Name – Parmar Shubhda
Paper -9(The Modernnist Literature)
Roll no – 30
Submitted to – S.B Gardi
Department of English
MKBU
Introduction:
‘To the Lighthouse’, written by Virginia Woolf and published
in 1927, centers on the period before and after World War one. The
background is of great importance to an understanding of the gender relations
in the novel. As Woolf is writing out of a society with well-established
values, that wanted the vote for all women and equal rights. In many ways Woolf
is through as she criticizes many aspects of the patriarchal world that she was
a part, though some critics say that she seems to support the patriarch.
The major characters are Mrs.
Ramsay and Mr. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay is the stereotypical mother figure, beautiful, beloved, helpful, and the novel does not criticize her achievements as a mother
of eight. Here Mr. Ramsay stands, in many respects,
as Mrs. Ramsay’s opposite. Where she acts good-naturedly, kindly, and
sensitively to others, he tends to be short-tempered, selfish, and rude with
her. Even though her nature and position leads her to surround
herself with people, with them her husband, and all the poor house-guests she
invites. That she thinks this is clear in the image of her sitting and knitting,
thinking all the though, and noticing the beam of the lighthouse through the
window. This image of the lighthouse as exactly a light in the dark is very
powerful in the way it reveals.
The thing is, though, when we talk
about the symbol of "The Lighthouse" in "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory," we said that, one of the themes of this book is the gap between the
ideal and the real. And there's absolutely a gap here, Mrs. Ramsay works so
hard to be a perfect wife when Mr. Ramsay can't quite fill the role of perfect
husband and father.
Mrs. and Mr. Ramsay create one of the most complex, mysterious relationships in To the Lighthouse. They have a large, family that is kept together by the power and insistence of the mother figure. Here Woolf shows the understanding that Mr. and Mrs.Ramsay commonly share about their relationship .Thought their lack of words, it is shown that both value each other and their personal freedom.
Mrs. and Mr. Ramsay create one of the most complex, mysterious relationships in To the Lighthouse. They have a large, family that is kept together by the power and insistence of the mother figure. Here Woolf shows the understanding that Mr. and Mrs.Ramsay commonly share about their relationship .Thought their lack of words, it is shown that both value each other and their personal freedom.
Mr. Ramsay and
Mrs. Ramsay, though they relationship over their love for
their children and the love they have for each other .They are really different in the way they live
their everyday lives. (woolf)
Mr. Ramsay, an introvert, is deeply within his philosophical
search, blinded by his need for fame and greatness. His power and superiority
and as a result, treats the people around him. Especially with his children, in
order to feel on top. Mrs. Ramsay on the other hand is, for the most part, an
extrovert and a provider for everyone in the story one or another way.
Mrs.
Ramsay is the protector of the men in her family. In fact, she uses the men’s
relationship with each other to give her peace of mind, a chance to
rest from her regular works as mother of the family:
“…that the men were happily talking; this sound, which had lasted now
half an hour and had taken its place soothingly in the scale of sounds pressing
on top of her…so that the monotonous fall of the waves on the beach, which for
the most part beat a measured and soothing tattoo to her thoughts and
seemed consolingly to repeat over and over again as she sat with the children
the words of some old cradle song, murmured by nature, “I am guarding you—I am
your support…”
Mr. Ramsay, on the other hand, cannot respect
his wife because of the foolishness of her woman’s mind.
“Mr. Ramsay is, superficially,
the figure of the Victorian paterfamilias, authoritarian, detached emotionally
from his family, asserting his male superiority as he pursues his concept of
truth with integrity but insensitivity”.
He is continuously angry at her hopeful nature, the way she tells lies
to James, making him hope that they can go to the lighthouse even though logic
and reason are not on her side: (okamoto)
‘The
extraordinary irrationality of her remark, the folly of women’s minds enraged
him. He had ridden through the valley of death, been shattered and shivered;
and now, she flew in the face of facts, made his children hope what was utterly
out of the question, in effect, and told lies.
In fact, Mrs. Ramsay is expected to twist and
fold at will to her husband’s wishes. Her minor points of revolt are not done
on her own behalf, but are completed on the behalf of her children,
specifically James, who is too young to protect himself from his father. When
her husband needs support, when he wants her to tell him that he is not a
failure, she complies:
‘He
was a failure, he repeated…she assured him, beyond a shadow of a doubt, by her
laugh, her poise, her competence…If he put implicit faith in her, nothing
should hurt him; however deep he buried himself or climbed high, not for a
second should he find himself without her. So boasting of her capacity to
surround and protect, there was scarcely a shell of her left for her to know
herself by; all was so lavished and spent…’
Mrs. Ramsay
is powerful from the novel’s opening pages not only as a woman of great
humanity, but also as a guard. Indeed, her main goal is to care for her
youngest son James .Mrs. Ramsay tells her son that’ if the weather is good
tomorrow, they can go to the light house. So, here we can see how she is treat
her child with love .And other side Mr. Ramsay tells him, today that’s not
possible .And at that time James was very angry on his father .So, as mother
Mrs.Ramsay is know how to do care of children. We can say that,
Mrs. Ramsay is about as close as Virginia Woolf. Mrs. Ramsay is the lovely star at the center
of the Ramsay family, and at the heart of the novel. Mrs.Ramsay magical
power as the great mother is quite clear in the first section. .Mrs.Ramsay is
more emotional, whose magical force attracts people.
Her unexpected death leaves the Ramsay family. Mrs. Ramsay thrives on male companionship, because she sets
herself up as a type of Superwoman. She gives great dinner parties and she
raises eight children, she has the ability to arrange a party well and also has
the power to connect people yet she still has the energy to be naturally beautiful. Who devotes herself to family and
friends and who takes satisfaction in making memorable experiences for the
guests at the family’s summer home. Also, she is seen as an image of fountain
and the flowering fruit-tree. For her children, she is the off-spring of love,
protection and affection.
Mrs. Ramsay feels morally better to her
husband and the other guests. Her emotional responses and human motives are
confusing. She surrounds herself with people. Who need and depend on her in
order to control and work them. So her self-sacrifice is a guard which she uses
to hide her controlling. Finally, is evident from her meeting with Mr. Ramsay
at the close of “The Window,” Mrs. Ramsay never compromises
herself. Here, she is satisfying her husband’s desire for her to tell him. She
loves him without saying the words, she finds so difficult to say. This scene
plays Mrs. Ramsay’s capacity to bring mutually different things into a whole.
Here we can say that, when first introduced to
her, the reader sees this kindly woman who is almost good. Because she cares
eight children, houses guests, and deals with a not possible husband. However,
when she finds time to sit by herself, the real Mrs. Ramsay surfaces. She
doesn't want them to grow up, to leave their happy times and enter the world of
maturity. "For that reason, knowing what was before the love and ambition and
being wretched alone in dreary places she had often the feeling, why must they
grow up and lose it all?” As she sits
alone, Mrs. Ramsay spends her time trying to convince herself that her children
will grow up to be happy in its place of far like herself. "And then she
said to herself, they will be perfectly happy."She is always trying that
live her life full of happiness .Because she is alone taken responsibility of
her children .Also she living her life full of enjoy.
Mr.Ramsay clearly presents his
love and emotions to his wife .Maybe he is frightened by her , or afraid to
show her how much he cares .But ,one can see as the text continues more details
about how he feels about her .He clearly cares for her really and wants to be
the man that James, he could never be.
However , I don’t think he knows how to express those emotions .I think that
Mr.Ramsay is actually a lot shy than the opening. From the first passages , he
takes on the role of bening self important and mean because his son , James
dislikes him.. However , here relized that James’ opinion isn’t the only person
who knows Mr.Ramsay’s character.Actually Mrs.Ramsay seems to be quite loving of
her husband .Similary , Mrs.Ramsay isn’t the same character I thought she was
either. At first, Mrs.Ramsay as this angelic, loving and family oriented woman
.Mrs. Ramsay is a dark and gloomy character who is really negative, claming
that all lives remain in the ‘lords hands’ .
Yet, I
believe she puts on a mask while with her children. When she is alone, she
seems to be sad and almost trapped. Mrs.Ramsay acts as thought she hates her
life and wants another one. She craves something new, she craves constancy and
personality, this basically means that she believes she doesn’t have constantly
or personality. When she’s alone, she seems to crave even more loneliness. But,
when she’s with her family she acts almost as if she is a totally different
person.
Virginia Woolf pictures the
character of Mr. Ramsay as a real human being, he has a second-dimension that
allows him to have both evil and truthful attributes. She does not write
about either a very poor and giving man or a very respectful and cruel man.
Instead, Woolf gives the readers a real character with both that allows readers
to understand the characters like Mr. Ramsay.
“His arms thought stretched out, remained
empty” this is Mr. Ramsay’s fact in to The Light house .Here very painful event
of the novel, Mrs.Ramsay death affects Mr.Ramsay more than anyone else .It
leaves him dared, lost as if part of himself has died or as if he has lost an
important means of life support for Lily Briscoe was caring of children.
Mr. Ramasy is a man of
modernity and as such he lives a little part from reality .His choice of
profession, but is one in which his intellectual activities and highest hopes
are especially strange with organic, social life .In contrast, Mrs.Ramsay serve
as his link to the world and earthy happiness, she lives herself .When she
dies, Mr. Ramsay is feel like he lost everything in his life. He loves his wife, they have a original
understanding, yet he is not a "help" to her in their relationships with others.
Mr. Ramsay is less simple to understand,
possibly because he is given less attention. In many ways he is a more
interesting as well as original character, he is brilliant no doubt, but
introverted, lacking those direct graces which win for his wife the greater
love of their children, lacking love, too, and a sense of social compromise
severe in his honesty, a man, a thinker, where his wife is a woman, a psychologist. He lacks sensitiveness, one feels, either that or his
sensitiveness is a very deep and hidden one.
Mr. Ramsay is portrayed as
a sympathetic and thoughtful husband that is "pained" by the expression of sorrow on his wife's face. Mr. Ramsay is sensitive to his
wife's feelings and desires her well-being. So here Woolf illustrates the difference of
Mr. Ramsay's character through his and Mrs. Ramsay's connections.
Conclusion:
In short, we can say that nature
of Mr. and Mrs.Ramsay is very different. Because in the novel Mrs.Ramsay was
performing role very successfully being the central character of mother, wife,
neighbor and friend holds power in the novel. She was always trying to living
her life full of happiness. But after Mrs.Ramsay’s death, Lily completes her
painting. Thought the painting of Mrs.Ramsay and James is so conceptual, Lily
achieves the convey of magical power by finishing the portrait of Mrs.Ramsay.
Other side in the novel if we are comparison with Mr.Ramsay, he is
extremely change. Because Mr.Ramsay is philosopher, who is intellectual but
suffers from an weakness complex from failure, and he is removed and hard
towards his family .Mr.Ramsay’s attitude in the first scene is very distance
and it is difficult to find any affection towards his son .And end of the novel
how he was caring his children.
Works Cited
okamoto, Hiroko. "representations of Mrs.Ramsay
in Virginia woolf's To the Lighthouse." (n.d.).
woolf, virginia. To the Lighthouse. 2004.