Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Department of English
and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Kristína Melišová

Conceptions of Beauty in Virginia

Woolf’s To the Lighthouse
Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Velid Beganović, M.A.

2018
 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

……………………………………………..
Kristína Melišová
 My utmost gratitude goes to my supervisor, Velid Beganović, for sparking my

enthusiasm and showing me the way, as well as to the people dear to my heart, for their

valuable advice, guidance and especially their patience.

Table of Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1

Chapter 1: Influences ........................................................................................................ 3

1.1. Early Influences: The Family ........................................................................ 4

1.2. The Early Bloomsbury Group ....................................................................... 7

1.3. E. M. Forster .................................................................................................. 9

1.4. Other Influences .......................................................................................... 12

Chapter 2: Polymorphous Beauty................................................................................... 12

2.1. Beauty and Truth ......................................................................................... 14

2.2. Beauty and Mood ........................................................................................ 16

2.3. Rapturous Beauty ........................................................................................ 18

2.4. Beauty and Language .................................................................................. 19

2.5. Beauty and Art ............................................................................................. 21

Chapter 3: The Perception of Beauty ............................................................................. 22

3.1. Mr Ramsay .................................................................................................. 23

3.2. Mrs Ramsay ................................................................................................. 26

3.3. Lily Briscoe ................................................................................................. 28

3.4. Charles Tansley ........................................................................................... 32

3.5. William Bankes ........................................................................................... 34

Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 37

Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 39

Summary (English) ......................................................................................................... 42

Resumé (Czech).............................................................................................................. 43
 Who shall blame him? Who will not secretly rejoice when the hero puts his

armour off, and halts by the window and gazes at his wife and son, who, very

distant at first, gradually come closer and closer, till lips and book and head are

clearly before him, though still lovely and unfamiliar from the intensity of his

isolation and the waste of ages and the perishing of the stars, and finally putting

his pipe in his pocket and bending his magnificent head before her—who will

blame him if he does homage to the beauty of the world? (To the Lighthouse 41)

Introduction

Modernism, with its experimental approaches and daring ideas, represents a

revolution in the way literature is written and read. Being one of the most prominent

writers of the twentieth century and one of the most famous modernists, Virginia Woolf

and her works had been greatly praised, but also criticised over the years. This thesis is a

reaction to a possible issue that modernism could have with a depiction of beauty which

had been explored by Wendy Steiner in her work Venus in Exile. She argues that as a

response to the historical treatment of women and beauty in the literary works, the

twentieth century art shies away perhaps too much in order not to belittle and offend.

According to her: “In modernism, the perennial rewards of aesthetic experience –

pleasure, insight, empathy – were largely withheld, and its generous aim, beauty, was

abandoned.” (Steiner 1) Inspired by the question raised by Steiner, this thesis explores

Woolf’s relationship with beauty and the many representations of it in her later work To

the Lighthouse. The goal is to show that even though modernism introduces a new,

perhaps more thoughtful approach to beauty, it does not in any way abandon it. Moreover,

the form of writing that Woolf had developed only increases the number of ways in which

beauty can be depicted.

1
 The first chapter of this thesis is theoretical and focuses on factors that influenced

Woolf’s perception of beauty and provides background for further analysis. It explores

Woolf’s family background, the influence of the Bloomsbury Group and the way new

developments in art, more specifically Post-Impressionism and formalism, are reflected

in her writing. It also deals with the critical influence of her friendship with E. M. Forster

and other secondary philosophical influences that could have played their role in Woolf’s

writing.

The remainder of the thesis is an analysis of Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. This

work is suitable for this purpose since it is one of the later books and we can see Woolf

as a mature and developed artist. It has strong autobiographical elements, features both

visual arts and literature. Another important factor is the stream of consciousness which

allows greater insight into the minds of the characters.

The second chapter is an analysis of the various forms and representations of

beauty in this work. Because of the abstractness of the term, it explores beauty in

connection to other things, so that certain boundaries are set. Quite prominent are the

relationships of beauty with truth, mood, language and art. It stresses that beauty, which

is constantly present in some way throughout the most of the book, is portrayed in

various, sometimes unexpected ways and extends beyond physical beauty and the

expectations of the reader.

In order to cover this topic as thoroughly as possible, the third chapter analyses

To the Lighthouse in terms of the way given characters perceive beauty. There is an

especially notable contrast between the feminine and masculine view, which turns out to

create gaps between the characters, resulting in a partial inability to understand each

other. It also shows literature as a male domain and painting as something more pure and

female.

2
 Through an overview of the theoretical background and analysis of Woolf’s work,

this thesis shows that modernism and the experimental form that Woolf had developed

over the years does not aim to destroy beauty in anyway. What is more, it proves to be a

very effective way of giving the necessary depth and relevance to beauty by depicting it

in less traditional ways.

Chapter 1: Influences

This chapter aims to explore various factors that have influenced the development

of Woolf’s perception of beauty and her stance towards both visual arts and literature.

Acknowledging these influences is going to be relevant for the later analysis of To the

Lighthouse and understanding Woolf’s artistic choices.

The earliest and strongest influence had been the Stephen family. Early on, Virginia

Stephen had become conscious of physical beauty and the reaction of people to it because

of the beauty she and the women of her family were famous for. Quite an opposing

influence came from the down-to-earth figure of her father. (Moments of Being 68) There

is a notable pressure on Woolf, resulting in a polarity of these family influences. Many

years later this would drive her to write To the Lighthouse–the primary focus of this thesis

and a work that reflects the way she felt about these early influences.

After the death of her father and the subsequent moving to Bloomsbury, Virginia

Stephen’s new friends and acquaintances, most of which can be considered a part of the

Bloomsbury Group, had taken over as a major influence. (Q. Bell) The fact that a number

of people in this circle were Woolf’s relatives and the close-knit relationships the

members had with each other in a way created an environment very close to that of a

family. (Beginning Again) However, thanks to their university education and the positive

relationship of the members towards art, the conversational focus has shifted to a broad

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variety of topics, naturally including art as well. (qtd. in Rosenbaum 77) Roger Fry and

Clive Bell were especially crucial in this development. By the time Fry organised the

Post-Impressionist Exhibition of 1910, Woolf had already been a member of the group

and had been present to witness the outrage it caused–what eventually turned out to be a

ground-breaking point in art history. (Hodgkinson) The reaction to the new developments

in visual art can be traced in the various experimental approaches that would later emerge

in Woolf’s novels–for instance Jacob’s Room (1922) or the commentary on visual art in

To the Lighthouse (1927). While being exposed to modern visual art by the other

members of the Bloomsbury Group, Woolf managed to incorporate some of the new ideas

it presented to create a unique form of experimental writing that allowed her to

communicate certain sensations more effectively to the reader.

When it comes to the people outside of the core of the Bloomsbury Group, Woolf’s

relationship with E.M. Forster must have been very influential. By the time Woolf started

publishing her more experimental works, most of Forster’s novels had already been

published. Thus he had been able to use his writing experience to critically examine

Woolf’s work–an insight she found very helpful. (Goldman 398) Woolf’s essay “The

Novels of E.M.Forster” and Forster’s Rede Lecture on Woolf’s writing, given after her

death, illustrate the sort of critical, yet productive relationship they had. Their critical

commentaries offer a valuable insight into their priorities and approaches when it comes

to writing. Moreover, beauty is a frequently examined topic in these–especially in

Woolf’s essay on Forster’s novels.

1.1. Early Influences: The Family

Since the problematic of beauty and the perception of it are inherently subjective,

it is best to focus on Woolf’s personal accounts and recollections. What is most noticeable

4
in these is a presence of important and divided feminine and masculine elements that

created a sense of ambivalence of all the experiences.

A very personal account of Woolf’s early life is her shorter work “A Sketch of

the Past” which is part of a collection of Woolf’s posthumously published

autobiographical accounts Moments of Being.1 On one hand there is Lesley Stephen–a

strong and authoritative male presence. “My father was spartan, ascetic, puritanical. He

had I think no feeling for pictures; no ear for music; no sense of the sounds of words.”

(Moments of Being 68) Having this man as a male example while growing up, it is only

natural that Woolf should feel that men are unable to perceive beauty the same way

women do. This is the origin of the sense of implausibility that can be felt in relation with

the male characters in To the Lighthouse and to their literary works. This problem will

be discussed further in the third chapter of this thesis.

On the other hand, the women surrounding Woolf had been an example of a

completely different existence. Considered by the standards of Victorian time, the

women of the Stephen family have been associated with beauty: “We were famous for

our beauty–my mother’s beauty, Stella’s beauty, gave me, as early as I can remember,

pride and pleasure.” (Moments of Being 68) The account given by Woolf here is much

more positive than the one of her father. Here we see that her values did not really lie

with the worldly accomplishments and Victorian respectability–the sphere of her father.

She responds to her mother’s fame in the abstract spheres of aesthetics and art in a much

more positive way. Later in the thesis, the analysis of the characters in To the Lighthouse

1
Brought to attention while reading Michaela Kingham’s dissertation “Gesamtkunstwerk as an aesthetic
pre-occupation in the novels of Virginia Woolf”, where the author uses accounts from this collection to
explain the influence of the Stephen family on To the Lighthouse. (Kingham, Michaela.
“Gesamtkunstwerk as an aesthetic pre-occupation in the novels of Virginia Woolf”. Dissertation. U of
London, 2002.)

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is going to show a similar difference in personal values which results in a sense of

disparate perception of beauty and misunderstanding between the genders.

However, because of this attention, Woolf felt very conscious of her own physical

appearance. Looking back on the feminine beauty in her family she asks: “What then

gave me this feeling of shame, unless it were that I inherited some opposing instinct?”

As long as it is the beauty of the women surrounding her, she feels “pride and pleasure”,

but cannot quite seem to see herself the same way. (Moments of Being 67-68) Yet, it is

important to realise that in terms of physical appearance, Woolf’s anxiety had been

groundless. According to the standards of her time, Woolf had been considered beautiful

and her physical appearance had been described by others in a way very similar to her

descriptions of beautiful characters–such as Mrs Ramsay in To the Lighthouse for

instance. According to Leonard Woolf, the first time he saw the Stephen sisters “their

beauty literally took one’s breath away”. (Sowing 182-183) She connects this negative

feeling with a sense that her “natural love for beauty was checked by some ancestral

dread.” (Moments of Being 68) Even though she had sustained the ability to feel

“rapturously” when it came to beauty or the creative process of writing, which she found

deeply therapeutical, Woolf admits to never being able to feel this way about herself.

(Moments of Being 68, 72)

It should be kept in mind that such an early influence that a family provides affects

a person deeply and can be overwritten only with difficulty. It is natural that the parallels

that can be found between the Stephen family and Ramsays in To the Lighthouse are not

a coincidence. There is a same sense of ambivalence and oppressiveness coming from

the authoritative Mr Ramsay and of the undeniable beauty of the maternal figure that Mrs

Ramsay represents. Speaking about her father and writing of To the Lighthouse, Woolf

admitted: “He obsessed me . . . Until I wrote it out I would find my lips moving; I would

6
be arguing with him; raging against him; saying to myself all that I never said to him”.

(Moments of Being 119) The same goes for her mother: “But I wrote [To the Lighthouse]

very quickly; and when it was written, I ceased to be obsessed by my mother.” (Moments

of Being 81) The figure of Julia Stephen is immediately recognizable by others as well.

After reading To the Lighthouse Vanessa Bell identifies their mother in Mrs Ramsay,

claiming that “it was like meeting her again”. (The Letters of Virginia Woolf)

The character that has to stand between these influences in the book is Lily

Briscoe. Through her, Woolf manages to explore her own feelings, but also maintain an

objective eye. Lily struggles with the male characters and the way they see the world, art

and women–their approach is very cold and detached. Yet, she also tries to understand

Mr Ramsay and there is a strong sense of compassion to be felt. When it comes to the

character of Mrs Ramsay, Lily tries to get underneath the beauty she is known for, to see

if there is more to her. Another parallel is Lily’s undeniable self-consciousness of her

own appearance that is only enhanced by Mrs Ramsay’s presence. This topic is going to

be discussed in further detail in the following chapters.

Not surprisingly, the ambivalent influence of the Stephen family on Woolf’s

perception of art and beauty remained with her throughout her adult years. She tried to

find her own sense of things between the asphyxiating male influence and the cold

Victorian values of her father and the aesthetic angle through which everyone viewed her

mother.

1.2. The Early Bloomsbury Group

After the death of her father and Woolf’s moving to a house in Bloomsbury, the

major source of influence has shifted from the extended Stephen family to her three

Stephen siblings and the group of her brother Thoby’s friends. (Lee 216) Thanks to the

variety of members, the conversations of the group covered a great number of topics, but

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as Maynard Keynes, one of its core members, writes: “The appropriate subject of

passionate contemplation and communion were a beloved person, beauty and truth . . .”

(Two Memoirs)

The most important for this thesis are the influences that shaped Woolf’s

perception of beauty and her stance towards visual arts. The greatest shift in perspective

had been caused by the Post-Impressionist Exhibition of 1910 organised by Roger Fry.

Fry, a core member of the Bloomsbury Group, invited Post-Impressionist painters from

the continent to exhibit their paintings in London. (Nicolson) Even though the exhibition

had met with a public outrage and disapproval, it certainly sparked a discussion and

brought the attention to new art forms. (Hodgkinson) Post-impressionism gave visual art

the freedom of interpretation and style that was not possible before. As Clive Bell nicely

puts it: “Tradition ordered the painter to be photographer, acrobat, archaeologist and

littérateur: Post-Impressionism invites him to become an artist.” (16-17)

In his book Art, Bell supported Post-Impressionism and described the basic

principles of emerging British formalism–another very notable influence on Woolf’s

writing. According to the Tate Gallery definition, formalism “describes the critical

position that the most important aspect of a work of art is its form – the way it is made

and its purely visual aspects – rather than its narrative content or its relationship to the

visible world”. (Tate) With early formalism there is an undeniable opposition of visual

arts and writing that Woolf noticed. Christopher Reed suggests in his article on formalism

that, “Woolf did not find formalism immediately and self-evidently useful”. (“Through

Formalism” 22) However, he proposes that it needs to be kept in mind that Woolf’s

relationship towards it had developed considerably over the years. According to Reed,

Woolf’s early fiction–The Voyage Out (1915) and Night and Day (1919)–were rejecting

formalism. Apparently, a change came after the Great War, with Roger Fry gradually

8
losing interest in visual arts and focusing on literature. (“Through Formalism” 20-24)

Being inspired by Fry’s shift of interest, Woolf had discovered the potential that

formalism offers when incorporated into literature. The abstractness of this concept offers

to an author such as Woolf unlimited options of aesthetic application: “I feel the beauty,

which is almost entirely colour, very subtle, very changeable, running over my pen.”

(Leave the Letters) This blur between writing, visual arts and the abstract perception

connected with it, can be seen for example when Woolf writes about her first memory:

“If I were a painter, I should paint these first impressions in pale yellow, silver and green

. . . I should make curved shapes, showing the light through, but not giving a clear

outline.” (Moments of Being 66)

Partly influenced by Roger Fry, Clive Bell and the results of their work in the

field of visual arts, Woolf had discovered a form that gives her the ultimate artistic

freedom–just as Lily Briscoe did in To the Lighthouse, when she refused to give in to the

artistic influences of Mr Paunceforte and went her own way that closely resembled Post-

Impressionism. With a new experimental form of writing, Woolf had been able to capture

beauty in its pure form and offer it to the reader more readily. Sometimes shown in the

mundane, at other times shining brightly in a form of revelatory rapture, beauty in

Woolf’s works is clear and seemingly effortless.

1.3. E.M. Forster

Forster’s position of novelist outside of the Bloomsbury Group–his purity and

impartiality–gives his opinions different weight from others2. It can be perhaps in a way

more reserved, since he is not such a close person to Woolf, but also taken more seriously

2
Leonard Woolf listed Forster as one of the Bloomsbury group. (Woolf, Leonard. Beginning Again.
Hogarth Press, 1960. pp. 21-26.)
However, Forster’s presence in the Bloomsbury group is only marginal and he himself had said that “he
did not regard himself as having belonged to the Bloomsbury.” (Rosenbaum, S.P., editor. The
Bloomsbury Group. Croom Helm, 1975. p. 24)

9
and with a greater respect because of his longer career as a writer. Their most well-known

accounts on each other–Woolf’s “The Novels of E.M.Forster” and Forster’s Rede lecture

on Woolf given after her death–are appropriate examples of the nature of their friendly

criticism, especially since certain parts focus on beauty and Forster states that To the

Lighthouse is his favourite Woolf’s book.3 (“Virginia Woolf” 6)

The main difference between Forster and Woolf lies in their form. Forster

implements modernist thoughts within an old form, Woolf relies on her experimental

one. Naturally, this applies to all of the topics they are concerned with–beauty too.

Commenting on Forster’s approach, Woolf notes: “He sees beauty–none more keenly;

but beauty imprisoned in a fortress of brick and mortar whence he must extricate her.

Hence he is always constrained to build the cage–society in all its intricacy and triviality–

before he can free the prisoner.” (“The Novels of E.M. Forster”) While Forster relies on

creating the mentioned cage, Woolf more often than not writes on more abstract levels.

Hence Forster feels that Woolf has a problem to create life-like characters. (“Virginia

Woolf”) However, using her approach, Woolf manages to take a specific thing, let’s say,

a noteworthy instance of beauty, and show it directly to the reader, free and vivid, without

the constraints of the “cage”.4

Another similarity lies in a sense of artificial and “correct” way to perceive

beauty. Both authors touch upon this problematic in their works. Originally, in Forster’s

3 As the title suggests, Forster’s essay “The Early Novels of Virginia Woolf” looks critically on her early
works. He follows her development as a writer–stretching from her literary beginnings, which Forster
criticises, to her experimental work which he identifies as a step in the right direction. (Forster, E. M..
“The Early Novels of Virginia Woolf”, Abinger Harvest. Penguin, 1967.)
4
Another notable influence that turned Woolf away from the traditional form of writing had been the
negative review of Night and Day written by Katherine Mansfield, with whom Woolf had a rather
strange relationship. Mansfield claims about Night and Day that: “a novel in the tradition of the English
novel. In the midst of our admiration it makes us feel old and chill.” (Mansfield, Katherine. “Review of
Night and Day, Athenaeum”. 21 Nov 1919. taken from Majumdar, Robin and Allen Mc Laurin, editors.
Virginia Woolf: The Critical Heritage. Routlege & Kegan Paul, 1975.) Further reading about the
relationship of Woolf and Mansfield and her critical influence can be found in a biography written by
Hermione Lee. (Lee, Hermione. Virginia Woolf. Vintage, 1997.)

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A Room With a View in the chapter “In Santa Croche with no Baedeker”, the main

character, Lucy, while struggling to find her own voice, is not able to enjoy the beauty of

cathedral without consulting a travel Baedeker. She finds herself in opposition to Mr.

Emerson and his son who are guiding her around, because they do, say and like things

they want, not the things they are supposed to. Only later in the book does Lucy manage

to free herself from the grasps of late-Victorian values and goes about things her way. (A

Room with a View)

This mirrors the character of Mr Bankes in To the Lighthouse, who keeps

mentioning the places he had visited, but in the same, mechanical way, as if reading a

Baedeker. (To the Lighthouse 80) Seen through the eyes of Lily Briscoe this is only one

instance of how she finds men as Mr Bankes stuck in the “society” and unable to go their

own way. Throughout the book, the male characters struggle to perceive beauty the way

female characters can. This whole problematic of seeing things through male and female

point of view will be elaborated on in the third chapter of this thesis.

It is interesting to compare what Forster thinks about Woolf’s form and the way

she perceives it. While characterizing Woolf as a writer, Forster claims: “She is a poet,

who wants to write something as near to a novel as possible.” (“Virginia Woolf”) Yet, in

one of her letters to Vita Sackville-West, Woolf says “I write prose; you poetry. Now

poetry being the simpler, cruder, more elementary of two . . . can’t carry beauty as prose

can. Very little goes to its head. You will say, define beauty–but no: I am going to sleep”.

(A Change of Perspective)5 Poetry is naturally seen as a form that carries beauty, while

prose carries narrative. But it is possible that Woolf found it best to use the experimental

form she had shaped according to her needs to convey the beauty in the way she wanted–

5
The quotation was edited by Maggie Humm, for her article “Beauty and Woolf”. (Humm, Magie.
“Beauty and Woolf”. Feminist Theory. vol. 7. no. 2, 2006, pp.237-254. Sage Journals,
doi.org/10.1177/1464700106064422.)

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proving that modernist writing is quite successful in preserving beauty and not destroying

it.

1.4. Other Influences

Naturally, the influences of other individuals outside of Woolf’s primary circles

need to be considered as well. One such was that of G. E. Moore whose philosophy had

been an early influence on the members of the Bloomsbury Group. According to S. P.

Rosenbaum, Moore is credited with converting Keynes and his friends to “a limited yet

pure religion of love, beauty and truth” in much the same words that Keynes later uses

to characterise The Bloomsbury Group. (48) There is one chapter in his Principia Ethica

that is especially of importance for this thesis, “The Ideal”, that examines the relationship

of beauty and goodness. (Moore 183-225) Other notable influences relevant to this thesis

can be Wordsworth’s and Freud’s works that “associate creativity and culture with a

masculine domain and the female body with matter”. (Humm 238) The differences and

the contrast of the feminine and masculine–especially in relation to beauty and arts–

constitute a notable part of the problematic that Woolf deals with in To the Lighthouse.

Chapter 2: Polymorphous Beauty

The previous chapter of this thesis shows that Woolf’s background deeply

influenced her perception of beauty, helped her create a unique style of writing and

caused a certain ambivalence of feelings when it comes to beauty. This is especially

evident in To the Lighthouse and is going to be explored in the following chapter. To the

Lighthouse turns out to be an ideal work for the analysis of the many shapes that beauty

can have for a number of reasons.

First is the deep autobiographical element of the work as Woolf explores her

relationship with her parents. Through the character of Mrs Ramsay, who evidently

12
represents Julia Stephen, Woolf deals with her mother’s beauty and the reaction to it and

offers the reader an unexpected point of view in which she describes beauty as sometimes

not necessarily a positive quality.

Secondly, through the character of Lily Briscoe, Woolf explores visual arts, its

forms and personal meanings it can carry, and manages to implement there the new

developments of the art form that were happening in her real life. This is contrasted with

literature, presented in this work as a male domain, which is shown in a way from which

the reader feels that the traditional literature is a shallow vessel incapable of conveying

beauty effectively.

The third reason is connected to the nature of the work itself. Instead of heavily

focusing on the narrative, the feelings and thoughts of the characters are being explored

in great depth. Even though this is often the case in Woolf’s novels, the number of

different depictions of beauty presented to the reader in To the Lighthouse–from the

slightest nuances to rapturous outbursts–turn this book into an ideal work to be analysed

in the pursuit of discovering a variety of the possible representations of beauty in Woolf’s

work. It not only effectively proves that modernist writing is a suitable form to carry

beauty, but extends the ways beauty can be perceived and written about.

Due to the abstractness of the meaning of “beauty” and its inescapable

subjectiveness it is rather hard to clearly state what exactly had been explored in terms

of this analysis. It involves things that could stimulate emotional response of the

characters, connected in a way to the aesthetic appreciation–namely physical beauty,

inner qualities and both visual arts and literature. Unfortunately, it has to be admitted that

different opinions on whether something should or should not be included in this analysis

are inescapable. In order to make this analysis as clear as possible, it is best to consider

beauty in a contrasting relation with another element.

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2.1. Beauty and Truth

Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the depiction of beauty in To the

Lighthouse is the fact that it is not necessarily seen as a positive thing. Especially in the

first part of the book, the reader witnesses Lily’s obsessive need to find what is

underneath Mrs Ramsay’s beauty. “One wanted fifty pairs of eyes to see with . . . Among

them, must be the one that was stone blind to her beauty.” (To the Lighthouse 222) It is

also described as a “lure” or a “golden haze”, which hints to its quality that distorts or

completely hides the truth. (To the Lighthouse 109-110) Trying to understand Mrs

Ramsay, Lily asks herself: “Was it . . . the deceptiveness of beauty, so that all one’s

perceptions, half-way to truth, were tangled in a golden mesh?” (To the Lighthouse 57)

Also, when Lily tries to think of Mrs Ramsay, all she can recollect are “beautiful pictures”

and “beautiful phrases” and it seems incredibly empty. (To the Lighthouse 218)

There is a certain sense of frustration that can be felt from Lily’s thoughts on Mrs

Ramsay. It could originate in Woolf’s own feelings towards her mother and beauty in

general. Since Woolf felt inadequate in terms of physical appearance, she perhaps

thought that seeing past the beauty could allow her to connect more with her mother, or

other people for that part. The same goes for Lily Briscoe, who, being in love with Mrs

Ramsay and viewed by others as ugly, desperately tried to find something the two of

them would have in common–something that would make her rise to Mrs Ramsay’s

position more.

Maggie Humm’s article “Beauty and Woolf” presents a number of theories

related to the relationship of beauty and truth that introduce various points of view on

this problematic. According to one of them: “The feminine cannot be beautiful but is

either a ‘masquerade’ or a ‘performance’. . . ‘beautiful women’ are socially constructed

14
emblems of patriarchal society.” (Modleski, Butler) Firstly, this works with a similar idea

as the “golden mesh” does–the idea of beauty being something distracting and untrue.

Second of all, beauty and the way it is perceived is deeply subjective and thus a social

construct–a creation of patriarchal society as Modleski and Butler argue. Therefore Lily,

a person discontented with the patronizing men, tries to look underneath the beauty and

find something more authentic. (To the Lighthouse 221) For her “beauty was not

everything. Beauty had this penalty–it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled

life–froze it.” (To the Lighthouse 199) Lacking the physical beauty and perhaps feeling

abandoned, Lily knew that there is more to people than that. She felt as if though the

immediate effect that beauty has on the beholder is a negative one, because it distracts

the people from the rest that there is to discover–thus giving her less chance to be noticed.

When it comes to the relationship of beauty and truth in writing, it creates a

problem that writer has to face. Woolf acknowledges this struggle on a number of

occasions. One example can be found in her essay on Forster, where she notes that there

is a need to choose between sincerity and sophistication. (“The Novels of E. M. Forster”)

Quite a similar problematic is crucial in writing a biography–a genre very close to Woolf

on account of her father’s work and her own interest in it6. This problem of choosing

between capturing the truth or beauty is especially relevant in fictional, or experimental

biographies, because not only do they aim to capture the truth, but they try to achieve

some literary value as well. A clear example can be seen in Woolf’s fictional biography

Orlando. It is then up to each artist, whether it is better to choose between the two or try

to find a middle ground. Since To the Lighthouse can be considered partly

autobiographical as well, noticing the choices Woolf made regarding these terms is very

6
Leslie Stephen had been the founding editor of The Dictionary of National Biography. Examples of
Woolf’s biographical experiences are Roger Fry: A Biography (1940) or the fictional biographies
Orlando: A Biography (1928) and Flush: A Biography (1933). (“History of the Dictionary of National
Biography”. Oxford UP, 2018.)

15
important. Based on this logic, there should be a conflict in a work that deals with beauty

so closely and yet tries to reflect Woolf’s reality in a way–the way To the Lighthouse did.

However, Woolf had managed to stay in touch with the truth through an observer and a

commentator that the character of Lily Briscoe can be seen as. As it has been mentioned

earlier in this chapter, Lily is not blind to beauty in her pursuit of truth, but she is also

always trying to look past it and reveal more that there is to people.

2.2. Beauty and Mood

Beauty does not only occur in specific instances and people, but can be also

viewed as something even more abstract and general. Due to the nature of To the

Lighthouse beauty is almost omnipresent. In the first part, there is a mention of beauty

on nearly every page of the work which creates a very specific atmosphere. The reason

for this is the character of Mrs Ramsay. “She bore about with her, she could not help

knowing it, the torch of her beauty; she carried it erect into any room that she entered”.

(To the Lighthouse 47) Considering that the first part of the book is heavily focused on

her, there is no wonder that it has this specific feeling about it.

However, this mood changes as the plot of the book moves forward–this is

especially visible when one compares the first part of the work, “The Window”, with the

rest of it. The second part, “Time Passes”, takes place after the death of Mrs Ramsay.

The house is empty, the chapters are short and the atmosphere is rather gloomy. There is

no one to carry “the torch” and there are only very rare instances of beauty. It returns

briefly in the middle of this part with the character of Prue, Mrs Ramsay’s daughter.

Inheriting her mother’s beauty, she could be the one to carry “the torch” next.

Unfortunately, the same chapter that mentions her marriage and beauty also mentions her

death–so the atmosphere remains the same. (To the Lighthouse 148-149) Only in the last

chapter of this part, which also marks the end of the war, does beauty fully return:

16
“Through the open window the voice of the beauty of the world came murmuring . . .”

(To the Lighthouse 161) With the war over and Lily waking up, the second part ends and

beauty is once again present on almost every page.

The influence of mood on beauty can also be considered in a more literal sense.

The reader will surely notice Lily being described by Mrs Ramsay as having Chinese

eyes, puckered-up face and never being able to marry. (To the Lighthouse 20)7 However,

in the last part, the reader can see her becoming beautiful when in a good mood: “Spurred

on by her sense that William’s affection had come back to her . . . her beauty opened

again in her.” (To the Lighthouse 112)

The same sense of beauty being an inner quality, or not necessarily a physical

thing, can be seen in the character of Mrs Ramsay herself. Her beauty has already been

proven on several occasions, but Lily also mentions that she looks old and worn. (To the

Lighthouse 95) There is a mention of her not being “any longer a sight that filled the eyes

with joy” as well. (To the Lighthouse 48) This is quite on the contrary to the typical ideal

of physical beauty and it could hint that Mrs Ramsay’s beauty is some inner quality. It

would explain that it is likened to a torch. Of course, other possible explanations could

be that thanks to the beauty she possessed in her youth, Mrs Ramsay remained associated

with it in her older age and Lily merely states what others do not dare to. However, it is

only one-time observation, but it is an interesting detail in which Woolf adds depth to the

character and shows yet another side of beauty. There is one thing that cannot be helped

though–when the reader tries to imagine the astonishing Mrs Ramsay, she is quite surely

not old and worn out. And even after discovering this, the reader does not lose the belief

7This remark is repeated on a number of occasions. The sense of relationship between Asian looks and
ugliness hints to racist undertones in Mrs Ramsay’s mind. For a contemporary reader it only deepens the
already existing sense of Lily being perceived as an outcast of the society in a way. It also creates a sense
of divide between Mrs Ramsay, as a character that belongs to her Victorian era where these remarks were
more common and socially acceptable and “clever men”, such as Mr Bankes that are already able to see
past such things as a mere physical trait of another race.

17
in her beauty. Once the impression is created and perhaps influenced by others (by the

numerous instances in which others describe her beauty), such information will not alter,

but make the reader realise that there is another, perhaps previously unknown, form of

beauty that the reader can appreciate.

2.3. Rapturous Beauty

Another intriguing contrast can be found between beauty in ordinary things and

“grand beauty”, or beauty as a revelation. At some points in the book, beauty is viewed

and described in a way that greatly elevates it. The reader feels as though it is the one of

the highest human virtues. Example of this is a yet another description of Mrs Ramsay:

“like some queen . . .[she] bowed her head very slightly, as if she accepted what they

could not say: their tribute to her beauty.” (To the Lighthouse 93) Since beauty is a quality

that people are not in control of, this elevation of it seems rather unfair. However, this

could be an outcome of the influence G.E. Moore had on the Bloomsbury Group. As it

had been mentioned in the previous chapter, Moore tried to explore the nature of ethics

and explore how to determine what is good and what is evil (as much as the abstractness

of the topic allowed him). In the last chapter, “The Ideal”, he comes to the conclusion

that the clearest good comes from loving beautiful things. (Principia Ethica § 135) If

beauty and its appreciation are the means by which the clearest good comes about, the

decision to elevate it as one of the highest virtues is suddenly much more understandable.

However, the biggest example of beauty as a revelation can be found in the first

part of the work. It is also quite possibly the strongest outburst of feelings in the whole

book. Charles Tansley is described as most of the male characters in To the Lighthouse–

logical, rather stoic and unable to appreciate beauty. His analysis in the third chapter of

this thesis shows clear examples of his behaviour that create this image. He had been

walking with Mrs Ramsay to the city, the atmosphere had been building up and without

18
realising what is happening, Tansley had been feeling the influence of Mrs Ramsay’s

beauty: “Under the influence of that extraordinary emotion which had been growing all

the walk . . . he had wanted to tell everything about himself, he was coming to see himself

and everything he had ever known gone crooked a little.” (To the Lighthouse 15) What

follows is a rapturous outburst of emotion, during which Tansley realises that Mrs

Ramsay is the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. (To the Lighthouse 16) This short

passage not only leaves a deep mark on the reader, but also causes an undeniable

transformation of character and perception of Charles Tansley, which is going to be

further described in the following sub-chapter.

2.4. Beauty and Language

The alteration that Tansley undergoes is not as much connected to the outburst of

emotions caused by beauty, but to the language. Just before Tansley has his revelation

about Mrs Ramsay’s beauty, there is a feeling that he lacks the language necessary to

understand these things. Mrs Ramsay tries to talk to him about art, but he simply cannot

discuss it for a lack of language: “she meant him to see that that man’s picture was

skimpy, was that what one said? The colours weren’t solid? Was that what one said?”

(To the Lighthouse 15) The emphasis here should be laid on the “was that what one said”,

because it shows that not only is Tansley unable to find a language to describe art, but he

also does not have an opinion of his own, he simply thinks about what is generally said.

Since he was an academic himself, he surely used the “ugly academic jargon” that Mrs

Ramsay could not follow and recalled when she thought of her father. (To the Lighthouse

14) They do not speak the same language. The change that comes after his revelation is

undeniable. He suddenly sees her: “With stars in her eyes and veils in her hair, with

cyclamen and wild violets.” (To the Lighthouse 16). This sentence is repeated once again

at the end of the paragraph, only strengthening the magnificent outburst of feelings. By

19
discovering her beauty, he also gains the language needed to appreciate it. His posture

changes and he notices things he did not notice before and the reader sees a person who

had been described as cold brooding academic, now walking down proudly and thinking

about “the wind and the cyclamen and the violets” and ascribing it to “walking with a

beautiful woman”. (To the Lighthouse 16)

This is not a singular example of language as means of appreciation of beauty and

the distress caused by the lack of it. Similar problem can be found in Woolf’s Orlando.

After the transformation to woman, Orlando begins to feel discontented with the Gypsy

life, because their language lacks the word “beauty”. The nearest description is “how

good to eat” and when she tries to describe the sky this way, Orlando is mocked by the

Gypsies and her need is likened to a “disease”. (Orlando 100) Overcome by the need to

exclaim her appreciation of the beauty surrounding her, she decided to use English, which

only enrages one of the old men who brought her to the Gypsies. “He saw that she did

not believe what he believed, and that was enough, wise and ancient as he was, to enrage

him.” (Orlando 102) The language they had in common had adjusted to the everyday

needs of the wandering people and was not sufficient for Orlando anymore. This need to

use a language that provided the means to appreciate beauty created a breach between

the Gypsies and Orlando, which eventually lead to her departure from them.

These two examples show the already known reality of language–its development

according to the needs of its users. Thus, it is only natural that it brings people together,

or divides them. However, the question remains, whether it is a cause, or an effect of the

change. In To the Lighthouse, there is a sense of language opening up only after the

revelation of beauty, the language comes after the change. Whereas in Orlando, the

change comes only after the different, more suitable language is employed. The answer

to this could also be an answer to the question, whether the language is needed for the

20
appreciation of beauty and its perception, or not. However, this is a matter of philosophy

of language and it is not directly connected to the main goal of this essay–that is proving

that Woolf’s modernist prose certainly does not abandon beauty.

2.5. Beauty and Art

Naturally, in a work that concerns itself with beauty as much as To the Lighthouse

does, art plays an important role as well. There are both visual arts and literature, but

because of the focus on Lily Briscoe, painting is described as the more prominent and

positive one. The real-life developments in visual arts that were happening around Woolf

are reflected in a unique style that Lily uses–one that is very close to the ideas of the Post-

Impressionism. “Mother and child . . . might be reduced, to a purple shadow without

irreverence.” (To the Lighthouse 59) In this lies Lily’s unrecognized brilliance. As the

reader finds out, the whole town is under the influence of Mr Paunceforte when it comes

to painting and perception: “fashionable though it was, since Mr. Paunceforte's visit, to

see everything pale, elegant, semitransparent.” (To the Lighthouse 22) It is hard not to

see this as a description of Impressionism. However, Lily does not see things this way,

her own style is more forward in terms of real life developments in visual arts, but she

will not be able to make her mark upon the world, while Mr Paunceforte is going to be

influential.

The same sense of someone else's success perceived by Lily and her not being

able to ever reach it is in the way she thinks about Mr Carmichael’s literally work. The

way Lily sees Mr Carmichael's writing reveals a lot about the way she thinks other,

“normal” people view beauty and also show the deeply masculine and rigid way in which

literature is described throughout the book. However, this is connected to the different

perceptions of beauty and is going to be further elaborated in the following chapter.

21
Chapter 3: The Perception of Beauty

After the analysis of the instances of beauty in To the Lighthouse, there is a second

important approach that needs to be employed; that is not focusing on the specific

representations, but on the characters and the way the perception of beauty varies from

person to person. This approach reveals a problem that has been already outlined in the

previous chapters–the undeniable strong contrast of male and female perception.

There is a persistent sense of misunderstanding and irritation that originates in the

differences in the perception of the characters. It is interesting to observe how they deal

with these situations and generally experience them. Woolf’s form allows the reader to

explore this problematic directly inside the minds of the characters and this way perhaps

understand their motivations and mental processes better. Considering Woolf’s parents

and their reflection in Mr and Mrs Ramsay, Hermione Lee has characterized Woolf’s

writing in To the Lighthouse as an attempt to “think through them”. (80) This approach

makes the minds of the characters more accessible and easier to emphasise with. At least

a partial emphasis is very important, while, in order to understand their perception, it is

important to understand the characters themselves.

Furthermore, this chapter is going to explore whether the difference in perception

of beauty is caused by gender, occupation, age, value system or some completely

different factor. It is important to realise that most of the information about the characters

does not come from the specific actions of the characters, but from the thoughts of other

people. That is why they are strongly subjective and often reveal more about the person

thinking these thoughts, then about the characters who are their focus. The final image

of the individual characters can be then considered a collection of accounts and small

instances that is completed only when every point of view is taken into account. There is

a problem that comes with this approach though. For instance, most of the information

22
about the male characters comes from the observations of Mrs Ramsay and Lily Briscoe.

This could be the cause of the pressing feeling of misunderstanding and inequality

between the sexes. Or perhaps Woolf intended to give space to the unheard, knowing that

the reader could easily fill in the general, or traditional, point of view from their own

experience. According to Emery, Woolf “reverses the hierarchical opposition of

masculine/feminine . . . by removing the masculine ‘sphere’ of activity from the novel.”

(219)

Since the subject of this thesis is so abstract and prone to subjectivity, it turns out

to be effective to set out some sort of standard point which would be default in any

comparisons that would be done. In this case it would be a person to whom others could

be compared, so that their thinking and actions can be contrasted and perhaps understood

better. As it had been previously mentioned, the traits that should be taken into account

are sex, age and occupation. Based on this, the general mind-set of the early twentieth

century and of the work itself, the ideal point would be an old (i.e. mature) male

academic. Upon establishing this point, it is going to be considerably easier to understand

the tension and compare the perception of the characters.

3.1. Mr Ramsay

Despite the fact that the uniting force of To the Lighthouse is Mrs Ramsay, the

ideal traits that have been specified are all present in Mr Ramsay. That is why it is

important to recreate his character through his actions and the way others perceive him.

First of all, Mrs Ramsay’s thought that “all of these young men parodied her

husband” supports the claim that he is this sort of standard character to whom others

should be compared. (To the Lighthouse 18) Based on this statement right at the

beginning of the book, the reader’s perception of all the other adult male characters is

influenced. It eventually proves to be true in case of Charles Tansley, in part due to his

23
youth. On the other hand, despite sharing similar traits, William Bankes turns out to be a

more complex character that extends beyond the shadow of Mr Ramsay.

Most of the valuable observations on Mr Ramsay come naturally from Mrs

Ramsay, as a person who knows him the best. They already seem to reveal some of the

crucial differences. Perhaps the most fitting one to describe his perception is:

. . . he seemed to her sometimes made differently from other people, born blind,

deaf, and dumb, to the ordinary things, but to the extraordinary things, with an

eye like an eagle’s. His understanding often astonished her. But did he notice the

flowers? No. Did he notice the view? No. Did he even notice his own daughter’s

beauty . . . (To the Lighthouse 78)

This exactly seems to be the case with the academic male characters of the book and the

main problem the female characters have with them. While they tend to notice the

extraordinary things, they remain blind to beauty of the ordinary. It also reveals the

priorities of Mrs Ramsay. She considers seeing beauty as something natural and

fundamental. This would indicate that the ability to perceive beauty is a sort of first

necessary step in understanding the world. However, from the sense that the reader gets,

beauty and knowledge can be seen as two mutually exclusive things.

Another link to seeing knowledge in relationship with perception can be found in

Jem Poster’s essay on To the Lighthouse. In her study of Woolf’s focus on simultaneity

in writing, Poster argues that: “The limitations of Mr Ramsay’s ‘splendid mind’ are only

in part a matter of his failure to reach the dimly perceived goal of his intellectual

pilgrimage; he is more fundamentally inhibited by the nature of the vision itself, by his

own serial conception of progress.” (210) Woolf’s later work, such as To the Lighthouse,

clearly strays from the traditional serial conception that is mentioned in relation to Mr

Ramsay. Through her specific form, the variety of points of view and different perception

24
of the characters that she is offering to the reader, she manages to get closer to the ultimate

understanding, the way Mr Ramsay is not able to.

The mutual exclusiveness of beauty and knowledge can be also seen in Mr

Ramsay’s own way of thinking. While looking at Mrs Ramsay reading a book, he

wonders: “. . . if she understood what she was reading. Probably not, he thought. She was

astonishingly beautiful.” (To the Lighthouse 134) This reveals two things. Firstly, since

Woolf uses the stream of consciousness, Mr Ramsay’s associations in his mind can be

easily followed–the thought of her inability to understand what she is reading is followed

directly by the mention of her beauty. As if one was the cause of the other.

Secondly, the previous quote is a proof that Mr Ramsay is able to perceive some

form of beauty. However, certainly not on the level of Mrs Ramsay, since she is not

satisfied and personally feels the difference. Nonetheless, when considering his worldly

academic accomplishments, Mr Ramsay asks himself: “who will blame him if he does

homage to the beauty of the world?” (To the Lighthouse 41) So it is not really about not

being able to perceive beauty, but about his choice not to. There is actually a sense of

conflict in him regarding this. The origin of this struggle could possibly lie in his

academic self–that he disregards beauty as a weakness, a distraction from what is

important. This explains his lack of a relation to art. Mr Ramsay believes that “arts are

merely a decoration imposed on the top of the human life; they do not express it.” (To

the Lighthouse 49) This point of view is understandable, because, for an academic who

devotes his life to exploring and understanding the world, art can surely be a distracting

element–especially if it is considered this way. This could be a view shared by the other

academic male characters of the book.

Mr Ramsay’s deviation–being accused of blindness towards the beauty of the

world, but still being appreciative of his wife's beauty–is a reflection of the attitude of

25
Leslie Stephen. As Maggie Humm claims: “While Sir Leslie Stephen may have been

condemned by his daughter for his lack of understanding of aesthetic beauty, he was

clearly well aware of his second wife's physical beauty.” (120) Considering his attitudes

and approaches towards art that had been already revealed in the first chapter of this

thesis, the perception of beauty of Mr Ramsay becomes clearer and more understandable.

Since Mr Ramsay can be viewed as the standard character, to which others can

be contrasted, it is not a surprise that, when it comes to beauty, the deviation occurs in

case of the other male characters of the work as well. As it had already been discussed,

Tansley has his big revelation on the walk with Mrs Ramsay and Bankes has his will to

understand art. However, it remains important that the perception of beauty that they all

share is inadequate in the eyes of Mrs Ramsay and Lily Briscoe and that their stance

towards art (or some form of it) is not presented as entirely positive.

3.2. Mrs Ramsay

The criticism of Mr Ramsay used in the previous sub-chapter already illustrates

what kind of attitude should be expected from Mrs Ramsay towards the perception of

beauty. This stance does not extend only to her husband, but to a number of male figures,

which shows that it is not a problem she would have with one person, but more of a

general issue.

Same as with Woolf, the influences on Mrs Ramsay’s perception can be traced to

her parents. It is striking how vague the description of her father is: “he worked hard . . .

his subject was now the influence of something upon somebody . . . She could not follow

the ugly academic jargon.” (To the Lighthouse 14) The problematic of language in

relation to the perception of beauty, which can be seen here again, has already been

discussed in the previous chapter. However, obvious is the lack of information that Mrs

Ramsay chooses to provide about the subject of her father’s study. It does not necessarily

26
have to mean that she does not care–it simply points to a different set of values.

Academics would probably have the same problem as she has with Mr Ramsay–they

would wonder how she can be so blind to something as important as her father’s work.

A more perceptible sense of conflict can be found in some instances in relation to

men. It is not necessarily based on any given actions, but more dependent on the mood.

Surrounded by Tansley and Bankes, Mrs Ramsay at one point cannot help but feel

“hostility, the sterility of men.” (To the Lighthouse 95) The problem of sterility should

not be considered in the literal sense, of course, but as a feeling that they are unable to

produce something that would be of value in Mrs Ramsay’s view–a sufficient aesthetic

appreciation for instance.

However, her feelings towards men in relation to this are never as strong as Lily’s.

She does not need to fight them or oppose them. In fact, Mrs Ramsay “pitied men always

as if they lacked something–women never, as if they had something.” (To the Lighthouse

96) This thought arose during a conversation when Mr Bankes claimed that “one scarcely

gets anything worth having by post.” (To the Lighthouse 96) It results in Mrs Ramsay

thinking that “men say that sort of thing” and men’s opinion that “women made

civilisation impossible with all their 'charm', all their silliness.” (To the Lighthouse 97)

This scene and the mental reactions to it only strengthen the sense of duality of values

and perceptions. They reveal the sort of emptiness that both genders feel in the actions

of the other sex and a sense of annoyance that comes with it.

Yet, it is important to keep in mind that these thoughts, as it had been already

mentioned, are very susceptible to mood. Mrs Ramsay is generally portrayed as a prudent

character and this sense of different perception should not be seen as something that

would make her completely disregard men. For instance, when she looks at Lily, she

thinks: “There was in Lily a thread of something . . . that Mrs Ramsay liked very much

27
indeed, but no man would, she feared . . . unless it were a much older man, like William

Bankes.” (To the Lighthouse 115) Thus, she admits that men are capable of perceiving

beauty under some circumstances. As it has been already shown with Mr Ramsay, he is

blind to the beauty of ordinary things, but not to Mrs Ramsay’s. Bankes could be seen

the same way. Blind to the beauty in general, but able to see it in a certain person under

the weight of affection and wisdom that comes with age, which is a part of the ideal

character.

Mrs Ramsay, as a character, strays from “the ideal” that had been established

primarily because of her sex. However, there are differences to be seen between her and

Lily Briscoe. First of all, Mrs Ramsay does not really fit into either the academic, or the

artist category. Nevertheless, if one had to be chosen for the purpose of staying true to

the theory, it would be the artistic one, considering the fact that Mrs Ramsay is based on

Julia Stephen.8 Another thing to keep in mind is the virtual inability of women to openly

pursue an academic career in the Victorian England.

Secondly, the main difference between Lily Briscoe and Mrs Ramsay is the age.

Mrs Ramsay has already managed to gain the wisdom and maturity that comes with older

age. This explains that, despite having the same feelings as Lily in terms of frustration

from men’s inability to perceive beauty adequately, Mrs Ramsay remains reserved and

perhaps more tolerant. Lily, as the following sub-chapter is going to show, struggles

considerably more.

3.3. Lily Briscoe

Since To the Lighthouse is focused heavily on her thoughts, her struggles and

opinions, Lily Briscoe’s insights and feelings are very influential in terms of shaping the

8
Julia Stephen is known for her artistic relationship with the members of the Pre-Raphaelite movement;
she had often posed for them. These occasions had to be a source of an artistic influence. (Reid, Panthea.
Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf. Oxford UP, 1996.)

28
way the other characters are perceived. She seems to be in a constant mental conflict with

the world around her. The reason for it is that she is as far from the “ideal” character that

had been proposed as possible. The sense of struggle and insecurity are all results of her

traits–each contributing in its own way.

There is a number of differences between Lily and Mrs Ramsay. The first has

already been proposed and lies in Lily’s youth. The difference in age and the composure

that comes with it is evident in the way they deal with problematic situations. Although

they share the same struggle, it seems that Lily is much more influenced by the opinions

of others and spends more time thinking about it. It is possible, though, that this could be

in part caused by how much space do Lily’s thoughts get. After all, the third part of the

book is almost entirely focused on her. However, it needs to be kept in mind that Lily is

already forty-four in the third part of the book. (To the Lighthouse 170) The major

difference lies elsewhere then.

More surprisingly though, despite that they are both women, there is a

considerable difference in the way Mrs Ramsay and Lily view themselves in terms of

gender. When it comes to Lily, there is an undeniable sense in her of feeling not feminine

enough. While overcome with the necessity to connect to people more, Lily thought: “A

woman, she should have known how to deal with it. It was immensely to her discredit,

sexually, to stand there dumb.” (To the Lighthouse 173) This sense of inadequacy could

originate in Lily’s general “strangeness”. She is a young, artistic, non-heterosexual

woman–as far away from something “socially welcomed” as possible. But the more

probable cause lies in her low self-esteem and the presence of Mrs Ramsay. Lily is

constantly surrounded by people admiring Mrs Ramsay for her beauty. The way Lily

perceives it had been already discussed in the previous chapter. Becoming someone like

Mrs Ramsay is practically unachievable for Lily and it is one of the causes of the

29
frustration. Yet, Lily is not as inadequate as she feels. She is simply a completely different

person.

Despite viewing themselves differently, Lily and Mrs Ramsay are both women

and share the same struggle. It is even more evident with Lily, since she is an active artist

and manages to express herself that way. When it comes to art, she is, in fact, the

instrument of change. Her different perception enables her to create modern and

progressive art, but is also unfortunately another reason why she struggles. The different

way she sees things can be best seen when compared to Mr Pauncefort and Mr

Carmichael.

The issue of Mr Paunceforte and the creative differences between him and Lily

had already been discussed in this thesis. Despite it’s being “fashionable”, Lily chooses

not to use the same style as he does, yet she gives in to her own perception.

She could have done it differently of course; the colour would have been thinned

and faded; the shapes etherealised; that was how Paunceforte would have seen it.

But then she did not see it like that. She saw the colour burning on a framework

of steel . . . (To the Lighthouse 54)

This shows a great promise, especially now, when it is clear that Lily’s painting

resembles the works of avantgarde art movements.

The connection between Lily and Post-Impressionists has already been

established by other scholars. For instance, Proudfit draws parallels between Roger Fry

and Lily in terms of “having a vision” and also argues that Lily’s picture is “thematically

and structurally integral to the novel and . . . demands close scrutiny.” (27) Naturally so,

since art can be viewed as the ultimate form of expressing one’s inner self.

However, Lily’s creativity seems to be tainted by the ghost of Charles Tansley.

Even when lost in thought while painting, his words are forever connected with it: “And

30
it would never be seen; never be hung even, and there was Mr Tansley whispering in her

ear: ‘Women can’t paint, women can’t write . . .’” (To the Lighthouse 55) It shows

something that every woman that did not fit the social expectations of that period had to

face. Even though, in terms of such a negative experience, Tansley is a singular case in

the novel, he in a way reflects the status quo of that period, and many before it, that

women like Virginia Woolf were trying to overturn. Speaking about this specific moment

in To the Lighthouse, Margaret Atwood, knowing this struggle very well as a woman

writer, notes: “I didn't realise what weight such pronouncements could have, even when

uttered by fools, because of the many centuries of heavily respectable authority that lay

behind them.”

Quite an interesting revelation comes with Mr Carmichael. He is only a marginal

character and the reader does not have a chance to learn a lot about him. It is known

though that he became famous because of his literary work.

People said that his poetry was ‘so beautiful’ . . . She never read a line of his

poetry. She thought she knew how it went though, slowly and sonorously. It was

season and mellow. It was about the desert and the camel . . . It was extremely

impersonal; it said something about death; it said very little about love. (To the

Lighthouse 219)

This passage containing Lily’s thoughts on Carmichael’s poetry reveals a lot about the

way she thinks about other people’s perception. Since she has never read it, it illustrates

what she imagines as something that is generally considered beautiful. The reader gets

the sense that she can say more in a single shape on canvas that Mr Carmichael can in a

whole poetry book. It strengthens the feeling of male detachment and sterility that can be

felt. Yet, his work was popular, while Lily’s works would probably never be.

31
 It is very interesting to see Lily employ the things she considers to be “generally

beautiful” in order to get closer to other characters. There is a recurring detail that is, in

a way, yet another representation of a different male perception. At the beginning of the

book, Mr Bankes walks up to Lily Briscoe painting and instead on focusing on the work

of art, he focuses on her shoes: “Her shoes were excellent . . . They allowed the toes their

natural expansion.” (To the Lighthouse 22) This detail returns much later in the story. Mr

Ramsay is feeling quite distressed and Lily feels that some emotional support from her

side is expected. Her reaction reflects her attempt to get close to Mr Ramsay, in a way

that she perhaps subconsciously finds to be the most suitable. “What beautiful boots! . .

. she was ashamed of herself. To praise his boots when he asked her to solace his soul.”

(To the Lighthouse 173) Once again, Lily feels that she has failed because of her inability

to act properly. However, this immediate response is very revealing. It adds to the

examples of associations that the characters have about the others in terms of different

perception.

Even though all hints would suggest that the main difference between Lily and

Mrs Ramsay lies in her youth, the fact that she does not really change in the second part

of the book shows that her age is not as crucial as it was expected. Once again, the issue

comes down to perception. Her struggle lies in the fact that she is trying to fit in with

people who are still bound by the late-Victorian values and what is worse, she is quite

possibly judging herself according to these standards. Yet, it is undeniable that unlike the

other characters analysed, Lily is already a modern person–as is reflected in her art.

3.4. Charles Tansley

When Mrs Ramsay mentions young men being a parody of her husband, it is

triggered by Charles Tansley telling James that there is no going to the lighthouse due to

a bad weather. (To the Lighthouse 17) It is undoubtedly because of men like him that this

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remark is needed. Tansley is an aspiring male academic who looks up to Mr Ramsay. (To

the Lighthouse 9) But he follows his idol perhaps too blindly. Though it may be

unwillingly and unconsciously, he is nonetheless this presence which, in case of Mrs

Ramsay, is tolerated, or struggled against–in case of Lily. Intelligent as he may be, he

lacks the wisdom that comes with old age and his actions reflect it.

The most obvious trait is that he had not been able to define himself yet–he simply

does what is expected. It is already shown in the way he says there is no going to the

lighthouse. Another example is the mention that “he would go to picture galleries . . . and

he would ask . . . did one like his tie . . . God knows . . . one did not.” (To the Lighthouse

10) This shows that not only he was completely resistant and missing the point of the art,

he is also focused on mundane things and too inward looking. Not to mention that his

sense of style is probably insufficient as well.

Tansley’s personal stance and his most crucial trait because of which he does

what he is expected to by the society is connected to visual arts as well. It occurs only

much later in the book, when Tansley himself is presented in the thoughts of other

characters. Many years have passed, but his influence on Lily Briscoe is still present:

“. . . how could he love his kind who did not know one picture from another . . . making

it his business to tell her women can’t, women can’t paint, not so much that he believed

it, as that for some odd reason he wished it?” (To the Lighthouse 221) It not only reveals

Lily’s own values, but also Tansley’s stance towards women. However, intriguing is the

note about not believing it, but wishing it. Perhaps this is just another attitude that Tansley

has because he is supposed to. Another possible explanation could be, that he also feels

threatened. It would not be surprising of a man relying so much on his own position in

the world, to feel threatened by women who were more increasingly “demanding his

exclusive rights”.

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 Of course, Tansley is not an exception to the previously mentioned deviation in

behaviour. His rapturous revelatory episode with Mrs Ramsay has already been the centre

of the previous sub-chapter about beauty and language. It shows that he is also able to

experience beauty, in a way, but, nevertheless, he is his own enemy. The reader could

hope that he would be considerably altered after that episode, but Lily’s thoughts

connected to him do not change even after many years. Naturally, there are and always

will be differences, but they can be overcome–as it is going to be shown on the case of

William Bankes. It is simply a shame that in his pursuit in becoming someone like Mr

Ramsay, Tansley forgets to be himself.

3.5. William Bankes

William Bankes offers a number of interesting perspectives to the debate of male

perception of beauty in To the Lighthouse. He had already been mentioned in a number

of examples in the previous sub-chapters. What makes him such an important part of this

analysis is that at some points he does not follow the expected behaviour and actually

notices beauty. He is also not quite the academic as Mr Ramsay or Tansley are, yet his

attempts to understand visual art are quite detached–as it is the case with the male

characters of this work.

The recurring qualities of male perception are naturally present in William

Bankes, but are overcome by his unexpected moments of insight. Example of the

traditional male behaviour could be seen in his ability to walk down the street, look at

flowers, talk about architecture, but switch to mundane things quickly–as if it was one

subject. (To the Lighthouse 198) He also has this typically masculine reaction when upon

seeing a hole in Minta’s stocking he thinks it to be an “annihilation of womanhood” and

the reader sees all his values crumbling apart. (To the Lighthouse 194)

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 But on the other hand, he has these moments of insights that are quite surprising.

Not only did Mrs Ramsay believe that he could see Lily’s beauty, but he is also able to

see past the beauty of Mrs Ramsay. Looking at her, he thinks that one “must remember

the quivering thing, the living thing . . . and work it into the picture.” (To the Lighthouse

34) It almost seems as if though his perception of beauty has been opposite the expected

one. The answer to where this could come from lies in his approach to Lily Briscoe.

It is exactly his attempt to understand Lily’s work that reveals so much about

William Bankes. At one point, he walks up to Lily and starts asking questions about her

work. It has to be understood that those are not prying questions with negative intentions,

but truly honest inquiries in order to comprehend it better. “He considered. He was

interested. He took it scientifically in a complete good faith.” (To the Lighthouse 59) The

word scientifically is key here. Despite the leaning Bankes has to art, he cannot help but

approach visual art in this academic way. Of course, this definitely has to stand in a way

of the true understanding and it turns out to be a problem. This attempt to understand the

art the way he understands science can be seen even in the way Bankes formulates his

questions: “Mr Bankes tapped the canvas . . . what did she wish to indicate by the

triangular purple shape, ‘just there’? He asked. It was Mrs Ramsay reading to James, she

said.” (To the Lighthouse 58) Naturally, it is hard to explain that there does not

necessarily have to be any “wish to indicate”. This is another example of the difference

in the scientific and artistic perception. Yet, this difference between Lily and Bankes is

not as oppressive as other differences are and does not end in a bad way.

The tables actually turn at one point and Bankes accuses Lily of not admiring the

beauty of mother and son. It is linked to her focus on form, rather than the substance.

However, Lily patiently explains the process of painting to him and apparently, “thanks

to his scientific mind”, he understands and convinces her that “one could talk of painting

35
then seriously to a man”. (To the Lighthouse 197-198) This shows that, despite initial

differences in perception that probably cannot be suppressed, in an attempt to understand,

the differences can be overcome.

The aim of this chapter has been to analyse the characters of To the Lighthouse

with emphasis on their perception. Even though the setting out of an “ideal” which was

then compared with others has proven helpful in terms of making the analysis more

comprehensive, deviations that kept occurring had shown that something as complex as

a human being cannot be reduced to a set of simple variables. However, this only

illustrates the depth of the characters. The reader has this sense of close understanding

due to the insights into the characters’ minds which are so characteristic of Woolf’s later

work. Spending so much time seeing the world through their eyes and being offered a

number of perspectives on the same problematic certainly opens the mind of the reader

and brings him closer to understanding. All of this is possible because of Woolf’s form

and her choice not to follow the traditional narrative structure.

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Conclusion

The goal of this thesis was to show that modernist writing, in this case represented

by Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, does not aim to kill or in any way suppress

beauty. Moreover, the experimental forms of writing used by Woolf only extend the

variety of ways from which beauty can be examined and presented to the readers.

The first chapter focused on exploring a number of factors that were influential

on the development of Woolf’s perception of beauty. Her family background, especially

her parents, had been identified as a source of deepest and primary influence, resulting

in a need to stress the difference between the perception of the genders and a certain

ambiguity in Woolf’s relationship towards beauty.

The Bloomsbury Group proved itself to be an important factor in Woolf’s artistic

life. Influenced by such personas as Roger Fry and Clive Bell and their artistic

contribution in terms of introducing the Post-Impressionism to Britain and exploring new

art forms, she had managed to create her own experimental and unique form of writing

that allowed her to express abstract ideas in a variety of new ways.

E. M. Forster and his critical notes on Woolf’s work had been used as an example

of the way Woolf’s art and form had been perceived by her contemporaries and the way

she responded to others. Their mutual criticism also highlights different values they had

in terms of their work and explains certain choices that Woolf had made in the process

of writing.

The second and third chapter are both analysis of Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. The

focus of the second chapter are the specific instances of beauty in the work. It examined

them in a contrasting relationship with other elements, focusing on the examples of its

depiction through the experimental form. This chapter aimed to show that beauty can be

portrayed in a variety of, sometimes unexpected and new, ways.

37
 The analysis in the third chapter of this thesis focused on the major characters of

To the Lighthouse and the way their perception of beauty is influenced by the given

factors–age, gender and occupation. Due to this approach, Mr Ramsay had been chosen

as an “ideal character” since he possesses the traits that were important based on the late-

Victorian values–he is elderly (wise), male and an academic. The other characters, their

views and actions, were then compared to this ideal. Despite the initial expectations that

the greatest difference in perception would be caused by gender, the analysis showed that

it is the age and the wisdom that comes with it that alter the characters the most. Another

very important factor connected to the perception of beauty is the system of values of

each character. Most importantly though, it has shown that such deeply developed

characters as Woolf had created cannot be simply reduced to a set of variables and

compared based on them. Naturally, there are differences that have a common traceable

origin, but they can all be overcome in an effort to understand each other and to become

open-minded.

These two analytical approaches to To the Lighthouse had shown that Woolf is

able to preserve beauty in her works. Furthermore, the experimental form she is using

and the focus on the thoughts and emotions of the characters allow her to present beauty

in a variety of ways. In Woolf’s work, beauty is not bound to the physical and shaped by

the social expectations, but can take its own course, appear everywhere and in everything,

unexpectedly, as a tiny flicker of the light or as a rapturous revelation and anything in

between.

38
 Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. “The Indelible Woman”. The Guardian, 7 Sep. 2002,

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/07/classics.margaretatwood

Bell, Clive. Art. Oxford UP, 1989.

Bell, Quentin. Virginia Woolf: A Biography. Hogarth Press, 1972.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge,

1990.

Emery, Mary Lou. “‘Robbed of Meaning’: The Work at the Centre of To the

Lighthouse.’” Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 38, no. 1, 1992, pp. 217–234.

JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26284324.

Forster, E.M.. A Room with a View. Penguin, 2012.

---.“The Early Novels of Virginia Woolf”, Abinger Harvest. Penguin, 1967.)

---. Virginia Woolf, The Rede Lecture. Cambridge UP. 1942.

Goldman, Mark. “Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster: A Critical Dialogue.” Texas

Studies in Literature and Language, vol. 7, no. 4, 1966, pp. 387–400. JSTOR,

JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40753877.

“History of the Dictionary of National Biography”. Oxford UP, 2018.

http://www.oxforddnb.com/page/history-of-the-dictionary-of-national-

biography/history-of-the-dictionary-of-national-biography-

Hodgkinson, William. “Culture quake: the Post Impressionist exhibition, 1910”. British

Library. www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/culture-quake-the-post-

impressionist-exhibition-1910 25. May 2016.

Humm, Magie. “Beauty and Woolf”. Feminist Theory. vol. 7. no. 2, 2006, pp.237-254.

Sage Journals, doi.org/10.1177/1464700106064422.

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Keynes, John Maynard. Two Memoirs. Rupert Hart-Davis, 1949.

Kingham, Michaela. “Gesamtkunstwerk as an aesthetic pre-occupation in the novels of

Virginia Woolf”. Dissertation. U of London. 2002.

Lee, Hermione. Virginia Woolf. Vintage, 1997.

Majumdar, Robin and Allen Mc Laurin, editors. Virginia Woolf: The Critical Heritage.

Routlege & Kegan Paul, 1975.

Modleski, Tania. Feminism Without Women: Culture and Criticism in a ‘Postfeminist’

Age. Routledge, 1991.

Moore, G.E.. Principia Ethica. Cambridge UP, 1962.

Nicolson, Benedict. “Post-Impressionism and Roger Fry.” The Burlington Magazine,

vol. 93, no. 574, 1951, pp. 11–15. JSTOR, JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/870622.

Poster, Jem. “A Combination of Interest: Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse.” Critical

Survey, vol. 8, no. 2, 1996, pp. 210–215. JSTOR, JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/41556001.

Proudfit, Sharon Wood. “Lily Briscoe's Painting: A Key to Personal Relationships in

‘To the Lighthouse.’” Criticism, vol. 13, no. 1, 1971, pp. 26–38. JSTOR,

JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23098980.

Reed, Christopher. “Through Formalism: Feminism and Virginia Woolf's Relation to

Bloomsbury Aesthetics.” Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 38, no. 1, 1992, pp.

20–43. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/441540.

Reid, Panthea. Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf. Oxford UP, 1996.

Rosenbaum, S.P., editor. The Bloomsbury Group. Croom Helm, 1975.

Steiner, Wendy. Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth Century Art. Free

Press, 2001.

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Tate. “Formalism”. Tate Gallery. www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/formalism.

Woolf, Leonard. Beginning Again. Hogarth Press, 1960. pp. 21-26.

---. Sowing. Hogarth Press, 1960. pp. 182-183.

Woolf, Virginia. A Change of Perspective: Collected Letters 3 1923–28, editors N.

Nicolson and J. Trautmann Banks. The Hogarth Press, 1994.

---. Leave the Letters Till We’re Dead: the Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume 6 1936–

41, ed. N. Nicolson and J. Trautmann Banks. The Hogarth Press, 1980.

---. Moments of Being. Edited by Jeanne Schulkind. Mariner Books, 1985.

---. “The Novels of E.M.Forster”. The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. The

Hogarth Press, 1943.

---. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. 6 vols. editors N. Nicolson and J. Trautman. The

Hogarth Press, 1975-1980.

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Summary

The bachelor’s thesis “Conceptions of Beauty in Virginia Woolf’s To the

Lighthouse” explores various representations of beauty in Woolf’s work. It is inspired by

Wendy Steiner’s Venus in Exile which raises possible problems of modernist writing in

depicting beauty. The aim of this thesis was to prove that using the experimental form in

her later works, Woolf had managed to portray beauty more thoughtfully and in a variety

of unexpected ways and had not, in any way, abandoned it. In order to understand

Woolf’s own perception, her style of writing and other artistic choices, a number of

notable influences is identified in the first chapter. Among these are her family, members

of the early Bloomsbury Group and E. M. Forster. The remainder of this thesis deals with

an analysis of the primary source, Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. This work had been

selected as a relevant primary source due to its partly autobiographical character and the

notable role of visual arts in it. The second chapter explores various representations of

beauty in a relationship with other contrasting element, such as truth or language. The

analysis of the third chapter focuses on the characters of the novel, exploring their

perception of beauty and the way it is influenced by a number of set variables. To ensure

that this analysis as clear as possible an “ideal” character had been chosen, who is then

compared to others. There is an emphasis on the interaction of the characters, their

differences and the responses based on them. The goal of both of these analyses is to

illustrate the freedom of expression that Woolf’s experimental form offers and the

numerous ways in which she had managed to portray beauty in To the Lighthouse.

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Resumé (Czech)

Bakalářská práce „Koncepce krásy v díle K majáku od Virginie Woolfové“ se

zabývá různými reprezentacemi krásy v tvorbě této autorky. Je inspirována studií Wendy

Steinerové s názvem „Venus in Exile“, která upozorňuje na možné problémy

modernismu s vyobrazováním krásy. Cílem této práce je dokázat, že Woolfová koncept

krásy rozhodně neopustila, jen jej uchopila jinak a pomocí její experimentální formy pak

byla schopna krásu vyjádřit novými, neortodoxními a nečekanými způsoby. První

kapitola se zabývá důležitými faktory, které ovlivnily Woolfové vlastní estetický cit, styl

psaní a způsoby vyjádření. Mezi takové vlivy se řadí její rodina, členové rané

Bloomsbury Group a E. M. Forster. Dále obsahuje analýzu mého primárního zdroje,

novely Virginie Woolfové „K majáku“. Zmiňovaný titul byl vybrán na základě své

částečně autobiografické povahy a důležité role, kterou v ní představuje vizuální umění.

Druhá kapitola zkoumá různé reprezentace krásy v porovnání s jinými elementy, jakými

jsou ku příkladu pravda nebo jazyk. Analýza v třetí kapitole se soustředí na jednotlivé

postavy příběhu a zkoumá jejich vnímání krásy, a to, jak se mění v závislosti na řadě

proměnných. Aby se zajistila co nejjasnější analýza, vytyčil se z nejtypičtějších rysů

jednotlivých hrdinů „ideál“, se kterým jsou pak jeden po druhém srovnáváni. Důraz se

klade na mezilidskou interakci, rozdíly v přístupech k ní a reakce na těchto

konceptuálních rozdílech založené. Účelem obou analýz je ilustrovat svobodu projevu a

širokou paletu ilustračních prostředků krásy, kterou Woolfové nabízí její experimentální

forma.

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