Major and character of Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay

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.

                 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.