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To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
The Window: Chapters IX–XI
[F]or it was not knowledge but unity
that she desired, not inscriptions on tablets, nothing that could
be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself. .
. .
Summary: Chapter IX
William Bankes considers Mr. Ramsay's behavior and concludes that
it is a pity that his old friend cannot act more conventionally. He
suggests to Lily, who stands beside him putting away her paint and
brushes, that their host is something of a hypocrite. Lily -disagrees
with him. Though she finds Mr. Ramsay narrow and self-absorbed,
she also observes the sincerity with which he seeks admiration.
Lily is about to speak and criticize Mrs. Ramsay, but Bankes's “rapture”
of watching Mrs. Ramsay silences her. As he stares at Mrs. Ramsay,
it is obvious to Lily that he is in love. The rapture of his gaze
touches her, so much so that she lets Bankes look at her painting,
which she considers to be dreadfully bad. She thinks of Charles
Tansley's claim that women cannot paint or write.
Lily remembers the criticism she was about to make of
Mrs. Ramsay, whom she resents for insinuating that she, Lily, as
an unmarried woman, cannot know the best of life. Lily reflects
on the essence of Mrs. Ramsay, which she is trying to paint, and
insists that she herself was not made for marriage. She muses, with
some distress, that no one can ever know anything about anyone,
because people are separate and cut off from one another. She hopes
to counter this phenomenon and achieve unity with, and knowledge of,
others through her art. By painting, she hopes to attain a kind
of intimacy that will bring her closer to the world outside her
consciousness.
Lily braces herself as Bankes looks over her portrait
of Mrs. Ramsay and James. She discusses the painting with him. As
they talk about the shadows, light, and the purple triangle meant
to represent Mrs. Ramsay, Lily wonders how to connect them and make
them whole. She also feels that Bankes has taken her painting from
her by looking at it and that they have shared something intimate.
Summary: Chapter X
Cam Ramsay, Mrs. and Mr. Ramsay's devilish daughter, rushes
past and nearly knocks the easel over. Mrs. Ramsay calls to Cam,
asking after Paul Rayley, Minta Doyle, and Andrew, who have not
returned from their walk on the beach. Mrs. Ramsay assumes that
this delay means that Paul has proposed to Minta, which is what
she intended when she orchestrated the walk. A clever matchmaker,
Mrs. Ramsay has been accused of being domineering, but she feels
justified in her efforts because she truly likes Minta. She feels
that Minta must accept the time that she and Paul have spent alone
together recently.
Mrs. Ramsay believes that she would be domineering in
pursuit of social causes. She feels passionately that the island
needs a hospital and a dairy, but rationalizes that she can further
these goals once her children grow older. Still, she resists the
passage of time, wishing that her children would stay young forever
and her family as happy as it now is. Mrs. Ramsay further meditates
about life, realizing a kind of transactional relationship between
it and herself. She lists social problems and intersperses them
with personal anxieties, noting, for instance, that “the bill for
the greenhouse would be fifty pounds.” This anxiety extends to her
thoughts of Paul and Minta, thinking that perhaps marriage and family
are an escape that not everyone needs. She finishes reading James
his story, and the nursemaid takes him to bed. Mrs. Ramsay is certain
that he is thinking of their thwarted trip to the lighthouse and
that he will remember not being able to go for the rest of his life.
Summary: Chapter XI
Alone, Mrs. Ramsay knits and gazes out at the lighthouse,
thinking that children never forget harsh words or disappointments.
She enjoys her respite from being and doing, since she finds peace
only when she is no longer herself. Without personality, in a “wedge-shaped
core of darkness,” she rids herself of worry. She suddenly becomes
sad, and thinks that no God could have made a world in which happiness
is so fleeting and in which reason, order, and justice are so overwhelmed
by suffering and death. From a distance, Mr. Ramsay sees her and
notices her sadness and beauty. He wants to protect her, but hesitates,
feeling helpless and reflecting that his temper causes her grief.
He resolves not to interrupt her, but soon enough, sensing his desire
to protect her, Mrs. Ramsay calls after him, takes up her shawl,
and meets him on the lawn.
Analysis—The Window: Chapters IX–XI
While Mrs. Ramsay's reliance on intuition contrasts with
her husband's aloofness and self-interest, she shares with him a
dread of mortality. Mrs. Ramsay's mind seizes “the fact that there
is no reason, order, justice.” It is only in her “wedge-shaped core
of darkness” that she escapes “being and doing” enough to be herself.
She realizes that happiness is, without exception, fleeting and
ephemeral. Refrains of “children never forget” and “the greenhouse
would cost fifty pounds” and other expressions of domestic anxiety
break into her peace and solitude and advance the notion that life
is transactional. However, it is exactly this awareness of death
and worry that make her moments of wholeness so precious to her.
Her sense of the inevitability of suffering and death lead her to
search for such moments of bliss.
According to Mr. Ramsay's conception of human thought,
Mrs. Ramsay may not be as far along in the alphabet as he, but she
has surpassed her husband in one important respect. Unlike Mr. Ramsay,
she is able to move beyond the “treacheries” of the world by accepting
them. Mr. Ramsay, on the other hand, becomes so mired in the thought
of his own mortality that he is rendered helpless and dependent
upon his wife.
Lily's complicated reaction to Mrs. Ramsay in this section advances
the novel's discussion of gender by introducing a character who
lives outside accepted gender conventions. As a single woman who,
much to Mrs. Ramsay's chagrin, shows little interest in marrying,
Lily represents a new and evolving social order and raises the suspicions
of several characters. Mrs. Ramsay suggests that she cannot know
life completely until she has married, while Charles Tansley insists
that women were not made to be painters or writers. Lily's refusal
to bow to these notions, however, testifies to her commitment to
living as an independent woman and an artist. Indeed, by rejecting
these once universally held beliefs, Lily creates a parallel between
her life and her art. On canvas, she does not mean to make an assertion
of objective truth; instead, she hopes to capture and preserve a
moment that appears real to her. Her determination to live her life
according to her own principles demands as great a struggle and
commitment as her painting.
Woolf's pairing of Lily with Mrs. Ramsay highlights her
interest in the relationships among women outside the realm of prescribed gender
roles. Mrs. Ramsay takes on the conventional roles of wife and mother
and accepts the suffering and anxiety they bring. At the same time,
she remains aware of her power: “Was she not forgetting how strongly
she influenced people?” Lily rejects gender conventions, but she
remains plagued by artistic self-doubt and feels that others' notice
of her work somehow takes the work away from her. Woolf uses the
relationship between these women to show the detrimental effect
of male society on female artistic vision, and to illustrate the
potential intimacy and complexity of such relationships.
The Window: Chapters XII–XVI
Summary: Chapter XII
As they walk together, Mrs. Ramsay brings up to Mr. Ramsay
her worries about their son Jasper's proclivity for shooting birds
and her disagreement with Mr. Ramsay's high opinion of Charles Tansley. She
complains about Tansley's bullying and excessive discussion of his
dissertation; Mr. Ramsay counters that his dissertation is all that Tansley
has in his life. He adds that he would disinherit their daughter
Prue if she married Tansley, however. They continue walking, and
the conversation turns to their children. They discuss Prue's beauty
and Andrew's promise as a student. Still walking, they reach a conversational
impasse reflecting a deeper emotional distance. Mr. Ramsay mourns
that the best and most productive period of his career is over,
but he chastises himself for his sadness, thinking that his wife
and eight children are, in their own way, a fine contribution to
“the poor little universe.” Her husband and his moods amaze Mrs.
Ramsay, who realizes that he believes that his books would have
been better had he not had children. Impressive as his thoughts are,
she wonders if he notices the ordinary things in life such as the view
or the flowers. She notices a star on the horizon and wants to point
it out to her husband, but stops. The sight, she knows, will somehow
only sadden him. Lily comes into view with William Bankes, and Mrs.
Ramsay decides that the couple must marry.
Summary: Chapter XIII
Lily listens to William Bankes describe the art he has
seen while visiting Europe. She reflects on the number of great
paintings she has never seen but decides that not having seen them
is probably best since other artists' work tends to make one disappointed
with one's own. The couple turns to see Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay watching
Prue and Jasper playing ball. The Ramsays become, for Lily, a symbol
of married life. As the couples meet on the lawn, Lily can tell
that Mrs. Ramsay intends for her to marry Bankes. Lily suddenly
feels a sense of space and of things having been blown apart. Mrs.
Ramsay worries since Paul Rayley and Minta Doyle have not yet returned
from their walk and asks if the Ramsays' daughter Nancy accompanied them.
Summary: Chapter XIV
Nancy, at Minta's request and out of a sense of obligation,
has accompanied Minta and Paul on their walk. Nancy wonders what Minta
wants as she keeps taking then dropping Nancy's hand. Andrew appreciates
the way Minta walks, wearing more sensible clothes than most women
and taking risks that most women will not. Still, this outing disappoints
Andrew. In the end, he does not like taking women on walks or the
chummy way that Paul claps him on the back. The group reaches the
beach and Nancy explores the tiny pools left by the ebb tide. Andrew
and Nancy come upon Paul and Minta kissing, which irritates them.
Upon leaving the beach, Minta discovers that she has lost her grandmother's
brooch. Everyone searches for it as the tide rolls in. Wanting to
prove his worth, Paul resolves to leave the house early tomorrow
morning in order to scour the beach for the brooch. He thinks with
disappointment on the moment he asked Minta to marry him. He considers
admitting this disappointment to Mrs. Ramsay, who, he believes,
forced him into proposing, but, as the well-lit house comes into
view, he decides not to make a fool of himself.
Summary: Chapter XV
Prue, in answer to her mother's question, replies that
she thinks that Nancy did accompany Paul and Minta.
Summary: Chapter XVI
As Mrs. Ramsay dresses for dinner, she wonders if Nancy's
presence will distract Paul from proposing to Minta. Mrs. Ramsay
lets her daughter Rose choose her jewelry for the evening, a ceremony
that somehow saddens her. She becomes increasingly distressed by
Paul and Minta's tardiness, worrying for their safety and fearing
that dinner will be ruined. Eventually she hears the group return
from its walk and feels annoyed. Everyone assembles in the dinning
room for dinner.
Analysis—The Window: Chapters XII–XVI
Woolf's disjointed story line would have been especially
shocking to readers raised on Victorian novels, who were used to
linear narratives, elaborate plots, and the mediating voice of an
author. Woolf eliminates these traditional narrative elements and
presents her characters' competing visions of reality. As Mr. and
Mrs. Ramsay stroll on the lawn, for instance, Woolf forces us to
weigh and judge their various perceptions. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay's
viewpoints conflict over whether it is more important to publish
a remarkable dissertation or to have the ability to “notice his
own daughter's beauty, or whether there was pudding on his plate
of roast beef.” She portrays Mr. Ramsay's cold, domineering neuroses
as completely as Mrs. Ramsay's generosity and love. Woolf's goal
is not to present one character's experience as the truth but rather
to bring opposing worldviews and visions of reality, such as those
held by the Ramsays, into a unified story.
Woolf does not describe Mr. Ramsay's philosophical work
or the work he admires. Earlier, Lily recalls Andrew's likening
of his father's work to musings over a kitchen table, and here Mrs.
Ramsay summarizes the philosophy of Charles Tansley as dealing with “the
influence of somebody upon something.” While the brevity of these
descriptions seems dismissive, Woolf takes her characters' work
and anxieties seriously. Woolf rejects not Mr. Ramsay but rather
preconceived notions about what a novel should be. Woolf, along
with James Joyce and Marcel Proust, was a modernist. One goal of
the modernists was to force readers to reassess their views of the
novel. Philosophy and politics, as discussed by traditional -intellectuals
such as Mr. Ramsay, no longer had to be the dominant subject; war,
epic sea voyages, and the like no longer had to be the- dominant
settings. As Woolf makes clear, life's intellectual, psychological,
and emotional stakes can be as high in the dining room or on the
lawn of one's home as they are in any boardroom or battlefield.
That she later limits the discussion of World War I confirms this
point.
Lily Briscoe emerges as an artist of uncompromising vision.
As she stands on the lawn, trying to decide how to unite the components
of the scene on her canvas, she gives the impression of being something
of a bridge between Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay and the worlds they represent.
Lily shares Mr. Ramsay's professional anxiety and fears that her
work too will sink into oblivion—“perhaps it was better not to see
pictures: they only made one hopelessly discontented with one's
own work.” She also possesses Mrs. Ramsay's talent for separating
a moment from the passage of time and preserving it. As she watches
the Ramsays move across the lawn, she invests them with a quality
and meaning that make them symbolic. Later, in the last section
of the novel, as Lily returns to this spot of the lawn to resume
and finally complete her painting, she again serves as a vital link
between Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay.
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