| 54 EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY AND MODERNISM - British Fiction To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf ooo... When we are introspective, we examine our thoughts, impressions and feelings deeply. Virginia Woot put introspective moments into words. ‘Answer the following questions. 1 Are you very, quite, alittle or not at all introspective? | 2 What ae the things you think most deeply about? 3 Are there times of the day when you are more introspective than others? 4 Are there situations which make you introspective? 5. Have you ever written your thoughts down? If so, why? INTRODUCTION @ In an era when women were fighting to gain recognition for their role in society Virginia Woolf emerged as one of the finest writers in the language. To limit her achievement, howeve, to that of influential literary spokesperson of the women’s movement is to totally undervalue her work Few other writers have managed to enter the inner depths of character with such subtlety and delicacy, She follows the stream of consciousness or thought patterns of her characters so that the reader feels he can see inside their minds. This approach to writing, which was also used by James Joyce, was to revo. lutionise novel writing (> Visual Links G14 and G19). CHARACTERS THE STORY AND STRUCTURE eee The book is divided into three parts. Ramsay | In the first, ‘The Window’, the Ramsays are on holiday with their children and some friends * Tei el including Lily Briscoe, All the action takes place over one day and much of it is seen thragh + Lily Briscoe, @ the eyes and mind of Mrs Ramsay (> Text G12). Although there are many digression ais / paint = non common when the stream of consciousness technique is used, the main unifying element in hah ae, the plot is the children’s desire to go to the lighthouse the following day and ther fathers objection to going because the weather will not be good. The second part, ‘Time Passes’, takes place after the First World War. Mrs Ramsay is deat and Lily and Mr Carmichael come to Stay in the abandoned holiday home. In the last section, ‘The Lighthouse’, Mr Ramsay and two of his children join Lily Briscoe an Mr Carmichael. They realise their long-awaited dream of going to the lighthouse whi ‘he shore, Lily paints and thinks of her dead friend, Mrs Ramsay (> Text G13). Rxay Why Must They Grow Up? | Mis Ramsay is with one of her children, James, and is thinking about how sa itil when all her children have grown up. Chapter X - The Window (..) Oh, - - but she never wanted James to grow a day older! Or Cam either. These tw : ‘0 she would have liked to keep for ever just as they were, demons ofangels of delight, never to see ness! jxedness» jcke' s-lege weeo up EO long-legged monsters, «ne for’ the loss. W de up for’ the loss. When wothin made Up he read 5 sow €0 FACS ‘and there were numbers of Fes with kettle-drums” and trumpets,’ and or eyes aarkened she thought, why should row up and lose all that? He was the merited? the mest Sensitive of her yy ‘ite But all, she thought, were full of romse, Prue, a perfect angel with the others, and sometimes now, at night especially, she feok one’s breath away with her beauty. sndrew ~ever er husband admitted that his 1s gift for mathematics was extraordinary. And Nancy and Roger, they were both wild creatures now, scampering’ about over the country all day long. As for Rose, her mouth was too big, but she hada wonderful gift with her hands. If they had charades*, Rose made the dresses; made everything; liked best arranging tables, flowers, anything. she did not like it that Jasper should shoot birds; but it was only a stage; they all went through stages. Why, she asked, pressing her chin on James's head, should they grow up so fast? Why should they go to school? She would have liked always to have had a baby. She was happiest carrying one in her arms, Then people might say she was tyrannical, domineering, masterful, if they chose: she did not mind. And, touching his hair with her lips, she thought, he will never be so happy again, but stopped herself, remembering how it angered her husband that she should say that. Still, it was true, They were happier now than they would ever be again. A tenpenny’ tea set made Cam happy for days. She heard them stamping® and crowing’ on the floor above her head the moment they woke. They came bustling" along the passage. Then the door sprang open"! and in they came, fresh as roses, staring, wide awake, as if this coming into the éining.room after breakfast, which they did every day of their lives, was @ Positive event to them, and so on, with one thing after another, all day long, until she went up to say good-night to them, and found them netted in their cots"? like birds among cherries and raspberries, still making up Sores about some bit of rubbish ~ something they had heard, something they had picked up in the garden. They had all thei litle treasures. (~) And so she went down and said to her husband, Why must they gro °P and lose it all? Never will they be so happy again. And he was an8iy- Why take such a gloomy’? view of life? he said. It is not sensible. For it was Odd; and she believed it to be true; that with all his gloom and —s he was happier, more helpful on the peg ee oan to a worries - perhaps that = it. ae a a a ack on'S. Not that she herself was pessim s ae presented itself i" ie Only she thought life - and a little 0 ne Pt eves — her fifty years. There it was before heres 25 45 ‘Why must they grow up and lose it al?” Mary Cassate, In the Garden (1904). GLOSSARY. @————— wickedness: innocent and childish bad behaviour ‘made up for: could compensate for kettle-drums: simple percussion instruments, timpani gifted: talented . scampering: running playfully ccharades: family games tenpenny: cheap stamping: walking, heavily crowing: shouting 10.bustling: burning with activity IL.sprang open: opened suddenly 12,netted in their cots: ‘wrapped in the sheets in their little beds 13.gloomy: pessimistic 10d: sti 15.fall back on: go back. to for comfort aswe 56 EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY AND MODERNISM - British Fiction COMPREHENSION I | ! 1 Link the names of Mrs Ramsay's children to the qualities she attributes to them. : | James _ | gifted in mathematics | | Prue | most gifted | Andrew | kind to the others | Nancy | creative | Rose ‘most sensitive, in harmony with nature | breathtakingly beautiful 2 Why was Mrs Ramsay not pleased with jasper? ANALYSIS: ——. 1 Focus on the narrative technique. | a, The passage is an example of stream of | consciousness". Do Mrs Ramsay's thoughts follow a Pattern of logical connections or free associations? | . Mrs Ramsay's thought pattern is formed by one predominant thought, which she returns to several times, and digressions which are linked to the central idea. What is the central thought? Give some examples of the digression. 2 Consider how childhood is presented in the passage. ‘a. What metaphorical expressions are used to represent childhood and adulthood in lines 2-4? What associations do they evoke? ». Focus on lines 30-35. Which words, in particular verbs, convey the boundless energy of childhood? © What aspect of childhood is highlighted in lines 37-397 3 Underline the sentences where reference is made to Mrs Ramsay's husband. Which of the following adjectives would you use to describe him? Strict 1m Sympathetic @ Domineering IB Short-tempered ® Detached B® Self-centred © Stern © Other: Justify your choices 3 When was Mrs Ramsay happiest? 4 Why cid she try to stop hersel from thinkin the children would never be as happy againy 9 55 What did the children do inthe motrin a breatas time? What did they do at right bl going to sleep? 6 When Mrs Ramsay expressed her opinions abou, the children to her husband, what did he accuse he of? 4 Focus on the character of Mrs Ramsay, a. In lines 25-26 she says that other people may accuse her of being ‘tyrannical, domineering, masterful |s there any evidence in the passage that suggests that she may possess these traits? (Consider her attitude towards her son jasper) b. What type of a relationship does Mrs Ramsay seem to have with her husband? Which of the two has the more dominant character? ¢. Mrs Ramsay believes that childhood is the happiest time in life. What does ths indirectly suggest about her own experience of adulthood? d. In line 47 Mrs Ramsay sees her life as alittle stip Of time’. What is highlighted by this image? The brevity of life The insignificance of life The suffering of life The joy of life @ Other: ......i The term chi erisation charac writer may aracte; © Way in ocus on external *SPECtS Of the cha oes Wet ie a he ma concentrat, thoughts, feelings ang Memories, Techniques which logue, description achieved throug interior mono} Which a write Creates a character, A how he looks, what he sa Lys er’s inter ‘Mal world, i.e. his Na varic logue, fernal representat; intern; ‘ion is 8enerally linked to morte traditional literary forms while al representation became poputar during the experi ning of the twentieth Century. Today, characterisatio, two techniques, SEERISIMIMM Text 612 focuses almost exclusively on Mrs memories. The character's external world is Ramsay's intemal lines are they mentioned? Fepresented by World of thoughts, feelings and two simple gestures. In which58 EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY AND MODERNISM - British [NSH The Formidable Ancient Enemy visual Link G14 —————* GLossary 1. stroke: movement of the paintbrush 2. flickered brown: put a quick light splash of brown) 3. related: connected to each other 4. scored: marked 5. which had no sooner settled ... a space: as soon as they were drawn, they enclosed a space Which she felt almost ‘came out of the canvas towards her 6. hollow: empty space 7. drawn out of: removed from 8. stark: clear, cold and uncompromising 9. haled away: called away 10.exacting: tiresome, requiring an effort 11. intercourse: verbal exchange ful: worth, adoring 13.all let one kneel prostrate: they only require that you kneel down in submission before them 14.lamp-shade: structure covering the bulb of a table lamp 15. wicker: pieces of wood twisted together, especially used to make garden furniture roused one to perpetual combat: pushed a person to fight endlessly 17.was bound to be worsted: was inevitably going to be defeated 16 The First World War is over and Mrs Ramsay is dead. Lily Briscoe, Mr Cap Ramsay and two of his chile are staying in the Holiday home this pet hy, . painting beside the sea. We tit Chapter III - The Lighthouse Gd With a curious physical sensation, as if she were urged forward and atthe same time must hold herself back, she made her first quick decisivg stroke!. The brush descended. It flickered brown? over the white canvas; it left a running mark. A second time she did it ~a third time. And so pausing and so flickering, she attained a dancing rhythmical movement as if the pauses were one part of the rhythm and the strokes another, ang all were related’; and so, lightly and swiftly pausing, striking, she scoreq! the canvas with brown running nervous lines which had no sooner settled there than they enclosed (she felt it looming out at her) a space’. Down in the hollow® of one wave she saw the next wave towering higher and higher above her. For what could be more formidable than that space? Here she was again, she thought, stepping back to look at it, drawn out of? gossip, out of living, out of community with people into the presence of the formidable ancient enemy of hers - this other thing, this truth, this reality, which suddenly laid hands on her, emerged stark® at the back of appearances and commanded her attention, She was half unwilling, half reluctant. Why always be drawn out and haled away®? Why not left in peace, to talk to Mr Carmichael on the lawn? It was an exacting” form of intercourse"! anyhow. Other worshipful!? objects were content with worship; men, women, God, all let one kneel prostrate’; but this form, were it only the shape of a white lamp-shade" looming on a wicker'> table, roused one to perpetual combat"®, challenged one to a fight in which one was bound to be worsted!”. Always (it was in her nature, or in her sex, she did not know which) before she exchanged the fluidity of life Edward Hopper, "| The Lighthouse at the Two Lights (1929).To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf ns concentration of painting she had a few moments of nakedness jor! seemed like an unborn soul, a soul reft of!* body, hesitatin, . whet y innacle and exposed without protection to all the blasts? of gone Wy then did she do it? She looked at the canvas, lightly scored oud ning lines. Ht our be hung in the servants’ bedrooms. It would with ip and stuffed under a sofa. What was the good of doing it ‘then | and some Voice say she couldn’t paint, saying she couldn’t ° | 9 G and she hei te, as ifshe were caught up in one of those habitual currents in which a certain time experience forms in the mind, so that one repeats ae our being var anyTonger who orally spoke them . : COMPREHENSION ~ oe seit i ; | 1 what is tly doing? What is the result of her first 5 Is she enthusiastic about engaging in the creative stroke? process or does she feel driven against her will? 2 What creates the ‘dancing rhythmical movement’ 6 How does she always feel just before she begins to | mentioned in line 5? paint? | 3 What does Lily leave behind when she is drawn 7 Does she believe that the finished product of her artistic endeavour will be appreciated? rewards the space on the canvas? ‘a Whatis her “formidable ancient enemy’? (Line 14) ANALYSIS = 1 Which of the following concepts are associated with the process of artistic creation in the text? Combat m Creativity imagination B Liberation Danger 1B Worship Sufering Find line references to justify your choices. 2 Innes 12-16 and lines 24-25 painting is contrasted with living. Which appears to be less demanding for Lily? Attis often portrayed as a form of escape from the hatdshp of life. How is this view paradoxically reversed in this passage? Lily Briscoe may never get recognition for her paintin: bran innate passion for her art. a vou have any creative artistic passions? What ever paint or write, or make objects you Wha ficulties do you come up against when We cannot all be great artists, but if you were, produce? For exa example: I'd lke to write at least one poem that wou! regard as artistic? doing your particul /hich art form wou! 8 What does the voice she hears say? 3 The creative process of painting seems to cast a spell over Lily. Underline sentences in the text which suggest that she is unable to resist her creative vocation. Which sentences convey her desire to resist the temptation? A Lines 23-24 focus on Lily’s insecurities as an artist. | ‘What striking image does she use to convey her sense | of vulnerability and self-doubt? The voice she refers to in line 31 questions her talent as an artist. What does it say? ‘The words may have been said by someone who doubted Lily's creative talent or they may be a manifestation of the lack of self-belief which assails Lily each time she starts painting. Which interpretation do you find more appropriate? J, and she sometimes doubts her talent, but she is driven on lar activity? Id you like to excel in and what would you like id be read in five hundred years’ time.MD. 60 EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY AND MODERNISM - British Fi WRITERS’ GALLERY a 5 Stephen was born in Londo, in 1882. Her father was a prominent literary critic and a friend oy many of the influential writers ofthe day including hea,’ James, Virginia was educated at home trom the resources of father’ impressive library. Her youth was overshadowed series of emotional shocks, including the deaths of her mony her half sister and eventually her father, who suffered a gy" death from cancer. Bloomsbury Group After her father's death, Woolf moved to house in the Bloomsbury area of London with her sister Vanes and her brothers Thoby and Adrian. The house became the meeting place of a circle of intellectuals, including E.M. Forster VirciniA WooLF 1882-1941 Se the author and social reformer Leonard Woolf. Th. Bloomsbury Group, as it became known, was committed to ridding society of what they felt were the constraints and taboos of Victorian times. Literary critic In 1904 Woolf took to writing book reviews, and the following year she started her contributions to The Times Literary Supplement, a collaboration that lasted many years. Nervous breakdown When her brother Thoby died in 1906, Woolf had a severe mental breakdown and throughout her entire life she was subject to nervous illness. Marriage, attempted suicide and first novel In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf and the following year she finished her first, rather conventional, novel, The Voyage Out. A relapse into depression and attempted suicide delayed its publication until 1915, Hogarth Press In 1917 the Woolfs bought a small printing company, Hogarth Press, and converted the business from printing to publishing. They began by publishing Two Stories in 1917 ("The Mark on the Wall’ by Virginia and ‘Three Jews’ by Leonard). They also published work by Katherine Mansfield and, by the time they printed .S. Eliot's The Waste Land in 1923, they were established publishers. Novels After experimenting with short stories, Woolf turned to novel-writing again, this time using increasingly innovative literary techniques. Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and The Waves (1931) are generally considered to be her best works. Her romantic involvement with the poet Vita Sackville-West inspired the novel Orlando (1928), her most commercially successful novel, in which she traces the history of the young, beautiful, aristocratic and androgynous protagonist across four centuries. Feminist works ‘Two lectures to women’s colleges at Cambridge in 1928 led to feminist-themed works such as A Room of One's Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938). Bale After completing her final novel, Between The Acts, published posthumously in 1941, Woolf suffered another attack of mental illness which drove her to suicide. She drowned herself in @ river near her home in March, 1941. She was fifty-nine years old. =a An innovative force An innovative force in twentieth-centu!Y fiction, Virginia Woolf was one of the leaders of the literatY movement known as ‘modernism’ (» p. G181), an élite group of writers and poets that included Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and TS. Eliot.Writers’ Gallery - Virginia Woolf interior monologue In her works, Wolfs mail emphasis is not on events or characteri- tation but on the characters’ emotions and feelings, which are conveyed to the reader through the use of the stream of conscious- ness technique called interior monologues. ‘This literary device represents an attempt to capture in words the workings of human con- sciousness. by recording the characters’ thoughts, feelings, impressions and memo- ries. The novel Mrs Dalloway, for example, is formed by the web of thoughts of various A scene from the film people during the course of a single day. Mrs Dalloway (7997). To the Lighthouse _In her most celebrated novel, To the Lighthouse (1927), Virginia Woolf explores the creative and intuitive consciousness of Mrs Ramsay, the central figure in the Ramsay family. The novel highlights the differences between the male perspective as represented by the tragic and self- pitying philosopher Mr Ramsay, and the female perspective as represented by the warm and maternal Mrs Ramsay. Mr and Mrs Ramsay were probably modelled on Woolf's parents, and the novel contains many autobiographical references. Asin all Woolt’s works there is little action. The story revolves around a single event: a planned expedition to a lighthouse. The style of the novel is both realistic and symbolic; the central symbol, the lighthouse, represents spiritual and moral salvation, and the story ends on a note of optimism as the family’s younger generation makes the long overdue expedition. Further experimentation Woolf carried the stream of consciousness* technique even further in The Waves (1931), her most difficult work, where she does not limit herself to one conscious flow of thoughts but slips from the mind of one character to another. The novel presents in soliloquies the lives of six characters from childhood to old age. Feminist writings While an activist in the campaign for women’s suffrage, Woolf wrote a series of notable feminist essays. In her most celebrated essay, A Room of One's Own (1929), she examines the prejudices and financial disadvantages that have held women writers back through the centuries. She criticises the male domination of society and urges women to gain economic independence in order to pursue their own goals (D> Visual Links G2 and G14). Reputation Virginia Woolf is today considered to be one of the most innovative novelists of the twentieth century. Many of the experimental techniques she introduced are now widely used in modern fiction (P Visual Link G19). She is also highly acclaimed as a literary critic and a feminist writer. TASK — — = Prepare a bref oral presentation of the life and works of Virginia Woolf. These notes will help you to organise it: ~ Family background — Bloomsbury group ~Uterary critic — Hogarth Press —Novelist — Feminist essayist ~ Mental condition which led to suicide — Innovative literary technique. 61