To the Lighthouse

As a modern novelist Virginia Woolf is quite famous and “to the Lighthouse” is one of his notable works that get clap of the readers. Virginia Woolf to the Lighthouse pdf is available online and most of them are added with critical analysis.

Virginia Woolf to the Lighthouse 1927 was published and becomes popular within a year. This story is of the Ramsay family that fills with philosophical introspection. One more thing that can be found in the ‘stream of consciousness’. The patter of writing the novel is based on that.

To the Lighthouse Summary

The story starts with the summer house where the Ramsay family comes to spend their summer days. This novel is divided into three segments these are Part 1, The window, the second part is Time passes, and the last part is The Lighthouse.

To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927

The Lighthouse
The Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse Themes

Besides the summer house, there is a lighthouse where people come to visit it. In the summer house Mr. Ramsay, Mrs Ramsay, and their children are living. But in one day their son, James Ramsay starts asking her mother to visit the Lighthouse.

Mrs Ramsay says that they will visit if the weather becomes normal but Mr. Ramsay does not appreciate this statement as the weather becomes worst.

At that time James becomes disappointed and he gets angry with his father. He thought he takes pleasure by embarrassing his children.

To the lighthouse Virginis Woolf Quotes

“Beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty —

it came too readily, came too completely.

It stilled life — froze it.”

Later, in the plot, Virginia Woolf shows more people are living in the summer house. Charles Tansley is the student of Mr. Ramsay who starts praises him because Mr. Ramsay has love in ‘Metaphysical Philosophy ‘.

This man is not like others and nobody likes him very much. There is another woman called Lily Briscoe, she is a painter. She is making a picture of Mr. Ramsay and James.

To the Lighthouse Symbols

There are many guests like William Blankes, Paul Rayley, and Minta Doyle This first section ends with a dinner party where they all are gossiping though Lily Briscoe gets embarrassed because Tansley tells her women are not for writing and painting.

modern Painting of to the lighthouse
Modern Painting of To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf’s feminism to the lighthouse comes out in that segment as he is trying to dominate Lily Briscoe by saying things like that.

“ All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated;

and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself,

a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others.”

The second part, “Time Passes” speaks of human sentiments like the passing of time, death, life, etc.

One day suddenly Mrs. Ramsay passed away at night when the first world war is going on and their elder son Andrew is being killed in the war and their daughter Prue also dies in the labor room for giving birth of a child.

To the lighthouse Mrs Ramsay

So, now the plot goes in a melancholic way where Mr. Ramsay stays alone. It is been approximately ten years that they did not go to their summer house.

He had a maidservant Mrs. McNab who is taking care of their house. But as none comes to the summer house she stops cleaning the house. So, the second part also ends here. In that segment, Virginia Woolf only produced the truth of life that nobody will stay forever.

“What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question;

one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come.

Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one”

The last part is very significant because after ten years Mr. Ramsay comes back to their summer house with his son James and Cam.

Critical appreciation of To the lighthouse

He becomes changed after the death of his wife and here says his son that they will visit the Lighthouse. At the same time, Lily Briscoe also comes to the summer house to spend her summer vacation.

When they are going to the lighthouse Lily is in garden and painting. James had a wish to visit the light house but in his childhood, he could not fill his desire.

They are becoming old and have no interest in visiting Lighthouse though they went with their father. At that time James feels very connected to his father. At the same time, Lily Briscoe finished her painting of Mr. Ramsay and Mr. James

Analysis of To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf movie also contains the same story that has been shown by Virginia Woolf himself. In the novel, readers will be able to find a stream of consciousness because several imageries have been created.

The first thing is when Mrs. Ramsay says her son to visit the Lighthouse and without any reason Mr. Ramsay becomes furious. On the other hand, Lily Briscoe is being harvested by Tansley.

The Book Cover

So these scenes are a stream of consciousness Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse example. In the second part, there are suddenly the background changes and a slide political and historical perspective comes into the plot.

‘World War’ is showing the destruction of people by the death of Mrs. Ramsay and her elder son.

“So fine was the morning except for a streak of wind here and there that the sea

and sky looked all one fabric, as if sails were stuck high up in the sky,

or the clouds had dropped down into the sea.”

The last part is very significant because here critical analysis To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf is given many details. The monotonous life of Mr. Ramsay proofs the loneliness.

Not only that, in that part the younger son James also finds his father back he wanted to get. At the same time, Lily Briscoe also finished the painting of Mr.Ramaay and James.

It provokes a happy ending but with it, femininity also comes and takes place. A woman is taking the responsibility of making a new relationship between a father and son.