“The Window” establishes a rhythm between chaos and order, which
allows us to anticipate the direction that “The Lighthouse” will
take. Mr. Ramsay eventually reaches the lighthouse, just as Lily eventually
completes her painting. The poignant scene in which Mr. Ramsay bends
to knot Lily’s shoe foreshadows the “common feeling” that the two
share when Lily’s consciousness becomes tied to her host’s. Before
this union can happen, though, the two must be separated. Indeed,
Lily’s thoughts toward Mr. Ramsay begin to soften only after he
leaves her alone at her easel and sets off for the lighthouse. Only
then does the sight of Cam, James, and Mr. Ramsay reveal itself
as a potential image of harmony—“a little company bound together
and strangely impressive to her.”
Memory is another vital step toward this harmony. Though
long dead, Mrs. Ramsay lives in Lily’s consciousness in the final
section of the novel, for it was Mrs. Ramsay who taught Lily a valuable
lesson about the nature of art. As her hostess once demonstrated
on an outing to the beach, art is the ability to take a moment from
life and make it “permanent.” With this goal in mind, Lily begins
to paint.
