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Jul. 19th, 2005 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dotintheskyI had to read Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse for my BA degree (History and Culture of Western Society), years ago. I didn't have time to finish it because of various reasons (school work pile-up, Kevin's entrance into my life, laziness, etc.) I had already read Mrs Dalloway and I thought it wouldn't take much effort to pick up the novel again in the future. Fast forward seven years and I was looking through the fiction section of Maida Vale's library when I came upon a copy. I picked it up, thought about taking it home, then put it back in its place (like millions of times before.) But, one day later, when ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
liadain mentioned she was reading the novel, I thought to myself "I might aswell read it so we can talk about it!"
I devoured the book; it was the perfect companion for the hot Summer days that have descended on London this past week. It was my companion in the Tube, on walks across the city, when I lay on my bed or sat in the TV room. It brought back memories of what was discussed in class (one of my classmates, Gerrard, wrote a paper on Lily's painting in the novel) and it gave me the chance to reacquaint myself with a writer that I've always enjoyed reading.
The first thing to (obviously) notice are the many symbols (and themes) tied to the lighthouse. I think Woolf believes humanity is lost in a giant sea, constantly looking for that light to guide them to safety. The lighthouse reminds me of that monolithic block in 2001, standing up for mysterious reasons and attracting all kinds of speculations about it. Some of the characters turn away from it while others are intensely attracted to it (notably the children and Mrs Ramsay, a sort of "lighthouse" herself.) The lighthouse is always there, fighting the darkness that hides the rocks. But who built it? And for how long will it stand? Well, it was built by man himself, symbolizing the absence of God. This is made clear when God is mentioned for the first and only time as Mr. Ramsay steps off the boat and onto the rocks by the lighthouse: his son James imagines him saying outloud "There is no God!" Mr Ramsay had no intention of going to the lighthouse while his wife was alive (he had his own lighthouse - herself) but, years later and with her dead, he agrees to go - like everyone else, he also needs the lighthouse.
The lighthouse frames the lives and the inspiration of the poet (Carmichael), the artist (Lily), the atheist (Charles), the philosopher (Mr. Ramsay), the family (Mrs. Ramsay) and even the working class (the fishermen and their family who live in the village.) People who don't have a light of their own turn towards those who have (Mrs. Ramsay) in search of comfort. Because Mrs. Ramsay stands so much for the mother and the family (she even seems to wish that everyone get married) it made me wonder whether Woolf's solution to the world's lack of a God is the love of the family. A beautiful image in the novel is when the 8 candles are lit around the dining table (Mrs Ramsay also has 8 children) and their lights flicker against the window, containing the darkness outside. Later, as all the lights are blown and turned off, the last light to be blown out is the one used by the poet Carmichael to read Virgil (who also happened to be Dante's guide through Inferno and Purgatory in his epic poems.) It is as if Woolf is saying that we can only count on a pre-Christian sense of the world to guide us, that Christianity has failed - we are not saved and we cannot rely on the "gods" to save us. The painter Lily seems to also think so because she fails to see the point of using the "mother-son" motif in her painting (a typical Christian image) and prefers instead to fill the painting's vacuum by moving the "tree closer to the centre".
Another interesting passage was when Mrs. Ramsay had the dilema of dealing with the skull on the children's bedroom wall. James (the future Scientist/philosopher, just like his father?) wants the skull visible, while Cam (the future mother?) will have nightmares if it isn't hidden. So Mrs. Ramsay compromises by keeping the skull, but covering it with her shawl. With time, and darkness, the shawl slowly unveils, perhaps implying that the mother (lighthouse) may try to keep death at bay, protect her children, but nothing can stop time: the children die, as well as the mother; the sea will one day bring down the lighthouse. The cleaners find the skull when preparing for the family's return after a ten-year break. I didn't catch a sense of renewal with their return, but perhaps there is hope that new families will be formed by James and Cam, and their fight against "the night" will persist, that the house will continue to be populated during every Summer.
The "eye" of the lighthouse, the way it circles and illuminates the world briefly in its cycle also reminded me of Woolf's narrative style - the way she will move around the characters in a circle, even meandering through the house in Part II as if her voice were the lighthouse's beam. Just like the lighthouse will touch individual points of the world one at the time, so does Woolf give us glimpses into the characters thoughts or actions in brief, "illuminating", moments.
Other interesting points for further discussion:
- Lily as artist and lesbian?
- What's the use of art (Lily's paintings) in the world?
- The novel centred on characters rather than plot.
- the boat's trip to the lighthouse and what the dead fish, the calm sea and the disappearing island mean.
liadain mentioned she was reading the novel, I thought to myself "I might aswell read it so we can talk about it!"I devoured the book; it was the perfect companion for the hot Summer days that have descended on London this past week. It was my companion in the Tube, on walks across the city, when I lay on my bed or sat in the TV room. It brought back memories of what was discussed in class (one of my classmates, Gerrard, wrote a paper on Lily's painting in the novel) and it gave me the chance to reacquaint myself with a writer that I've always enjoyed reading.
The first thing to (obviously) notice are the many symbols (and themes) tied to the lighthouse. I think Woolf believes humanity is lost in a giant sea, constantly looking for that light to guide them to safety. The lighthouse reminds me of that monolithic block in 2001, standing up for mysterious reasons and attracting all kinds of speculations about it. Some of the characters turn away from it while others are intensely attracted to it (notably the children and Mrs Ramsay, a sort of "lighthouse" herself.) The lighthouse is always there, fighting the darkness that hides the rocks. But who built it? And for how long will it stand? Well, it was built by man himself, symbolizing the absence of God. This is made clear when God is mentioned for the first and only time as Mr. Ramsay steps off the boat and onto the rocks by the lighthouse: his son James imagines him saying outloud "There is no God!" Mr Ramsay had no intention of going to the lighthouse while his wife was alive (he had his own lighthouse - herself) but, years later and with her dead, he agrees to go - like everyone else, he also needs the lighthouse.
The lighthouse frames the lives and the inspiration of the poet (Carmichael), the artist (Lily), the atheist (Charles), the philosopher (Mr. Ramsay), the family (Mrs. Ramsay) and even the working class (the fishermen and their family who live in the village.) People who don't have a light of their own turn towards those who have (Mrs. Ramsay) in search of comfort. Because Mrs. Ramsay stands so much for the mother and the family (she even seems to wish that everyone get married) it made me wonder whether Woolf's solution to the world's lack of a God is the love of the family. A beautiful image in the novel is when the 8 candles are lit around the dining table (Mrs Ramsay also has 8 children) and their lights flicker against the window, containing the darkness outside. Later, as all the lights are blown and turned off, the last light to be blown out is the one used by the poet Carmichael to read Virgil (who also happened to be Dante's guide through Inferno and Purgatory in his epic poems.) It is as if Woolf is saying that we can only count on a pre-Christian sense of the world to guide us, that Christianity has failed - we are not saved and we cannot rely on the "gods" to save us. The painter Lily seems to also think so because she fails to see the point of using the "mother-son" motif in her painting (a typical Christian image) and prefers instead to fill the painting's vacuum by moving the "tree closer to the centre".
Another interesting passage was when Mrs. Ramsay had the dilema of dealing with the skull on the children's bedroom wall. James (the future Scientist/philosopher, just like his father?) wants the skull visible, while Cam (the future mother?) will have nightmares if it isn't hidden. So Mrs. Ramsay compromises by keeping the skull, but covering it with her shawl. With time, and darkness, the shawl slowly unveils, perhaps implying that the mother (lighthouse) may try to keep death at bay, protect her children, but nothing can stop time: the children die, as well as the mother; the sea will one day bring down the lighthouse. The cleaners find the skull when preparing for the family's return after a ten-year break. I didn't catch a sense of renewal with their return, but perhaps there is hope that new families will be formed by James and Cam, and their fight against "the night" will persist, that the house will continue to be populated during every Summer.
The "eye" of the lighthouse, the way it circles and illuminates the world briefly in its cycle also reminded me of Woolf's narrative style - the way she will move around the characters in a circle, even meandering through the house in Part II as if her voice were the lighthouse's beam. Just like the lighthouse will touch individual points of the world one at the time, so does Woolf give us glimpses into the characters thoughts or actions in brief, "illuminating", moments.
Other interesting points for further discussion:
- Lily as artist and lesbian?
- What's the use of art (Lily's paintings) in the world?
- The novel centred on characters rather than plot.
- the boat's trip to the lighthouse and what the dead fish, the calm sea and the disappearing island mean.
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