Khan 1

Art and its significance in life

Art is an essential form of expression and communication, an expansive and

diverse language fundamentally connected to experiencing and engaging in the world
around us. As Laurie Polster in Artiful Teaching states that:

Art is creation, imagination, recording, investigation, arbitration and culmination.

It helps define our existence and makes us less alone and frees our frustrations.
(19)

The relation of art and life can be seen as a major theme of the novel To the Lighthouse.
Virginia Woolfe suggests that life cannot be retained except that it can be carried out into
art. Art can be seen as a source of bringing about unity in life and give it a meaning. Lily
Briscoe, an artist in the novel, captures what she sees around her in paints rather than in
words. She suggests art as something able to unify disparate elements into a cohesive
whole. When she looks at her canvas, she contemplates how she will incorporate several
people and objects into the work in order to create a unified and singular product, hence
giving disjointed images in life a meaning in art. Permanence can be given to life by
incorporating life events into art.

Art can also be a means of preservation in life. As in the novel, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay
employ different strategies for making their lives significant but Mr. Ramsay fails to
obtain the philosophical understanding he so desperately desires, and Mrs. Ramsay’s life,
though filled with moments that have the shine and resilience of rubies, ends. Only Lily
Briscoe finds a way to preserve her experience, and that way is through her art. Lily
while mourning Mrs. Ramsay’s death reflects that “nothing stays, all changes; but not
words, not paint.”

Art can also be seen as a source of joy and consolation. Mrs. Ramsey delights in the
loveliness of the sonnet’s words and Scott’s prose frees Mr. Ramsey from anxiety about
his public image. After reading Scott, Mr. Ramsey no longer cares whether it is he or
someone else who reaches Z, he knows that someone will, and that’s enough.

Mrs. Ramsay is occupied with knitting stockings which she intends to present the
lighthouse keeper’s little boy. In the novel, there are more than ten descriptions of her
knitting stocking. The art of knitting stocking can be taken as Mrs. Ramsay’s special
means of expression in life through which she wants to fulfill her tour to the lighthouse,
or as a means of catharsis, purgation of her emotions against Mr. Ramsay’s insistence
that the weather won’t be fine and they won’t go the Lighthouse.

Art can also be significant in life in exploration of subjective feelings and emotions. This
can be seen in James Ramsay, sitting on the floor cutting out pictures from the illustrated
catalogue of the Army and Navy stores, and Lily painting throughout the novel.
 Khan 2

Work cited

“Artful Teaching.” Google Books, books.google.com.pk/books?

hl=en&lr=&id=_8hADgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA19&dq=what%2Bis
%2Bart&ots=s7C1s2wDW4&sig=dSU1fm4Cmj24xa2whZSmG54yzDE#v=onep
age&q=what%20is%20art&f=false. Accessed 13 Mar. 2017.