VIRGINIA WOOLF – TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

“To the Lighthouse” is a modernist novel written by Virginia Woolf in 1926. The novel is both an impressionist description of a family holiday, centring on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland, and a meditation on marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and bitterness. It recalls the power of childhood emotions and highlights the impermanence of adult relationships

“The Window” opens just before the beginning of World War I. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay go with their eight children to their summer home in the Hebrides, on the Isle of Skye. The section begins with Mrs. Ramsay assuring her six-year-old son James that they should be able to visit the large lighthouse across the bay the following day. Mr. Ramsay, however, tells him coldly that the weather will not be clear, creating a certain tension between them. James resents his father and believes he enjoys being cruel to James and his siblings. The Ramsays host a number of guests, including Charles Tansley, who admires Mr. Ramsay as a metaphysical philosopher. Also at the house is Lily Briscoe, a young painter who begins a portrait of Mrs. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay plans for Lily to marry William Bankes, an old friend of the Ramsays, but Lily prefers to remain single. However, Mrs. Ramsay does manage to arrange another marriage between Paul Rayley and Minta Doyle, two of their acquaintances.
In the course of the afternoon Paul proposes to Minta, Lily begins her painting, Mrs. Ramsay placates the resentful James, and Mr. Ramsay contemplates his limitations as a philosopher, turning to Mrs. Ramsay for comfort. The section closes with a large dinner party hosted by Mrs. Ramsay. Returning from a walk on the beach, Paul, Minta and two of the Ramsay’s children arrive late to dinner, as Minta lost her grandmother’s brooch on the beach. Lily is offended by Charles Tansley’s comment that women can neither paint nor write. Mr. Ramsay rudely snaps at