To the Lighthouse
Novel by Virginia Woolf, first published in 1927, counted among Woolf’s most experimental works.
The novel is divided into three sections,"The Window", "Time Passes" and "The Lighthouse". It draws a picture of the members of the Ramsay family and their friends. The first section opens before the World War. The Ramsay family hosts a couple of guests at their summer house. The section presents many perspectives through the character of Mrs Ramsay. In the second part 10 years pass and the section marks the death of many of the characters including Mrs Ramsay. In the third and final section, the remaining family members find together and voyage to the lighthouse.
To the Lighthouse is labeled a modernist work and it refers to the social and historical phenomena of modernist times such as the war, new scientific developments, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution undermining the unquestioned faith in God and Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis introducing the idea of an unconscious mind. In close connection to these developments, Woolf makes use of the technique of stream of consciousness in the novel depicting the reflective stream of thoughts flowing through the characters’ minds providing a more accurate and in-depth character development than had existed in the traditional approach. The mental processes of the characters establish the content of the narrative and allow the author to concentrate on the things that exist beneath the surface of speech and action. Through these insights into each character’s mind, Woolf explores the different ways in which individuals search for and create meaning in their own experience. She expresses how individuals order their perceptions into a coherent understanding of life. Her effort is important in a world which no longer has any meaning per se.
Modernism in Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse is therefore conceived in dialogue with modernity as it experiments in form and style but also in references to the events taking place in the outside world. Woolf’s stream of consciousness reflects the nature of the human psyche as thoughts move from one subject to another.
Literature
- Goldman, Jane. (2006). The Cambridge Introduction to Virgina Woolf. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.