To The Lighthouse- Virginia Woolf
Plot Overview-
To the Lighthouse is divided into three sections:
“The Window,” “Time Passes,” and “The
Lighthouse.” Each section is fragmented into stream-of-consciousness
contributions from various narrators.
“The Window” opens just before the
start of World War I. Mr, Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay bring
their eight children to their summer home in the Hebrides (a group of islands
west of Scotland). Across the bay from their house stands a large lighthouse.
Six-year-old James
Ramsay wants desperately to go to the
lighthouse, and Mrs. Ramsay tells him that they will go the next day if the
weather permits. James reacts gleefully, but Mr. Ramsay tells him coldly that
the weather looks to be foul. James resents his father and believes that he
enjoys being cruel to James and his siblings.
The Ramsays host a number of guests,
including the dour Charles Tansley, who admires Mr. Ramsay’s work as a
metaphysical philosopher. Also at the house is Lily Briscoe, a young painter
who begins a portrait of Mrs. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay wants Lily to marry William
Bankes, an old friend of the Ramsays, but Lily resolves to remain single. Mrs.
Ramsay does manage to arrange another marriage, however, between Paul Rayley
and Minta Doyle, two of their acquaintances.
During the course of the afternoon,
Paul proposes to Minta, Lily begins her painting, Mrs. Ramsay soothes the
resentful James, and Mr. Ramsay frets over his shortcomings as a philosopher,
periodically turning to Mrs. Ramsay for comfort. That evening, the Ramsays host
a seemingly ill-fated dinner party. Paul and Minta are late returning from
their walk on the beach with two of the Ramsays’ children. Lily bristles at outspoken
comments made by Charles Tansley, who suggests that women can neither paint nor
write. Mr. Ramsay reacts rudely when Augustus Carmichael, a poet, asks for a
second plate of soup. As the night draws on, however, these missteps right
themselves, and the guests come together to make a memorable evening.
The joy, however, like the party
itself, cannot last, and as Mrs. Ramsay leaves her guests in the dining room,
she reflects that the event has already slipped into the past. Later, she joins
her husband in the parlor. The couple sits quietly together, until Mr. Ramsay’s
characteristic insecurities interrupt their peace. He wants his wife to tell
him that she loves him. Mrs. Ramsay is not one to make such pronouncements, but
she concedes to his point made earlier in the day that the weather will be too
rough for a trip to the lighthouse the next day. Mr. Ramsay thus knows that
Mrs. Ramsay loves him. Night falls, and one night quickly becomes another.
Time passes more quickly as the
novel enters the “Time Passes” segment. War breaks out across Europe. Mrs.
Ramsay dies suddenly one night. Andrew Ramsay, her oldest son, is killed in
battle, and his sister Prue dies from an illness related to childbirth. The
family no longer vacations at its summerhouse, which falls into a state of
disrepair: weeds take over the garden and spiders nest in the house. Ten years
pass before the family returns. Mrs. McNab, the housekeeper, employs a few
other women to help set the house in order. They rescue the house from oblivion
and decay, and everything is in order when Lily Briscoe returns.
In “The Lighthouse” section, time
returns to the slow detail of shifting points of view, similar in style to “The
Window.” Mr. Ramsay declares that he and James and Cam, one of his daughters,
will journey to the lighthouse. On the morning of the voyage, delays throw him
into a fit of temper. He appeals to Lily for sympathy, but, unlike Mrs. Ramsay,
she is unable to provide him with what he needs. The Ramsays set off, and Lily
takes her place on the lawn, determined to complete a painting she started but
abandoned on her last visit. James and Cam bristle at their father’s blustery
behavior and are embarrassed by his constant self-pity. Still, as the boat
reaches its destination, the children feel a fondness for him. Even James,
whose skill as a sailor Mr. Ramsay praises, experiences a moment of connection
with his father, though James so willfully resents him. Across the bay, Lily
puts the finishing touch on her painting. She makes a definitive stroke on the
canvas and puts her brush down, finally having achieved
her vision.
Reference-
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