1. Lecture Two Objectives:
Applying modern features of English literature on Virginia Woolf's To The Light House.
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Assignment: How is To The Lighthouse considered a modern novel?

2. Virginia Woolf To The Lighthouse 1927

3. Virginia Woolf 3

4. Virginia Stephen, born in London, on January 26, 1882, was one of the younger children of a distinguished literary family. Her father, Leslie Stephen, was the author of critical, biographical, philosophical essays, and the friend of scholars and men of letters during a brilliant period of English literature. 4

5. The Stephen family in their London house at Hyde Park Gate must have resembled the Ramsays in To The Lighthouse, with the older and younger boys and girls. Virginia Woolf in her fiction and her Diary seems very much at ease with young people of both sexes. 5

6. The tie with her sister Vanessa was very close, and with her brother Thoby, whose sudden death at the age of twenty-five, during a holiday in Greece in 1906, had a profound effect upon her work. 6

7. The Background: Literary and social7

8. No writer can escape the influence of his environment, social, cultural, political and intellectual. Every writer is a product of the age in which he is born and bred, and in which he works and creates. His writings express his age in various ways, and his works cannot be understood without an understanding of the times in which he lived. 8

9. This is more so the case with the novel which reflects the time-spirit to a much greater extent than the other art forms. The year 1890 may be regarded as a landmark in the literary and social history of England. It ushered in an era of rapid social change, and this change is to be noticed in every sphere of life. By the last decade of the 19th century, there was a complete breakdown of the agrarian way of life and economy. 9

10. It meant the end of rural England, and the increasing urbanization of the country. Industrialization and urbanization brought in their own problems. The atmosphere has increasingly grown more and more smoky and noisy, and city slums raise their ugly heads on all sides. The century ushered in an era of moral perplexity and uncertainty. 10

11. The rise of the scientific spirit and rationalism led to a questioning of accepted social beliefs, conventions and traditions. In matters of religion, it gave rise to skepticism and agnosticism. No doubt there was much questioning, much criticism of traditional beliefs in the Victorian era also, but the Victorian writer was not critical of the fundamental basis of his social and moral order. 11

12. Popularity of the Novel in Modern Age12

13. The one thing, which stands out prominently in the history of the English novel, is its immense popularity in the 20th century. It has eclipsed poetry and drama; it is the only literary form which has competed successfully with the radio and the cinema, and it is in this genre that work of the greatest merit is being produced. 13

14. Myriads of novels were received by the public with enthusiasm
Myriads of novels were received by the public with enthusiasm. The preference for the novel is due to the fact that it combines features and characteristics of drama, and poetry, in one identity. The modern novel is realistic. 14

15. It deals with all the facts of contemporary life, pleasant as well as unpleasant, beautiful as well as ugly, and does not present merely a one-sided view of life. Life is presented with detached accuracy, regardless of moral or ideological considerations. The woes and sufferings of the poor, their misery and wretchedness, as well as their charity, their sense of social solidarity, and their sympathy are all realistically presented in the novel. 15

16. The modern novel presents realistically the doubts, the conflicts and the frustrations of the modern world. It is, therefore, pessimistic in tone. This is more so the case with the novel of the inter-war and post-war years; there is a large-scale criticism of contemporary values and civilization. 16

17. Novelists like Virginia Woolf, give careful thought to the aesthetics of the novel, and propound their own theories. Their novels embody their writers' philosophy of life, their experience, their message, their view of human scene. 17

18. Virginia Woolf and To The Lighthouse18

19. Virginia Woolf is a great novelist who advanced the frontiers of the English novel by adopting a revolutionary technique for the expression of her vision of life and human nature. She used the stream of consciousness technique to get close to the mind of her characters and express exactly the impact of life on their personality. 19

20. Her skill in the use of this technique which, it is said, she learned from James Joyce, underwent a gradual evolution till almost perfection was attained. Her novel To The Lighthouse reveals her increased maturity and a grater command of the stream of consciousness technique. 20

21. The characters are now placed in a remote and isolated environment, and their limited environment brings out their spiritual interests and experiences. Cut off from the outer life of action, the characters concentrate more on inner experiences, hence the internalization of action, which is the essence of the stream of consciousness technique. The change of scene is only slight and the movement from one consciousness to another is natural and easy. 21

22. The Stream of Consciousness Technique22

23. Woolf's characters are not directly described; she does not follow the traditional method of set description. There is no summing up of her men and women, no direct discretion of their personalities. Her characters rarely reveal themselves by what they say or do. Rather, we derive our impression of them from the effects they produce on the minds of other characters in the novel. 23

24. Her method is cumulative, and her characters cannot be taken out of the context and judged in isolation. This is done by the use of the stream of consciousness technique. The personality of a character is not built up at once, but gradually, step by step, by noting the impact of this character, through significant scenes and moments, past and present, on other characters in the novel. 24

25. In this way readers can see through characters, and can even predict their behavior in future situations. Characters are made memorable and visualized. In To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Ramsay lives in the minds of readers, who are aware of the inner working of her mind, which enlarges readers' capacity for imaginative sympathy. In this way, we see much and more than in the conventional novel. 25

26. Human beings arouse in each other profound and valued feelings and give a vivid account of their personalities. Characters throw light on each other Woolf perceived the variety of impressions made by a character upon the people around him/her, and his own inner changing consciousness of the world, as a result of the impact of other personalities on him/her. 26

27. Therefore she does not define a personality; rather she invites us to discover it by living in the mind of the character to be sketched or in the minds of others with whom that particular character comes in contact. A character is not conceived as anything fixed and definitive, but as something growing and becoming different. 27

28. Certain scenes and moments are selected, which throw a character into sharp relief, and, in this way, through a number of such scenes and moments, an understanding of the peculiar traits of that character is built up. Understanding each character is cumulative, and not the result of one action or a description on the part of the novelist. 28

29. The Inner Monologue 29

30. Personality is revealed by inner monologue; the novelist uses the stream of consciousness technique for that purpose. There is a continual shifting from one mind to another; so that we perceive the impression given by one to another as the experience each receives. 30

31. Also there are many scenes and moments that are selected to throw a character into high relief. For example the scene of the children's bedroom which highlights suddenly Mrs. Ramsay's motherly love, sympathy, and understanding, is an informative scene to readers; as it uncovers a new impression about the mother. 31

32. Mrs. Ramsay emerges as a fully rounded character because we know her as she is reflected on several minds such as her husband, William Bankes, Lily Briscoe, and others. We also share the memories of diverse people regarding her at a number of crucial moments in her life. 32

33. We know her as she is today and as she was in the past, and also know the various factors which have influenced her soul and determined her character or pushed her to act in a particular manner. We have been thrown deep into her soul. We heard the echo of her heart, and feelings and came to know her more intimately than would ever have been possible by the use of conventional methods. 33

34. We, as readers, know the character of the heroine by the roots
We, as readers, know the character of the heroine by the roots. We know her not only through her conscious acts and words, but also through what passes within her at the sub-conscious level, and also through the stream of consciousness of a number of other characters. 34

35. Similarly, the stream of consciousness technique has been used with equal effects to render the soul or psyche of Mr. Ramsay. We first know him through the stream of consciousness of his wife, and then through that of William Bankes. Further light is thrown upon his character by the hostility which he raises in the minds of his children, James and Cam in particular. 35

36. In this way his personality is built up
In this way his personality is built up. His character has been further realized by his habit of reciting lines of poetry to dramatize his sense of loneliness and desolation. This is one of the finest examples of the way in which Virginia Woolf can realize a character in its best form. The most important purpose for Woolf is to convey the actual sensation, of the living people, of life with its sufferings and pleasures. 36

37. Freezing The Moments 37

38. Freezing a moment or capturing a scene is also an important technique Virginia Woolf uses in To the Lighthouse. Her delight in beauty makes her truly conscious of the frailty and transience of life. Life is fleeting, and happy moments are always short-lived, a fact that brings sadness and bewilderment. That's why characters tend to freeze the beautiful moments in the novel. 38

39. They seem to stop with the pleasing events and moments
They seem to stop with the pleasing events and moments. That's why death is perceived in a unique way in To The Lighthouse. Death is seen as a process of renewal that is welcomed. Woolf deludes that life is so beautiful, yet so sad and transient. 39

40. This vision of life and death makes Woolf's novels different from other novels, for dramatized novels depend on a clash of characters, and a conflict that leads to a problem or destruction. 40

41. However, in Woolf's novels, particularly To The Lighthouse, characters rarely come to direct contact with each other, and so life and death are not either the birth of a world or the end of the world; they are complementing each other. Fragmentation is also an expected approach since the stream of consciousness technique is used. 41

42. Fragmentation suits very much the inner working of characters' minds as it is a collection of some thoughts and feelings, which are not even related to each other. This typically suits the working of the human mind. To the Lighthouse was published in 1927, and has been generally regarded as an admirable piece of workmanship. 42

43. The scene is laid in the Island of Skye in the Hebrides, near the west coast of Scotland. The Ramsays have their summer house there and they come to it with their eight children and a number of guests. 43

44. The isolation of a few characters in a remote land results in intensity of effect. The novelist is more able to concentrate on two or three major figures. In this way she is able to create a number of life-like interesting rounded figures. 44

45. Mrs. Ramsay, the mother of eight children, is a middle-aged woman, of great charm and fascination. She is the central figure in the novel. She, her husband, and their eight children are in their home in the Hebrides. Mrs. Ramsay is a scholar, a philosopher, honoured by several universities. 45

46. They have a number of guests staying with them
They have a number of guests staying with them. Charles Tansley, a disagreeable young man with a good brain, is a student of her husband. Minta Doyle and Paul Rayley are a young couple destined to fall in love. There is Augustus Carmichael, an old gentleman, a poet; and Lily Briscoe, who paints, and who Mrs. Ramsay is afraid will never marry. 46

47. There is also William Bankes, an old friend of Mr. Ramsay's
There is also William Bankes, an old friend of Mr. Ramsay's. They are all staying at the summer house of the Ramsays, except William Bankes and Lily Briscoe who have rented rooms in the village, for the Ramsay's house is not a big one. 47

48. The novel is of great autobiographical significance, for the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay are drawn to a great extent after the novelist's parents, and she has put much of her own self in the character of Lily Briscoe, the painter. 48

49. The Structure of the Novel49

50. To the Lighthouse is the only novel of Mrs
To the Lighthouse is the only novel of Mrs. Woolf which has a three part structure. The first part is called The Window; the second Time Passes, and the third The Lighthouse. The first section gives us the personality of Mrs. Ramsay, and Mr. Ramsay, through the eyes and minds of James, Lily Briscoe, Charles Tansley, William Bankes and the rest of the guests; they are all there isolated in Skye, to give us as full and varied a view as possible, of the principal characters. Then, in the second section, memory begins its task (RETROSPECTION). 50

51. We see Mrs. Ramsay and the rest as reflected in a very simple mind which can give a detached judgment. In the third part Mrs. Ramsay is seen through the memory of Lily Briscoe. The resulting portrait of Mrs. Ramsay is incomparably rich and living. Indeed, she is the center which holds the novel together. If she is withdrawn, the novel would fall to pieces. 51

52. The story's outline 52

53. The story of the novel is quite simple, and can be told briefly
The story of the novel is quite simple, and can be told briefly. The lighthouse that shines out at night, at a distance from the island of Skye where the Ramsays are spending their holidays in their summer-house with a group of friends, is the point, both material and symbolic, towards which all the lines of the novel converge. 53

54. As the novel opens, we are shown James Ramsay, six years old, cutting out pictures from an old catalogue as he sits at the feet of his mother, who is knitting by the window. He is keen to go to the lighthouse tomorrow, thus realizing his profoundest dream. He shall go if it is fine, Mrs. Ramsay says. 54

55. But it won't be fine, Mr. Ramsay declares
But it won't be fine, Mr. Ramsay declares. The day draws to a close; a day like many other days, made up of petty events: the children play, Lily Briscoe paints, Carmichael dozes and dreams. Tansley argues with his master Mr. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay knits and James cuts out pictures from the catalogue. 55

56. Then night comes in, everybody comes indoor, the lights go out; and that night, that few hours' withdrawal, blends with the darkness and withdrawal of ten years' absence that flows over the empty house in twenty-five pages in which marriages, births and deaths are recorded. The presence of time is the symbol of the transience, frailty, decay of life and beauty. 56

57. In the next summer, guests go there once more, but now Mrs
In the next summer, guests go there once more, but now Mrs. Ramsay is dead, but her spirit, her essence lives on and continues to influence other characters. James starts off to the Lighthouse with his sister Cam and his father, while Lily Briscoe sets up her easel where it must have stood ten years ago and completes her painting, 57

58. realizing her vision at the same moment James lands at the Lighthouse and thus realizes his dream. Here the realization of James' dream and Lily Briscoe's painting is the true embodiment, realization, and triumph of memory over death itself. Those characters were able to freeze the moment of happiness that overpowers death. 58