full title
To the Lighthouse
author
Virginia Woolf
type of work
Novel
genre
Stream of consciousness
language
English
time and place written
1926, London
date of first publication
1927
publisher
Hogarth Press
narrator
The narrator is anonymous.
point of view
The narrator speaks in the third person and describes
the characters and actions subjectively, giving us insight into
the characters’ feelings. The narrative switches constantly from
the perceptions of one character to those of the next.
tone
Elegiac, poetic, rhythmic, imaginative
tense
Past
setting (time)
The years immediately preceding and following World
War I
setting (place)
The Isle of Skye, in the Hebrides (a group of islands
west of Scotland)
protagonist
Although Mrs. Ramsay is the central focus of the beginning
of To the Lighthouse, the novel traces the development
of Lily Briscoe to the end, making it more accurate to describe
Lily as the protagonist.
major conflict
The common struggle that each of the characters faces
is to bring meaning and order to the chaos of life.
rising action
James’s desire to journey to the lighthouse; Mr. Ramsay’s
need to ask Mrs. Ramsay for sympathy; Charles Tansley’s insistence
that women cannot paint or write; Lily Briscoe’s stalled attempt
at her painting
climax
Mrs. Ramsay’s dinner party
falling action
Mr. Ramsay’s trip to the lighthouse with Cam and James;
Lily Briscoe’s completion of her painting
themes
The transience of life and work; art as a means of
preservation; the subjective nature of reality; the restorative
effects of beauty
motifs
The differing behaviors of men and women; brackets
symbols
The lighthouse, Lily’s painting, the Ramsays’ house,
the sea, the boar’s skull, the fruit basket
foreshadowing
James’s initial desire and anxiety surrounding the
voyage to the lighthouse foreshadows the trip he makes a decade
later.
