch into pages and pages of
thoughts that one could perceive as hours, which is then interrupted by the next line of a poem,
making the reader realize that only seconds have passed, externally. Therefore, it can be
concluded that in the way Woolf creates or rather captures time, relativity has a great
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significance that results in a dual time conception that is quite unique and contributes to the
stream of consciousness method, making it appear more authentic.

Space, or distance is more obscurely relative than time is in the novel but the two is connected.
The passing of time is a given in a concept that is concerned with the life of a group of people,
its perception is relative, but the passing is unquestionably happening. Whereas, space is much
harder to describe through flowing thoughts but it is somewhat more objectively perceived than
time is, therefore the reader is able to develop a more concrete idea of the physical surroundings
of the characters than that of time. However, distance is not only apparent in space. Two objects,
people or two events can be distanced in time, for example, if one considers the scene in which
Lily recalls Mrs. Ramsay, sitting by the window, knitting, who is already dead, their distance
is more conceivable in time than in space. The theme of distance is recurring all through the
work, in various aspects, such as the distance between peoples ways of thinking and in the
literal sense, for example, when Mrs. Ramsay is reminded of her friend from twenty years ago,
Carrie, by William Bankes. The memories in her appear very vivid but distant, and the
importance of distance is articulated:

now she went among them like a ghost; and it fascinated her, as if, while she had changed,
that particular day, now become very still and beautiful, had remained there, all these years.
(Woolf, 1927) Then, Mrs. Ramsay realizes another kind of distance that is not time relevant,
but more of an abstract one that is caused by spatial, literal distance, which disturbs her even
more than the idea of a past memory that she can only visit as a ghost. But how strange, she
repeated, to Mr. Bankes's amusement, that they should be going on there still. For it was
extraordinary to think that they had been capable of going on living all these years when she
had not thought of them more than once all that time. (Woolf, 1927) While this line of thought
seems somewhat arrogant and amusing, at least to Mr. Bankes, it is highly relevant to the notion
that Woolf discusses in the book, which is the relation of reality and perception. Distance
changes perception, not only that but it hinders it after a certain point, which creates the
dissonance that Mrs. Ramsay is experiencing and raises the question that if something or
someone is not perceived, do they still exist? This question has already been introduced to the
reader by Lilys thoughts of Mr. Ramsays work, and the issue of the table. Whenever she
"thought of his work" she always saw clearly before her a large kitchen table. It was Andrew's
doing. She asked him what his father's books were about. "Subject and object and the nature of
reality," Andrew had said. And when she said Heavens, she had no notion what that meant.
"Think of a kitchen table then," he told her, "when you're not there." (Woolf, 1927) Thus, one
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is able to understand Woolfs intent in interweaving this idea that has been a center of
philosophers and physicists attention in the era, one of whom was her father, who is depicted
in Mr. Ramsays character, into her work.
However, contradicting distances counteracting qualities, it is also defined by Woolf as a factor
that aids the characters, especially Lily, in seeing the balance and the essence of a certain group
of objects, people or events. Lily Briscoes character is only able to create her painting, the
center of which is Mrs. Ramsay, in an abstract way, after she is capable to distance herself from
the concept being captured and also has been distanced by forces, events involuntarily. The
significance of distance is directly stated by the end of the novel:

The sea without a stain on it, thought Lily Briscoe, still standing and looking out over the
bay. The sea stretched like silk across the bay. Distance had an extraordinary power; they had
been swallowed up in it, she felt, they were gone forever, they had become part of the nature of
things. It was so calm; it was so quiet. The steamer itself had vanished, but the great scroll of
smoke still hung in the air and drooped like a flag mournfully in valediction. (Woolf, 1927)

Another important theme in To the Lighthouse is Lilys process of painting. Woolf explores
the modernist painter at work, her struggle to create balance, harmony and to capture a sort of
essence of her themes without trying to represent them as a recognizable copy. This
postimpressionist attitude towards art, again, emphasizes the significance of perception
through the notion that what Lily attempts to depict is a subjective vision or form of reality,
which is distinct from the assumed objective reality that is explicitly perceived by every
human being. The central role of painting in the novel juxtaposes it with writing, for the
simple reason that the reader is subjected to a written text that deals with the consciousness of
a painter during work. This opposition immediately shines a light on how the two disciplines
have different ways of representing time and space, although the final purpose both the book
and Lilys painting serve is quite similar, regarding their parallel creation, their theme and that
they both symbolize a sort of closure.
According to White, Woolf wrote in her diary that she faced difficulties in composing the
time and space of the last section of the novel, similarly to Lily. Woolf aimed to convey the
feeling of simultaneity as she distanced the characters in space, so that one had the sense of
reading . . . two things at the same time. As White observed, Woolf succeeded in doing so
by carefully creating a structure to the novel, the third part of which is the most structured and
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rhythmic one, implying the yearning for order in the postwar climate. White further analyzes
the scene, observing that while Lily moves forward in time, Mr. Ramsay, Cam and James
move through time and space simultaneously, towards the Lighthouse; the physical distance
creating silence between the boat and the island, psychic distance between the characters on
the boat. The perspective shifts from Lilys to the sailing childrens back and forth until the
completion of the painting that happens concurrently with the boat reaching its destination,
thus Woolf stretches the connected consciousness and the relationships of her characters: so
much depends, Lily thinks, upon distance: whether people are near us or far from us; for
her feeling for Mr. Ramsay changed as he sailed further and further across the bay. It seemed
to be elongated, stretched out; he seemed to become more and more remote (Woolf, 1927).
White also suggests that the double ending poses a paradox, regarding Lily finishing the
painting offers closure, while Mr. Ramsays journey leaves the reader with an open ending.
Another paradox that is similar to this one in Woolfs view, the paradoxical nature of
painting. One can interpret that the opposition is between the product of the painting that is
still and implies that what it was meant to depict is concluded, or it was prevalent in a spatial
dimension rather than in time, and the novel which definitively requires time to be consumed
and it has implications of events that occurred before and after the time that it covers,
therefore conveys a kind of continuity that, in this sense, a painting does not. White states that
by making art, one aspires to create a piece that is permanent and whole, which is highly
paradoxical in the spatial and temporal conditions of humanity. (White, 2005.) Thus, it could
be concluded that the discipline of painting is somewhat more equipped to capture spatial, still
compositions, while writing is more adapt to navigate the audience in both time and space.

Brown suggests that Woolf had been exposed to the contemporary findings of physicists that,
critics have implied, could have influenced Woolfs writing, such as Einsteins Relativity
theory, Plancks discovery of the quantum, Bohrs atom theory, and further concepts
concerning the wave-particle duality. According to Brown, the way Woolf writes To the
Lighthouse, it intertwines Einsteins theories of the relative time and space conception with an
additional sense of the permeable boundaries of consciousness between entities that reflects the
holistic nature of subatomic phenomena. Furthermore, as the book has the role of perception
as an underlying theme, Brown implies that Woolf adapts his fathers work and displays it as
Mr. Ramsays, who is, if one was to read the book autobiographically, is the father figure.
Stephen took part in the realist-idealist philosophical debate that was to determine if an
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unperceived object is existent as a part of an objective reality or perception serves as a tool of

creation and what is not subjected to the senses cannot exist. Stephen claimed that objective
existence neither can be proved nor disproved and that perception was present in humans
separate consciousness. Whereas in To the Lighthouse and most of her novels, Woolf blurs the
boundaries of individual consciousness and creates a shifting, collective consciousness, which
suggests a holistic view that is parallel with that of quantum physics. In subatomic science the
determination of the position and the momentum of a particle is impossible without alternating
the system, which it is a part of, therefore it cannot be described in space-time, rendering the
notion of objective reality logically meaningless in these realms. As Brown observes Mrs.
Ramsay crosses these boundaries on several occasions, for instance, she identifies as the stroke
of the Lighthouse, she is capable of affecting her surroundings, as a binding force, acts as a
massive object that creates gravity and structure. She is associated with her knitting needles
numerous times, implying her role in creating collectivity and opposing her with her husband
and other male characters, who are connected to knives that, in Browns opinion, are the
symbols of individuality, separation. Although, he argues, this opposition is what needed to
keep the balance intact. Mrs. Ramsay reconnects the individual figure of his husband to the
family, to the world, while his formal reasoning keeps her from dissolving into the collective
consciousness. To emphasize her significance, Brown claims that at the dinner party, Mrs.
Ramsay not only constructs the space, but she manages to merge her guests, who are
unwilling to participate at first by silently communicating with all of them "the whole effort of
merging and flowing and creating rested on her" (Woolf, 1927). Furthermore, Brown suggests
that she is able to control elements that seem impossible, such as when she thinks that They
must come now [. . .] looking at the door, and at that instant, Minta Doyle, Paul Rayley, and a
maid carrying a great dish in her hands came in together" (Woolf, 1927), then when she leaves
the room, the unity that she has created starts to somewhat disintegrate.

Brown established that Mrs. Ramsay is able to bind people and objects in space but she is
also able to affect time. She acts, again as a massive body, near which time passes slower, or
stops completely for a moment.

Brown implies that her relative nature stems from her association with the abstract and that
it is Lily Briscoes representation of her is that fully depicts her relative nature. Mrs. Ramsay
describes herself as a wedge-shaped core of darkness, then Lily portrays her as an odd-
shaped triangular shadow that could be interpreted as her essence, as the unifying presence
that others cannot comprehend. This is also interesting for the reason that Minkowski, a
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mathematician, declared that Henceforward space on its own and time on its own will decline
into mere shadows, and only a kind of union between the two will preserve its independence"
(Green, 2000.).To help illustrate the special theory of relativity, he advocated thinking of time
as one side of a right triangle, space the other, and space-time as the hypotenuse.

Her unifying abilities, as Brown finds, extend to inanimate objects, too, therefore disputing the
argument that the unity that came to be in the dinner party scene can be solely attributed to her
social skills.

She looked up over her knitting and met the third stroke and it seemed to her like her own eyes
meeting her own eyes [. . .] It was odd, she thought, how if one was alone, one leant to inanimate
things; trees, streams, flowers; felt they expressed one; felt they became one; felt they knew
one, in a sense were one; felt an irrational tenderness thus.(Woolf, 1927). She describes her
holistic vision as irrational as it contradicts formalism. Another physics related revelation of
the twentieth century is that light and matter exhibits both particle- and wave-like properties,
and the double-slit experiment has shown that individual particles exist in a holistic
relationship, as if each particle had a determined path to create a wavelike pattern. These
particles are connected by a field that has clear similarities to Woolfs pattern and to the
structure that is created by Mrs. Ramsay. Also, this shows a parallel between Mrs. Ramsays
workings, her connection to the strokes of the Lighthouse and the world as a whole, and
quantum physics, that is further highlighted by the fact that she associates with light itself. Mr.
Ramsays compartmental vision is juxtaposed with hers. He attempts to understand reality
(R), while being a human and being unable to objectify everything in his surrounding makes
this impossible. Lily appears as the balance between the two of them, who are the two ends of
the spectrum, she feels attraction and repulsion for both of them and represents a middle ground.
Brown forms a conclusion, quoting James Naremore, that Woolfs vision is distinct from that
of her father and of Einstein in that she appears to convey that existence is best described as the
simultaneous creation and embracement of ones environment. (Brown, 2009.)

One can, therefore conclude that Woolfs characters exist in a non-absolute space and time
continuum as a collective of individual consciousness with permeable boundaries between them
and they act in a way that suggests an underlying pattern, which is formed by them and they are
bound by it at the same time.
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Citation:

Brown, P. (2009). Relativity, Quantum Physics, and Consciousness in Virginia Woolf's "To the
Lighthouse" Journal of Modern Literature, 32(3), 39-62. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25511818

White, R. A studio of ones own: fictional women painters and the art of fiction. Madison:
Fairleigh Dickinson U Press, 2005.

Woolf, V. To the Lighthouse. New York: Harcourt, 1927.