Task on To the Lighthouse

 To the Lighthouse 

🔶️How can you explain that 'what' Virginia Woolf wanted to say (for example, the complexity of human relationship, the everyday battles that people are at in their relationship with near and dear ones, the struggle of a female artist against the values of middle/upper class society etc) can only be said in the way she has said? (Key: The 'How' of the narrative technique is to be discussed along with features of Stream of Consciousness technique which helps Woolf to put in effective manner what she experienced in abstractions.)

Virginia Woolf used " The Stream of consciousness " technique in her novel " To the Lighthouse " to introduce each character minutely to the reader.  Third person narrative moves from one to another mind to know the inner thoughts of the characters. For example James is sitting in the drawing room and he shows his wishes to go to the Lighthouse. Mrs. Ramsay says that, yes of course if weather would be fine then tomorrow we will go. But at the same time Mr. Ramsey says that it won't be fine tomorrow. What James thought that,

'Had there been an axe handy, a poker, or any weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father’s breast and killed him, there and then, James would have seized it. Such were the extremes of emotion that Mr Ramsay excited in his children’s breasts by his mere presence; standing, as now, lean as a knife, narrow as the blade of one, grinning sarcastically, not only with the pleasure of disillusioning his son and casting ridicule upon his wife, who was ten thousand times better in every way than he was' (James thought)

(Woolf)

This is the narrative beauty of Virginia Woolf. Second, Virginia Woolf used real problem of society which women faced in her novel, " To the Lighthouse. " through the characters of Mr. Ramsey and Lily Briscoe and other Ramsay daughters. Lily's painting of Mrs. Ramsay shows the less position of women of that time like Charles Tansley said that,

" Women can't paint, Women can't write. "

🔶️Do you agree: "The novel is both the tribute and critique of Mrs. Ramsay"? (Key: Take some clues from the painting of Mrs Ramsay drawn by Lily Briscoe and the article by Andre Viola and Glenn Pedersen. Can we read Mrs. R in context of the idea of Ideal Indian Woman Karyeshu dasi, Karaneshu manthri; Bhojeshu mata, Shayaneshu rambha; Kshamayeshu dharithri, Roopeshu lakshmi; Satkarma yukta, Kuladharma pathni. )

Why man or even society wants one woman as a responsible and ideal woman ? Here according to my opinion because of the very notion of so called " Patriarchy " in our society.  They believe that women are only for take care the responsibility of her family and child. The men can work and do job only. This is the very dangerous and problematic notion of our society.  The same problem Virginia Woolf portrayed in her novel through the character of Mrs. Ramsay. She is only the ideal and responsible lady in her big family and very beautifully takes care of everything. Here I would like to put one quote which shows the compassionate nature of Mrs Ramsay,

"When she looked in the glass and saw her hair grey, her cheek sunk, at fifty, she thought, possibly she might have managed things better—her husband; money; his books. But for her own part she would never for a single second regret her decision, evade difficulties, or slur over duties." (Woolf)

The second point is yes I agree  that the novel is both the tribute and critique of Mrs. Ramsay. We can judge this point through the painting of Mrs. Ramsay by Lily Briscoe. 

We can surely say that the novel is critique of Mrs. Ramsay because Lily Briscoe draws Mrs. Ramsay's painting and breaks the very notion of,   " Women can't write, Women can't paint. " Lily Briscoe is the totally contradictory figure of Mrs. Ramsay and proves that her place never replace by anyone in family and in all mind and heart also.

🔶️Considering symbolically, does the Lighthouse stand for Mrs. Ramsay or the narrator (Virginia Woolf herself who is categorically represented by Lily)? (Key: Take help from the presentation on Symbolism to connect Mrs. Caroline Ramsay with Lighthouse. Secondly, the narrator / author cannot fully disappear from the novel and thus the stoicism of Lily to paint and thus prove that she can paint, is symbolically presented in stoicism of Lighthouse. Read 'lighthouse' symbol from presentation slide with this insight to connect lighthouse with the narrator. Give your concluding remarks in the comment below in this blog )

Ramsay symbolizes the spiritual strength of the entire family and providing strength and powerful guidance as well as superficial assurance (James) to all the members of family. As it is suggested in the presentation, we can interpret the symbol of lighthouse with Mrs.Ramsay who is the center in the novel and direction giver to the family like lighthouse gives the way to the bushed people,About the narrator, with biographically context, we can say that Virginia's character is more presented in Lily's character and her dilemma is Virginia Woolf's own mental dilemma. Furthermore, we can say that Virginia portrayed her character in the Lily's character because Woolf also was  a stoic personality in her time as an artist so she is connected with the Lily throughout the novel.

🔶️In the article by Joseph Blotner, two myths are patterned together. Name the myths? How they are zeroed down to the symbols of 'Window' and 'Lighthouse'? How does the male phallic symbol represent feminine Mrs. Ramsay? (Key: The strokes of light-beams. . . )

In this novel Virginia Woolf's concept of Women's role in life is crystallized in the character of Mrs. Ramsay, whose attributes are those of major female figures in Pagan myth. The most useful myth for interpreting the novel is that of the primordial Goddess. In the present novel Woolf used two myths one is Pagan myth in which Woolf connected Mrs. Ramsay with Rhea who had similar numbers of children like Mrs. Ramsay and also a well nurtured woman and with Demeter an important characteristic of Mrs. Ramsay in her Demeter aspect is her complete femininity as Demeter was worshiped more by men than women like Ramsay who respected more men than women and also Demeter was known as maker of earth fruitful while Mrs. Ramsay also a maker of Fruitful family. Another myth is the myth of Oedipus. We can see the aspect of the myth between Mrs. Ramsay and James, James hate his father because he do not want that his mother love his father.

🔶️What do you understand by the German term 'Künstlerroman'? How can you justify that 'To The Lighthouse' is 'Künstlerroman' novel?

The " künstlerroman " is a type of bildungsroman—a novel where the protagonist undergoes an education—in which the writer charts the course of an artist undergoing an evolution from nascent stirrings to full artistic voice.Literally, künstlerroman translates to English as “artist” from the German, “künstler” and “novel” from the French, “roman”. The künstlerroman traces its origins to the Germanic Romantic tradition of the eighteenth century, when a generation of writers began to rebel against what they believed to be the confining rationalist structures borne of the Era of Enlightenment. In 'To the Light house" Lily's and Carmichael characters the novel itself is a struggle of an artist. It also deals with arrogant rejection of the commonplace life, and biographically we can say that Virginia Woolf also becoming an artist in her life and also faced lots of struggle in life because of patriarchal thinking about women of her time,in this novel the character of Lily makes it  'Kunstlerroman' novel.

🔶️"... the wages of obedience is death, and the daughter that reproduces mothering to perfection, including child-bearing, already has on her cheeks the pallor of death. One reminded here of various texts by Lucy Irigaray, in which she attacks mothers for being, however unwillingly, accomplices in the patriarchal system of oppression." (Viola). In light of this remark, explain briefly Lily's dilemma in 'To The Lighthouse'. 

🔶️Movie Screening: Worksheet (Click here to open)

🔶️You have compared the 'beginning' and the 'ending' of the novel and the film adaptation of the novel directed by Colin Gregg (you can see it again in the embedded video below this). Do you think that the novel is more poignant than the movie? If yes, do you ascribe the fact that the power of words is much greater than that of the screen / visuals?

Frame study of the movie and Lily's Dilemma To the Lighthouse ( the blog link of another blog is linked here )