SIGNIFICANCE OF LILY’S PAINTING

Lily Briscoe is working on a painting throughout the book To The Lighthouse. She does not want anyone
to see her painting and considers throwing it to the grass when someone walks by (Woolf 17-18). Other
characters in the book seem to have different opinions about her painting. Mrs. Ramsay, William Bankes,
and Charles Tansley all have differing views about Lily’s painting. While showing her painting to
William Bankes, Lily realizes that she doesn’t like it. During Mrs. Ramsay’s dinner party, Lily realizes
what she needs to do to fix her painting but doesn’t until the end of the story. The painting itself grows
and changes throughout the book, just as Lily grows and changes as a person as she lives her life (Woolf
102).

The reactions to Lily’s painting represent the differing views about women and art during the time period
in which the book is set. Mrs. Ramsay believes that Lily’s painting will not be noticed, either because she
is a woman or because she looks Chinese - perhaps both (Woolf 17). William Bankes questioned the
meaning of some of the elements of Lily’s painting, such as the use of a purple triangle to represent Mrs.
Ramsay and James (Woolf 52). After Lily explained some of the elements of her painting to him, “He
was interested. He took it scientifically in complete good faith” (Woolf 53). Lily’s use of a purple triangle
to represent Mrs. Ramsay and James (Woolf 52) could symbolize many different things. Lily says, “It
was a question [of] how to connect the mass on the right hand with that on the left hand” (Woolf 53). To
connect one with two requires three, the completion of a triangle, the third stroke. Mrs. Ramsay is a
representation of that third stroke.

Lily herself feels “her own inadequacy, her insignificance” (Woolf 19). It is difficult for Lily to accurately
transfer the scenes that she saw onto her canvas. “It was in that moment’s flight between the picture and
her canvas that the demons set on her who often brought her to the verge of tears and made this passage
from conception to work as dreadful as any down a dark passage for a child” (Woolf 19). Charles
Tansley’s words, “women can’t paint, women can’t write...” (Woolf 48) echo in Lily’s head, causing her to
further doubt her ability and whether or not her painting will be accepted. Charles Tansley represents some
of the views of women during that period of time. Many men believed that women could not write or
create art (Woolf 48). Lily believes that “it [her painting] was bad, it was bad, it was infinitely bad!”
(Woolf 48). She is very insecure and fearful of the opinions of others about her painting. Her insecurities
about her painting are a reflection of her insecurities about herself. When Mr. Ramsay nearly overturns her
easel, Lily is very worried that he or someone else might see it: “And that was what Lily Briscoe could not
have endured” (Woolf 17). By allowing someone to see her painting, she would have allowed someone to
see her. By hiding her painting from the world, she was also hiding herself from the world since her
painting is a representation of herself and her insecurities. Because of her fear of the possibility