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Talal Saleh Dheyab

Assist. Prof. Siham Hattab Hammdan, PhD

British Novel

3rd Oct. 2023

Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse:

A Short Critical Study

As if to be caught happy in a world of misery was for an honest

man the most despicable of crimes.

—Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse (1927) is a modernist novel by Virginia Woolf

(1882-1941). It reflects traumatic events from 1910 to 1920. In this
decade, the world witnessed many changes as a direct result of the Great
War that lasted from 1914 to 1918. The ideal had fallen, loss of
spirituality, skepticism, moral decay, psychological trauma, etc.
Moreover, the novelist faced trauma during her life, which was an
essential reason behind her desire to write such unique complex novels.
Among these traumas, her half-brothers sexually molested her when she
was a child. Her mother died in 1895, while her father died in 1904.
These caused nervous breakdowns and mental struggles throughout her
life. Therefore, Woolf ended her life in 1941 (Panken 227).
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Thus, Woolf’s works represent a psychological penetration of the

characters. She was one of the earlier novelists who used stream of
consciousness to develop her characters and present a panoramic view of
her literary works. She had spared no effort to use new techniques that
deal with the psyche of the characters, such as interior monologues,
epiphany which is a sudden realization of self, and stasis which is a
moment of joy. To cater to this, Woolf divides To the Lighthouse into
three sections, including “The Window”, “Time Passes”, and “The
Lighthouse”. Section one takes place before the First World War. The
second one is short and sets when war breaks out across Europe. The
third segment deals with events after the war. The actions in these
sections are presented through multiple voices and points of view. In
other words, the character is portrayed in different voices and stream of
consciousness fragmentations, which was something new at that time. For
example, the reader can see Mr. Ramsey from the point of view of his
wife, children, and Lily. With this, the reader will understand any person
in the novel.

To the Lighthouse tells the story of the Ramsay family and a few
friends who spend a day at their vacation home. They talk about going to
the lighthouse, but they do not do it. Ten years passed, they do go to the
lighthouse. Then, the novel ends here. Although there are not much
events, there are a lot to talk about because it is a modernist novel. First,
the novel introduces Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay, who had eight
children; Andrew, Prue, Jasper, Roger, Nancy, Rose, Cam, and James.
Mr. Ramsay could be tyrannical in his moods. Unlike his wife, he does
not typically notice the wants and needs of people around him. He is a
typical reflection of the patriarchal society during that period. Mrs.
Ramsay is a traditional woman who knows her role in life as a woman.
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She opens the novel with “yes” which could be a positive impression, as
indicated “Yes, of course, if it's fine to-morrow” (Woolf 1). Moreover,
she is described as the following:

There was nobody whom she reverenced as she reverenced

him. She was quite ready to take his word for it, she said. Only
then they need not cut sandwiches- that was all. They came to
her naturally, since she was a woman, all day long with this and
that; She often felt she was nothing but a sponge sopped full of
human emotions. (202)

Another main character, Lily Briscoe, is an unstable character and

a chained artist. Along with the journey to the lighthouse, she wants to
finish the painting of Mrs. Ramsay and James. She is in conflict between
her personal and artistic choices. She concludes that making art is reward
enough in itself. Throughout the novel, she searches for identity. She only
achieves her identity by the end of the novel, when she visionary saw
Mrs. Ramsay arrived at the lighthouse. Then, Lily simultaneously finishes
her painting. In this scene, she experiences an epiphanic moment that
leads to a state of stasis. This vision stands for her life, as indicated
below:

she asked herself, taking up her brush again. She looked at the
steps; they were empty; she looked at her canvas; it was
blurred. With a sudden intensity, as if she saw it clear for a
second, she drew a line there, in the centre. It was done; it was
finished. Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme
fatigue, I have had my vision. (334)

Thus, fighting against gender stereotypes is shown in Lily's

painting, as demonstrated in the novel, “and there was Mr. Tansley
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whispering in her ear, "Women can't paint, women can't write ... "” (214).
In this case, Lily could stand for Virginia Woolf who faced many
problems with being a writer. It was a common dilemma during that
period.

To conclude, To the Lighthouse is a journey of life where the

lighthouse symbolizes hope. It is the main goal of the characters to
achieve it. Whereas the sea represents the barriers between the characters
and hope. Whatever the circumstances, the novel sends a message that
people can change and achieve their long-term goals. Other messages
could be noticed when Woolf did not focus on the war, reflecting the idea
of dimensions of the pain suffered by families, as with what happened in
section two when Andrew was killed in a battle.

Works Cited

Panken, Shirley. Virginia Woolf and the Lust of Creation: A

Psychoanalytic Exploration. New York: State University of New
York Press, 1987. Print.

Woolf, Virginia. Collected Novels of Virginia Woolf. Ed, Stella

McNichol. London: THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD, 1992. Print.