Jenn(ifer)'s Reviews > To the Lighthouse

First my left foot then my right behind the other, breadcrumbs lost under the snow…

There are novels that I read purely as a way to escape reality. They are a release from my incessant mental chatter. They help to pass the time. Other novels will not stand for merely serving as a distraction. They demand to be studied. They demand I go the extra mile and extend my reading well beyond my purview. Sixty pages into this formidable work and I realized this is not just a novel to be read. It does not merely exist for my enjoyment. No. It is a work of art, and it demands to be treated as such.

So I went back to page one, pen and notebook in hand. And I started over…

The Window:

Virginia is performing an exorcism.

The ghosts of her parents tortured Virginia Woolf for many years until finally, at the age of 44 after writing this novel, after reincarnating her parents in the forms of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, she was free of them. From Woolf’s essay “A Sketch of the Past”: "The presence of my mother obsessed me… I wrote the book very quickly and when it was written I ceased to be obsessed with [her]… Further, just as I rubbed out a good deal of the force of my mother’s memory.. so I rubbed out much of his [her father’s] memory too. Until I wrote it out… I would be arguing with him, raging against him; saying to myself all that I never said to him.” With To the Lighthouse, Virginia finally said all that she needed to say, and we, dear reader, are rewarded with this beautiful catharsis.

The first section is aptly titled ‘The Window,’ as the reader is given a spectacular view of the Ramsays vacationing in the Isle of Skye ten years ago. Woolf begins by dropping us right in the middle of a conversation and lets us figure out what is going on and who these people are. From the opening pages, we are shown the dichotomy between male and female. Meet Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay. He: cold, rational and demanding; she: gentle, beautiful and doting. Together they are the yin to the others yang. Note that we are never told their first names, as if Woolf wants to solidify an image of two halves of one whole. The weakness of one is compensated for in the strength of the other.

This is never more clearly expressed than it is with regard to the relationship each parent has with the youngest child James. It’s such a simple scenario: he wants to sail to the lighthouse, but foul weather is likely to make such a trip impossible. However, Mrs. Ramsay knows that children need to believe that things are possible, no matter how fantastical they may seem. She gives her son what he needs most; she gives him hope, even if it is misguided, even if she knows there is little chance the trip will take place. Children need to have hope. Mr. Ramsay, however, sees it as his duty to keep his children grounded in Reality (ever seeking that elusive ‘R’).“His own children should be aware from childhood that life is difficult.”

This section also introduces us to Lily Briscoe. Lily is said to represent partially Virginia’s sister Vanessa (an artist in her own right), Robert Fry (artist, long-time friend of Virginia, and Vanessa’s lover) and Virginia herself. Lily is thirty-three when we meet her: unmarried, artistic, plain. What stood out most for me was the way she ruminated about Mr. Tansley’s comment: “Women can’t paint, women can’t write…” I think Lily is Woolf’s idealization of an artist: unmarried and without children to interrupt her creative process. Androgynous. Lily realizes the importance of the artist: to be the observer and the recorder of life. ”That would have been his answer, presumably – how “you” and “I” and “she” pass and vanish; nothing stays; all changes; but not words, not paint…"

Time Passes:

The shortest section of this tripartite is by far its greatest gift. It signifies the center line, the separation between past and present. Ten years pass by in a poetic panorama. Imagine if you will a film depicting the view of the lighthouse shot over many years using time-lapse photography. What you would see is the shifting of darkness to light, darkness to light. That is exactly what Woolf’s imagery brings to mind in this section. She takes us from, ”So with the lamps all put out, the moon sunk…” to “The spring without a leaf to toss, bare and bright like a virgin fierce in her chastity, scornful in her purity, was laid out on fields wide-eyed and watchful and entirely careless of what was done or thought by the beholders.” And back to darkness. And finally back to light.

The Lighthouse:

From “A Sketch of the Past”: “For the present when backed by the past is a thousand times deeper than the present when it presses so close that you can feel nothing else…” ‘The Lighthouse,’ the third and final section, brings the Ramsays and Lily up to the present day where they are still dealing with the issues they faced ten years ago. Like Virginia herself, it is time for the characters to exorcise the ghosts of the past and move on (note that Lily is now 44, the same age Virginia was when she wrote TTLH). They each, in their own way, go through a catharsis. This section of the novel provides the balance, the yin to “The Window’s” yang.

In the end, without spoiling the plot, I will simply say that this book is- every chapter, every sentence, every word – a work of art. It is a masterpiece worthy of the highest praise. Yes, we all read for enjoyment, but surely the best books are those that force us to go beyond its pages in search of greater truths.