1

TO THE LIGHT HOUSE

VIRGINIA WOOLF’S CONTRIBUTION TO “THE
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOVEL”
“The Stream of Consciousness Novel”: Its Rise
The Stream of Consciousness Novel is the peculiar product of the 20th century. The rise of this
art-form after the World War I, is the beginning of an era in the history of the English novel.
The phrase “Stream of Consciousness” was first used by William James in his book “Principles
of Psychology”, 1890 to denote the chaotic flow of impressions and sensations through the
human consciousness. Virginia Woolf imparted form and discipline to it and thus made it a
popular art form.

Causes of its Rise

The rise of “The Stream of Consciousness Novel” is reflection of the increasing inwardness of
life because of break down of accepted values with the turn of the century, accelerated by the
outbreak of the World war. David Daiches says that in addition to the breakdown of a public
sense of significance, two other factors helped to produce the modern novel. The one is the new
concept of time as continuous flow, rather than as a series of separate points. It led to a
suspicion of the old kind of plot which carried the characters forward from moment to moment
in a precise chronological sequence, and there developed instead the kind of narrative texture
that moved backward and forward with a new freedom to try to capture the sense of time, as it
actually operates in the human awareness of it. The other is the new view of consciousness
deriving in a general way from the work of Freud and Jung. The individual personality is the
sum of the individual’s memories, and to regard the past as something to be recalled by a
conscious effort of memory is on this view to do violence to the facts of experience. The past
exists always in the present, coloring and determining the nature of the present response, and to
tell the truth about a character’s reaction to any situation we must tell the whole truth about
everything that has ever happened to him.

Bergson: Theory of Time

Among the psychologists, Bergson’s theory of time has been of far reaching significance in this
connection. He divided Time into “inner time” and the clock time or “mechanical time”. Inner
Time is conceived of as a flow, a continuous moving stream and the division into past, present
and future. Freud, Adler and Jung, on the other hand, studied the human consciousness and
conceived of it as nothing static but something in a state of flux, constantly changing and
becoming different, in response to sensations and emotions received from outside. It was
conceived as chaotic, disorder of sensations and emotions, feelings and desires and memories.

Probing of Human Consciousness

There was deeper and deeper probing into the human consciousness by these psychologists. Their
researches revealed that there are layers within layers in the human consciousness. Beneath the
conscious, there is sub-conscious and then there is unconscious. The past lives on in the sub-
conscious and the unconscious and is brought up to the conscious level, through memory. The
conscious is only a very small part of the human psyche or soul. Human actions are determined
more by the sub-conscious and unconscious than by the conscious. Hence it is that there is no
much of the irrational and the emotional in human conduct. The stream of consciousness novel
carries the impress of all these theories.
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Nature and Definition

The stream of consciousness novel has been variously defined by various writers. H.J Muller is
of the view that the new novel is the withdrawal from external phenomena into the flickering
half-shades of the author’s private world. This definition emphasizes the inwardness of the
novel of subjectivity. Robert Humphrey defines it as a type of fiction in which the basic
emphasis is placed on exploration of the pre-speech levels of consciousness for the purposes of
revealing the psychic being of the character. Djaurdin, the well known French novelist, used the
word “Interior monologue” for the stream of consciousness technique, and defined it as the
speech of a character in a scene, having for its subject the direct introduction of the reader into
the inner life of a character, without an intervention by way of explanation on the part of the
author.

Study of Human Psyche: Realism

The aim of the modern psychologist novelist is to present the soul realistically. He uses the
stream of consciousness technique. The human psyche is not a simple entity functioning
logically in a predictable manner. Modern psychology conceives it as a vast fluid or even
vaporous mass. J.W Beach tells us that the human soul has for the most part no identity at all,
but it is a kind of dreaming, disorderness of sensations and reactions, so quick and spontaneous
that we never become conscious of them. Our consciousness, which is the small part of the soul,
does not proceed logically or coherently, except at certain times and for certain periods, under
the pressure of some urgent need. The soul is indifferent to past and future, near and far.
The “stream of consciousness” novelists are as much concerned as the old ones with the psyche
that is the focus of life experience..

Deformalisation: Decay of Plot and Character

The psychological novel represents a reaction against the well made novel of the 19th century. Its
tendency is towards Deformalisation. Both plot and character in the conventional sense have
decayed in the novel of subjectivity. There is no set description of character as in the older novel.
There is a shift from the externals to the inner-self of the various personages. There is no plot
construction in the sense of a logical arrangement of incidents and events, leading
chronologically to a catastrophe. The actions move backward and forward in Time. In the words
of Virginia Woolf, in the novel of subjectivity, there is no plot, no character, no tragedy, no
comedy, and no love-interest, as in the traditional novel. The “Stream of Consciousness”
novelists, instead of concentrating around a limited issue, show an eccentric tendency to fly off
in many different directions. Instead of continuity of action, they have a tendency to
discontinuity. Virginia Woolf’s contribution to novel of subjectivity is of far reaching
significance because she imparted form and discipline to the chaotic psychological novel, and
making it acceptable. Thus, “To the Light House” is a psychological novel par excellence, and
yet it has a well marked form and pattern. There is a close confrontation of clock time and inner
time and the transitions from the past to the present are controlled by emotional links. She has
put up enough sign posts for the guidance of the readers, despite the theory that life is, ‘not a
series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged’, but a ‘luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope’.

Life-like Characters
The stream of consciousness technique is a way of presenting the soul of the characters
realistically, and the soul cannot be judged by what a character says or does. Words and deeds of
a person are often conventional. Fear of social censure represses the inner reality. Hence, to
know a character really and truthfully, we must know what is happening inside his mind, we
must plunge into his pre-speech level of consciousness and see what sensations and what
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impressions are floating there. Besides this, we must know the characters not only as they are in
the present, but also as they were in the past.

Treatment of Time
This focus on psyche, rather than on the externals of character accounts for focus on time. The
action moves backward and forward freely in time, there is no chronological, forward
movement, but a zigzag, winding movement from the past to the present, and from the present to
the past.
Virginia Woolf has shown great skill in the manipulation of Time in “Mrs. Dalloway” and “To
the Light House”. The clock time is strictly limited, but in the consciousness of the heroine of
both these novels we move freely in Time and Space, and in this way two perfectly credible and
rounded personalities are built. Either we stand still in time and contemplate diverse but
contemporaneous events in space or we stand still in space and are allowed to move up and down
in the consciousness of one individual.

Conclusion
The stream of consciousness novel arose to meet the needs of a new age. Focus on Time;
subjectivity, inwardness, absence of action is some important features of this novel. The
technique of interior monologue is not an entirely new invention of the 20th century. It is fore-
shadowed in the novels of Richardson, Sterne, George Eliot and many others. Its climax was
from 1915 to 1941 under the impact of teachings of the modern psychologists.
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TO THE LIGHT HOUSE

VIRGINIA WOOLF’S GREATNESS AS A NOVELIST
THE ART AND TECHNIQUE OF VIRGINIA WOOLF
Break from Tradition
Virginia Woolf belongs to the school of “stream of consciousness” novelists. She is one of those
greatest English novelists of the 20th century who had the courage to break free from tradition,
and then to give a new direction, a new form and a new spiritual awareness to the English
novel. She began writing in the established tradition of the novel. But soon she realized the
inadequacy of the traditional novel, and adopted the stream of consciousness technique in the
“Jacob’s Room”. Her art rapidly matured and her next two novels “Mrs. Dalloway” and “To the
Light House” represent the very perfection of the stream of consciousness novel.

Imparted Form and Balance to the Stream of Consciousness Novel

Virginia Woolf is not one of the architects of “Stream of Consciousness Novel”. She is not the
originator, but it is in her novels that this technique finds its balance. She has imposed form
and order on the chaos inherent in the novel of subjectivity. She has brought this particular
genre of the novel out of the realm of stunt literature and made it an acceptable and coherent art
form. She was the one of the theorist of the stream of consciousness novel and did much to throw
light on its technique and to bring out its superiority to the conventional novel.

Poeticised the English Novel

Mrs. Woolf poeticised the English novel. She realized that the very atmosphere of the human
mind can not be recreated with the ordinary resources of prose. Therefore in order to enrich her
language, she used vivid metaphors and symbols which are peculiar to poetry. Her prose style is
of the color of poetry and shows rhythm. Her novels have the intensity of a lyric.

Presentation of Inner Reality

Virginia Woolf was a spiritualist. She rejects traditional modes of expression and concentrates
on presentation of inner reality. The novel in her hand is not just an entertainment, or
propaganda, or the vehicle of some fixed ideas or a social document, but a voyage of exploration
to find out how life is lived and how it can be presented as it is actually lived without distortion.

Her Sense of Form

Mrs. Woolf has a well developed sense of form. Her work has a rare artistic integrity. In her
novels there are scenes and images. Her novels are constructed in scenes of rare emotional
intensity, but each scene and image is closely related to other scenes and images. And this
wholeness is not confined to individual novels, but all her works together form a single whole.
The latter novels are related to the former ones as an egg is related to the caterpillar and the
butterfly. Each grows out of the preceding one. Character is related to character; character to
environment, and to the world of things. The inner life of the mind was her theme, but the
internal is related to the external also. The outer life of trees, birds and fish, of meadows and
sea-shore lends her many images to illuminate the life of mind.
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The Technique of “The Interior Monologue”

Human life as it really is was her theme. She reveals the very springs of action, the hidden
motives which impel men and women to act in a particular way. This is done by use of the
‘interior monologue’. She takes us directly into the minds of her characters, and shows the
chaotic flow of ideas, sensations and impressions, and in this way she brings us closer to their
psyche. This can never be possible by the use of conventional methods of characterization.

Artistic Integrity
She had an original vision of life, and she was very truthful to this vision. This truthfulness
and artistic integrity results from her perfect detachment from all personal prejudices and
notions, from personal end-seeking or desire for making money.

Feminised the English Novel

She was a woman, and in her novels she gives us the woman’s point of view. She relies more on
intuition than on reason. She is interested not only in the relations of men and woman, or of
men with men, but also of woman with woman. She is fascinated with Natural life. She has a
woman’s dislike for the world of societies, churches, banks and schools. He picture of life does
not include meanness, stupidity and roughness, vice and criminality.

Limitation of Her Range

The fact of her being a woman limits her world in the other respect also. She avoids the theme
of passionate love. Being a woman she could not write of sex freely and frankly and so she
avoids it altogether. Her range is limited in various other ways also. For example, she painted
only upper middle –class life and only certain types of character. Her novels need some
painstaking on the part of the reader, but if followed imaginatively, they have the power to
illuminate and transform.
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TO THE LIGHT HOUSE

CHARACTER AND ROLE OF MRS. RAMSAY
Her Physical Charms
Mrs. Ramsay is a middle-aged woman, a mother of eight children. Despite her age, she is a
woman of great beauty and attraction. References to her beauty are frequent in the novel.
Complements are often paid to her, as for example, “The happier Helen of our time”. All the
guests admire her. Women are also fascinated by her. She dominates the novel and exercise the
influence on every body. Her attractiveness is not only for her physical charms but she is also
very considerate, polite, cultured and humane.

A Great Creator of Harmony

She brings people together. This aspect of her character is revealed during the dinner party
which forms the climax to the first part of the novel. By a look, she compels Lily to be
considerate to Tansley. This helps Tansley to be brought out of his isolation and he feels more at
home. Similarly she pacifies Mr. Ramsay by her nameless acts of courtesy, and draws both
William Bankes and Carmichael out of their respective shells. She is sympathetic to her
husband and her children love her and admire her because she comforts them. She pleases
James and wins his heart by assuring him that they would be able to go to the light house the
next day.

A Match-Maker
She has a role of match-maker shows her ken interest in establishing harmony among the
people. She brings Paul and Minta together and is responsible for their marriage. She likes very
much that Lily and Charles Tansley or Lily and William Bankes be united in marriage bonds.

Kind and Considerate

Mrs. Ramsay is very kind and considerate. She pleases to help the poor and the needy. She knits
brown stockings for the Lighthouse Keeper’s son, because he is ill. She often goes out of the town
and distributes food and clothes among the poor. She knows that Tansley is poor, and does not
tolerate any kind of incivility to him for this reason.

Her Sense of Humour

Mrs. Ramsay has a rare sense of humour. This enables her to please her children by covering the
boar’s head with her shawl. She assures the one that the ugly head is not there for it cannot be
seen, and the other that is still there for it has not been taken away. She likes circus and poetry.

Essentially Feminine
Critics like James Hafley are of the view that Mrs. Ramsay is merely a symbol that she has not
been individualized, and that is why the novelist has not given her a first name. They are agreed
that she is a human being of great appeal. She is a rounded three dimensional figure. She is
essentially feminine. To round up her character the novelist has emphasized her feminine
weaknesses. For example, she has a habit of exaggerating that frequently irritates her husband.
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Structural and Psychological Centre

Mrs. Ramsay is a living, breathing reality and is the one of the finest creations of Mrs. Woolf.
She is the structural and psychological centre of the novel and the source of unity in it. She
holds together the various characters and events in the novel. In the beginning of the novel we
focus our attention to her sitting at the window which links the lawn with the interior of the
house. People come and go but she remains the point of reference in the movement of the various
characters. Sitting there, she serves as a model for Lily painting on the lawn.
Her role as uniting and harmonizing force is remarkably clear at the dinner party.
Communication is one of the most difficult jobs in life. Even when we like people, sympathise
with them, we find it hard to communicate with them. The problem at Ramsay household is
particularly difficult because the people assembled there are many of them self-willed and self-
centered and some of them even eccentric. It is a miracle that Mrs. Ramsay is able to weave them
into a cohesive whole.

A Perfect Hostess
Mrs. Ramsay is a perfect hostess. People wondered how, with their meager income, she was able
to feed and look after so many guests. He r own family was large enough, and Mr. Ramsay was
not making any big sum of money out of his books. But a shrewd householder and a patient
housewife, that is Mrs. Ramsay, is able to make her little go a long way.

Dominates the Novel, Even after Death

Though Mrs. Ramsay dies and is not physically present after the first part, her influence is felt
throughout. She dominates the whole book, and influences the lives of the other people even
after her death. Her husband remembers her and undertakes the journey to the lighthouse in
order to fulfill one of her most cherished wishes. Lily Briscoe remembers her, has a vision of
her sitting at the window, just as she used to do in life and it is this vision which enables her to
complete her picture at that very moment when Mr. Ramsay lands at the lighthouse.
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TO THE LIGHT HOUSE

THE CHARACTER AND ROLE OF MR. RAMSAY
An Eminent Intellectual
Mr. Ramsay, a man of sixty –two, is the head of the Ramsay family and the father of eight
children. He is a scholar, a great thinker and writer. He has a number of books to his credit,
some of which are quite successful. His wife admires him very much as she thinks he is a
genius.

His Passion for Facts

Mr. Ramsay is a great scholar and realist and has passion for facts. He must speak out the truth
even though it may be disagreeable and may cause pain to others. He, in the beginning of the
novel tells James that he would not be able to go to the light house as it would not be fine
tomorrow. This causes great pain and disappointment to James, but he does not care for it. He
himself has no illusions and cannot tolerate any body that flies in the face of facts. When his
wife says that the wind might change the direction and that they might be able to go to the light
house, the irrationality of her remark irritates him. His intention is that the children should
understand the joyless realities of life face the facts rather than remain under illusion
regarding the nature of reality.

His Tyranny
This excessive passion for reality has made him somewhat cruel. His children repeatedly
complain of this element of tyranny in his character. The children, particularly James, do not
like him because he makes sarcastic remarks. He wants his children know that life is difficult
and courage is needed to face it.
James and Cam take their father to be an absolute tyrant and form a joint defence pact against
him. They decide to fight against him jointly and not to yield to him any ground when they are
going to the light house.

The Comic Note: Slef-dramatisation

Mr. Ramsay has a comic habit of self-dramatisation and play acting. He imagines that he is a
failure and his books will be soon forgotten. Therefore he wishes for sympathy with him. He
has worked very hard but still he has not achieved the success he deserves. He has not achieved
due fame and recognition. He recites lines from the well known poem of Tennyson. He has
become a comic figure as reciting these lines he bears down upon Lily Briscoe and upsets her
easel. Equally comic is the way in which he tickles the sole of James with a feather.

His Faults
Mr. Ramsay has certainly a number of faults of character. He is a ruthless realist, a hard
intellectualist, and egotist. He demands sympathy but does not give any sympathy to others. He
overworks his wife to death and makes the life of his children hard and unpleasant. We are
likely to condemn him for the way in which he shatters James’ hopes and illusions, and the
harsh way in which he says “damn you” to Mrs. Ramsay.
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His Humanity
When examined closely, Mr. Ramsay is seen to be a complex and fascinating personality. As
seen through the eyes of Lily Briscoe and Mr. Bankes, he appears to be a human figure fond of
his wife and children. He is like a hen spreading her wings out in protection of little chicks.

A Complex Fascinating Figure

In Lily Briscoe’s mind the image of Mr. Ramsay appears as a scrubbed kitchen table lodged at
the moment in the fork of a paper tree. She compares Mr. Ramsay with William Bankes: Mr.
Bankes, who is good, not vain, and entirely impersonal, without wife or child living entirely for
science finer than Mr. Ramsay. But then, she remembers that he is also a crank. She feels that
it is difficult to judge people. Mr. Bankes has greatness and Mr. Ramsay has not. He is petty,
selfish and vain. He is spoilt and he is egotist and tyrant.

Conclusion
In the end, he is looked at through the eyes of Cam and he seems to be brave, heroic figure, the
leader of an expedition, facing dangers, and leading it to a successful conclusion. The very fact
that he compels James and Cam to undertake this expedition brings out his love for his wife and
his reverence for her. It ennobles and uplifts him in our eyes. The final impression he leaves
upon us is neither that of a villain nor that of a figure of fun but that of a loving husband and a
kind-hearted gentleman.

Written and Composed By:

Prof. A.R. Somroo

M.A. English, M.A. Education

Cell phone: 03339971417

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TO THE LIGHT HOUSE

CHARACTER AND ROLE OF LILY BRISCOE
A Devoted Artist
Lily Briscoe is a middle aged painter, with Chinese eyes and a wrinkled face. She is thirty-five
when the novel begins but she has not married yet. She regards love and marriage as degrading,
and so despite her admiration and friendship for Mr. Bankes, she has not married him so far.
She is a devoted artist and perhaps she has kept single because marriage and family life are
likely to come in way of her artistic activity.

Her Gift of Visualising the Past

As Lily paints in the lawn of the Ramsays in the Isle of Skye, memories crowd in upon her, and
in this way are built up the complex and fascinating personalities of the Ramsays. It is through
her that the past is brought to bear upon the present, and the result is that the Ramsays emerge
as rounded, living, breathing realities and considerable light is thrown on the other characters
also. Her imagination is visual and pictorial and vivid pictures from the past keep welling up in
her mind.

Her Moments of Vision

Although she is by no means the main character, Lily Briscoe has more moments of vision than
any other figure in “To the Light House”. Lily is acutely aware of the frustration of trying to
translate moments of intensity into worthwhile art, to capture in her painting the thing itself
before it has been made anything. She is a painter, but her comments on the impossibility of
recording the most fading away of moments are sometimes expressed in terms that seem more
appropriate to the man of letters. Thus, sensing on the morning of the trip to the lighthouse all
words seem to become symbols that day. Lily’s art actually uses not words but visual forms and
colors.

Her First and Second Visions

The first had occurred before the action of the novel starts and is remembered as ‘that vision
which she had seen clearly once and must now search blindly for among hedges and houses and
mothers and children--- her picture’. While visiting the Ramsays during the first part of the
book she is working on a view of their house, and at dinner in the evening she has her second
inspiration; ‘ In a flash she saw her picture, and thought, ‘Yes, I shall put the tree further in the
middle; then I shall avoid that awkward space. The full significance of the moment is not
revealed until much later, when we also learn that, ‘it had flashed upon her that she would move
the tree to the middle, and need never marry anybody’.

Her Third Vision

But, before she can carry out her intention everyone leaves the Ramsays’ summer home. Mrs.
Ramsay dies, Lily loses tracks of her picture, and ten years pass. Then Mr. Ramsay unexpectedly
reopens the house and invites the guests of that summer to visit there again. Confronted with the
same scene she had been painting. Lily has her third moment of inspiration when she recalls
her previous one: “Suddenly she remembered when she had sat there last ten years ago there had
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been a little spring or leaf pattern on the table-cloth, which she had looked at in a moment of
revelation. She would paint the picture now”.

Fourth Vision
After some initial difficulty she works steadily that morning, and by the moment Mr. Ramsay
lands at the lighthouse, her new painting is all but complete. She has paused while she seems to
share with Mr. Carmichael the same thoughts about Mr. Ramsay and what he has done, when,
‘quickly as if she were recalled by something over there, she turns to her canvas and takes up her
brush. She then looks at the steps of the house, where she had earlier felt she could see an image
of Mrs. Ramsay, but they were empty; she looked at her canvas; it was blurred. With a sudden
intensity, as if she saw it clear for a second, she drew a line there, in the centre. It was done; it
was finished; “Yes, she thought, laying her brush down in extreme fatigue, I have had my
vision”. With these words which end the novel, it appears that Lily’s hopes of capturing her
fleeting inspiration and making of the moment something permanent are at last realized.

Written and Composed By:

Prof. A.R. Somroo

M.A. English, M.A. Education

Cell Phone: 03339971417

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TO THE LIGHT HOUSE

CHARACTER AND ROLE OF WILLIAM BANKES
His Eccentricity
Mr. William Bankes is one of the guests of the Ramsays, and a boyhood friend of Mr. Ramsay.
But he does not stay with them at their summer house. He has his lodging in the town and is
considered an eccentric because he has brought his own personal attendant to serve him.
Together with Lily he forms a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on the personality of the
Ramsays. He gives us masculine point of view, while Lily gives us the feminine one. Mr. Banke
is a botanist, a widower, smelling of soap, very clean and kind hearted. He respects Lily Briscoe
for her devotion to work, her poverty and commonsense. Both are embarrassed by Mr. Ramsay’s
stride up and down reciting.

As Compared with Mr. Ramsay

Lily Briscoe compares Bankes with Mr. Ramsay and concludes that Mr. Ramsay is a much
better man, though he has his own faults and weaknesses. He has no wife and children and so
does not know the values of love and sympathy, of little acts of kindness, which sweeten life and
make it worthwhile. But in another respect he has an advantage over Mr. Ramsay. He does not
care whether his work would last or not. He knows that there are changes of taste in literature
and thought that Mr. Ramsay should not be worried about the future.
William Bankes says and does very little in the novel, but all the same he is an important
character and through him the novelist has rounded up the character of Mr. Ramsay.

Written and Composed By:

Prof. A.R. Somroo
M.A. English, M.A. Education
Cell: 03339971417
 13

TO THE LIGHT HOUSE

THEME: STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Inadequacy of Human Relationships
Virginia Woolf was fully aware of the inadequacy of human relationships. Human beings
seemed to her isolated and communication between them partial, often unsatisfactory and
sometimes quite mistaken. To the Light House shows us various fictional characters trying with
varying degrees of success, to establish relationships with the people around them.

Its Causes
One of the main reasons for the failure to establish satisfactory human relationships is that
words are the main source of communication between one character and the other, and words
are often inadequate for this purpose. Sometimes words fail to express the full complexity of a
character’s thought and feelings, and at other times what the words express is only a fraction of
what character thinks and feels, and so they become actually misleading. Mrs. Woolf has a keen
consciousness of both these aspects of verbal inadequacy.

Expressive Power of Silence

More often silence has more expressive power than words. Lily realizes this fully, and she feels
in greater communication with Carmichael than if they had spoken. They sit on the lawn
perfectly silent, but still they seem to understand each other, and are in perfect sympathy with
each other, without exchanging even a single word. Things are often spoiled by saying them.
Silence is often more perfectly expressive.

Importance of the Trivial

Silence thus often leads to the establishment of satisfactory human relationships. At other
times, things apparently trivial are helpful in this respect. For example, Mr. Ramsay comes to
Lily demanding sympathy. Lily is unable to say a single word. And then suddenly she praises
his books. At once he is pleased and satisfied. At once they are in sympathy with each other.

Need of Emotional Sympathy

Satisfactory human relationships are necessary for life. Such relationships can be established
not through logic, reason and intellect, but through the emotions. Union of hearts, emotional
understanding and sympathy are needed for satisfactory relationships between mother and
children and husband and wife. Thus Mrs. Ramsay who is in sympathy with her children
understands their psychological needs is loved and respected by them while they hate their
father who fails to understand their needs because of his cold intellectual approach.

The Ebb and Flow of Feelings

Mrs. Ramsay is a person who tries to establish communication between people and Virginia
Woolf shows this in many ways: in Mrs. Ramsay’s attempt to get Paul and Minta and Lily and
Bankes married for example, and at the dinner party where, seeing the unease of her guests, she
begins to make the effort to get people talking, to involve them and so to create something of the
time they are together. As a matter of fact To the Light House presents the reactions of people to
one another in such a way as to create for us the ebb and flow of feelings, the movements of
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characters towards one another from the state of isolation in which each one is of us is trapped
by his own sense of inadequacy or his private worries.

Husband-Wife Relationship
Even in the most intimate and most fully explored relationship in the novel, that of Mr. and
Mrs. Ramsay, there is a note of pretence, and falsehood. Mrs. Ramsay is forced to praise him to
his face and to encourage his confidence in a way she feels should not be necessary. His constant
need to be reassured, his fear of failure, his ill feeling that he has achieved less than he should
have and that his books will not last, pervert his judgment, leading him to see in praise of other
men’s works criticism of himself.
The Window traces the pattern of their relationship from one extreme to the other. They are
seen at their furthest apart when their disagreement about going to the lighthouse brings out the
difference in their attitude to life: ‘Damn you’, he said. But what had she said? Simply that it
might be fine tomorrow. Mr. Ramsay who believes that children must be taught to face facts and
know that life is hard, is infuriated by what seems to him his wife’s dishonesty.

Tansley and Lily Briscoe: Satisfactory Relationship

His feelings and Lily’s appreciation of them are displayed with irony and subtlety at the dinner.
Tansley desperately wants to make an impression on the conversation but lacks the self-
confidence to make his own opening and sits despising the superficial chat of Mrs. Ramsay and
Bankes. Lily understands his feelings and tries an experiment. She expresses her opposition to
him by a teasing invitation to him to accompany her to the lighthouse and this produces a rude
and childish reaction from Tansley, expressive of his sensitivity to criticism.
Satisfactory relationship between Charles Tansley and the others at the table is thus established
and the party thus becomes success. Both Lily’s invitation to Tansley are lies; the first is
recognized by him as a lie and he sees the true feeling of opposition that produced it and so they
understand each other for a moment. But the second invitation is produced by the necessity of
polite social relationship and its insincerity is not realized by Tansley. Lily feels that their
relationship is therefore falsified.
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TO THE LIGHT HOUSE

TECHNIQUE OF CHARACTERISATION
Mrs. Woolf’s technique of characterization has often been criticized. Many of critics have said
that she fails to give us convincing and memorable characters. E.M. Forster says that she could
not portray a character that was remembered afterwards on its own account. It is true that there
is no picture gallery of characters in her novels. The truth is that she always tried to create a
greater sense of life and of the way human beings really think and live. A presentation of people
as they are leads her to show us the variety of human emotion, the indefiniteness and fluidity of
character.

Fluidity of Character
It is not possible to describe the characters of To the Light House concisely, because the author
has deliberately shown their indefinableness. She has chosen to create in fictional terms the
sense that all of us have about our family and friends, that we know them too well to be able to
have one unmixed reaction to them.
Virginia Woolf has made sure that we realize how foolish, simple assessments of people are, for
To the Light House is about the difficulty of summing up them that how did one judge people
and think of them.

The Need of Intuitive Power

Lily is not able to understand Mrs. Ramsay by reason but it is the intuitive power that made her
able to understand him. As the shadow falls on the step in a scene of part I, Lily suddenly feel,
for a moment, that Mrs. Ramsay is there again. It is the moment of vision which embraces Mr.
Ramsay as well: Lily feels that she has given him the sympathy he had wanted.

Multiple Points Of View

Mrs. Woolf’s characters have the richness and complexity of life. This richness and complexity
in presenting these characters becomes possible by the use of technique of multiple points of
view. This technique implies that the chief characters in a novel are not only seen from the
point of view of the novelist but through the eyes of a number of characters. In this way
different facets of their personalities are clear and we get rounded, three dimensional figures
which have reality and permanence of life itself. Further light is thrown on their natures by
giving their respective interior monologues or stream of consciousness.

Mr. Ramsay and the Multiple Points of View

“Multiple points of view” is operative in the presentation of Mr. Ramsay, who is seen much more
from outside than his wife. Since, we are given only a few passages which present his feelings
and thought directly. One view we have of him is comic. He is seen as a great blundering fool,
roaming round the garden. His bad temper, self pity and self-dramatisation and the disparity
between what he says about facing up to the hardness of life and his own petty feeling of
indignation of the least of its difficulties, all expose him to ridicule.
Against this picture, we have to set Lily’s respect for his work and his total lack of worldliness.
Mr. Ramsay’s love and respect for him, his simple unaffected response to the humanity of Scott’s
novels and the hardships of the fisherman’s life, and his genuine courage. The last view we have
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of him, through the eyes of his children, in a moment of achievement and selflessness seems far
from the tottering actor: He rose and stood in the bow of the boat, very straight and tall, for the
entire world. James thought as if he were saying: “There is no God”.

Mrs. Ramsay and the Multiple Points of View

Similarly “Multiple points of view” is operative in the presentation of Mrs. Ramsay’s character.
She is seen through the eyes of her husband, her guests, her children and above all through the
eyes of Lily, and the result is an extremely complex, rich, fascinating and life-like personality.
We know her more closely and intimately than would ever have been possible with the use of the
conventional techniques. By the use of multiple points of view technique, Virginia Woolf
conveyed this sense of diversity and created a picture of her characters with such richness and
complexity of texture that she has dramatized the complexity of the questions as “What does it
all mean? How does one judge people?”

Written and Composed By:

Prof. A.R. Somroo
M.A. English, M.A. Education
Cell: 03339971417
 17

TO THE LIGHT HOUSE

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE OF THE NOVELIST
VIRGINIA WOOLF’S USE OF “THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS” TECHNIQUE
Rejection of Traditional Technique
Mrs. Woolf’s concern in writing novels was not merely to narrate a story as the older novelist
did, but to discover and record life as the people feel who live it. Hence she rejected the
conventional technique of narration and adopted a new technique more suited to her purpose.
So, in “To the Light House” she has not told a story, in the sense of a series of events, and has
concentrated on a small number of characters, whose nature and feelings are represented to us
largely through their interior monologues. She has used the stream of consciousness technique.
The interior monologues of different characters are no doubt given, but the novelist is constantly
busy, organizing the material and illuminating it by frequent comments.

The Role of Central Intelligence

In this respect Mrs. Woolf’s technique of narration is quite different from that of the “Stream of
consciousness” novelists. James Hafley writes, “ Far from being a stream of consciousness novel,
To the Light House is the objective account of a central intelligence that approaches and
assumes the characters’ consciousness but does not become completely identified with any one
consciousness. This central intelligence is thus free to comment upon the whole in what seems a
completely impersonal matter”.
The central intelligence is reporting a part of the dinner conversation. The remark in
parentheses is a popular device by which the author assures the reader that she too agrees with
what is being said.

Its Advantages
The technique serves to implant a common reaction into the diverse reactions of the characters
and to make certain the reader’s response to the book as a whole. It is also compatible with
Virginia Woolf’s idea of characterization; her belief that there is a common element beneath the
diversity, that fundamentally it is ‘all one stream’.

Selection and Organisation of Material

The passages of the novel show that there is no random presentation of material, rather the
central intelligence is ever at work organizing it and commenting upon it. The use of the third
person and of conventional sentence structure gives less the impression of the impact of the
immediate moment than of the process of reflection. The novel as a whole is reflective rather
than spontaneous and the selection by the author focuses our attention on the idea of the
working of mind.

Suspense and Curiosity

To the Light House begins by taking us into the middle of a scene; Mrs. Ramsay’s opening
remark is the answer to an unstated question, which we have to supply by picking up clues from
what follows. The reader’s natural curiosity thus becomes involved. We wonder who these people
are, what they are talking about and so on. As we read on, prompted by this desire to know, we
 18

begin to recognize a pattern in the narrative at the same time as we assimilate names, facts and
ideas.

The Skilful Exposition

First the reader is introduced to the characters and the world they occupy. “The conversation
about going to the light house acts as a stone thrown into the middle of a pool; it starts ripples of
reaction in the several characters, whose thoughts gradually spread wider to include all the
details essential for the reader’s understanding--- the family, their holiday, their friends the
place in general terms and the immediate scene with mother and child sitting and so on. Since,
the facts are put before us through the thoughts of one of the characters, they come to us with
association of the character’s personality, and so we begin to be involved in the tensions between
them.

The Pattern: Conversation and Reaction

The pattern begins to establish itself. The pattern of conversation and reaction is of the actual
words in the first person and the present tense, and the reflections of the characters in the third
person and the past tense.

The Time Scheme

It is by means of this combination of the conversation that is actually happening and the
connected thoughts that may range over any event, that a time scheme is also established in the
sense of present moment seen in relationship to the past, which is continually woven in with the
present in the minds of most people.

The Third Person Narration

The third person narration is a very common novel device. Virginia Woolf is, however, very
careful to make her direction of the narrative as little noticed as possible. Her use of indirect
speech for the interior monologues of her characters makes it easy for her to work into these
mental soliloquies a number of statements and ideas which are outside the range of knowledge
of the character she is dealing with.

Conclusion
Such is the narrative technique which Mrs. Woolf has used in “To the Light House”. She has
cleverly avoided the drawbacks of the stream of consciousness novel, and given form and
coherence to her material. She is not haphazard and incoherent like the other “stream of
consciousness” novelists. Indeed, through her flexible style she fuses narrative and description of
thought, imparts form and unity, and conveys a sense of the amazing richness and complexity of
life.

 Succeed in life by acting on the advice you give to others.



 Deciding today is less risky than waiting till all the risks are removed.
 19

TO THE LIGHT HOUSE

ITS SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE
Symbols: Their Nature and significance
Symbols are the word which suggest much more than is conveyed by their literal meaning.
Ordinary words and images when repeated acquire a symbolic significance. As symbol increases
the expressive power and range of language, they are frequently used by writers who want to
convey mystic and spiritual truths. Mrs. Woolf has made extensive use of symbols in “To the
Light House” for her purpose was to present the psyche of her characters.

Five Important Symbols

There are five important symbols in the novel, the sea, the light house, Lily Briscoe’s painting,
the window and the personalities of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay. They are all woven together into a
central meaning which suggests Mrs. Woolf’s conception of life and reality.

 The Sea
The sea with its waves is heard throughout the novel. It is the symbol of internal flux of
time and life. It constantly changes its character. Sometimes it is felt by Mrs. Ramsay, as
a lullaby and at others, like a ghostly roll of drums beating a warning of death. It seems
to reduce the individual to nothingness. Sometimes it seems to match the sudden springs
of vitality in the human spirit.
The sea surrounds the island on which the action takes place, which suggests both the
human race and the individual personality. The waves are the symbol of movement of life
carrying us towards the shore.
 The Light House
The sea surrounds the light house which stands alone sending out its beams. The light
house suggests many things. To James it is a silvery, misty tower with a yellow eye that
opens suddenly in the evening. When he nears it in the end, it is a straight tower with
windows in it and wash spread on the rocks to dry. Light house is the mystery, but it also
concerns day to day living. It is man made permanent thing that is built to guide and
control those at the mercy of destructive forces of time. It is related to the human
tradition as it is permanent.
The title of the book is “To the Light House”. It is the quest for values the light house
suggests. The tower is frequently shadowed in mist; its beams are intermittent in the
darkness. To reach the light house is to establish a creative relationship.
According to David Daiches, the light house symbolizes the human being who is unique
and stands alone at once and a part of the flux of human history.
Indeed, Light house is the most important symbol and different critics have explained it
in different ways. It is the symbol of feminine creative principle, the rhythm of joy and
sorrow, and a vital synthesis of time and eternity.
F.L. Overcarsh interprets the whole novel as an allegory of Old and New Testament. Mrs.
Ramsay id Eve, the blessed Virgin, and Christ; Mr. Ramsay is symbol of Father; the
Light house is symbol of Eden and Heaven; the strokes of the lighthouse are persons of
Trinity, the third of them the Holy Ghost.
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 The Window
The frequent use of the window in the novel shows that it has a symbolic value. It is from
the window that we have the title of the first part ‘To the Light house’. It is a separating
piece of glass between reality and Mrs. Ramsay’s mind. In all novels of Mrs. Woolf, we see
a character standing at a window, gazing at the street, at the sky or landscape and
experiencing a catalytic phenomenon, the mingling of his self and the outer reality.
The window is a screen between reality and consciousness. It reduces the scene of the
world and thus it represents the imperfection of our knowledge.
 Lily’s Painting and Carmichael’s Poetry
Lily sees Mrs. Ramsay’s gift of harmonizing the others into a memorable moment as a
work of art; and in the novel art is the ultimate symbol for the enduring reality. In life,
Mrs. Ramsays sees that relationships are doomed to imperfection, and are the sport of
time and change; but in art the temporal and the eternal unite in an unchanging form.
Lily’s struggles with the composition and texture of her painting are a counterpart of
Virginia Woolf’s tussles and triumphs in her own medium, but she chooses poetry as the
image that reminds mankind that the ever-changing can yet become immortal.
In a way, Mr. Carmichael, the poet, really rounds out the book better than the rather
unconvincing completion of Lily’s picture. He is a symbolic figure; his is the only mind
we never enter.
 Mr.& Mrs. Ramsay
Mr. Ramsay stands as the symbol of the sterile, destructive barrier to the relationship. He
appears as the image of sterility, hardness and cruelty and deliberate isolation. He is the
wagon’s wheel that James imagines going blindly over a person’s foot leaving it purple and
crushed.
Mrs. Ramsay pervades the whole book with a definite symbolic pattern. She is the symbol
of fertility of human relationships. She is symbolized with her green shawl draped first
over a frame of picture of Madonna and Child. It is then put over her shoulders when she
strolls with her husband and later used to cover up the skull in the children’s bedroom.
She is the symbol of encouragement and motional ties among the persons.
Written and Composed By:
Prof. A.R. Somroo
M.A. English, M.A. Education