During the course of the afternoon, Paul proposes to Minta, Lily begins her painting, Mrs. Ramsay soothes the resentful James, and Mr. Ramsay fret over his shortcomings as a philosopher, periodically turned to Mrs. Ramsay for comfort. That evening, the Ramsays hosted a seemingly ill-fated dinner party. Paul and Minta are late returning from their walk on the beach with two of the Ramsays’ children. Lily bristled at outspoken comments made by Charles Tansley, who suggested that women could neither paint nor write. Mr. Ramsay reacted rudely when Augustus Carmichael, a poet, asked for a second plate of soup.
The joy, however, like the party itself, could not last longer and as Mrs. Ramsay left her guests on their own, she reflected that the event has already slipped into the past. Later, she joined her husband in the parlor. The couple sat quietly together, until Mr. Ramsay’s characteristic insecurities interrupted their peace. He wanted his wife to tell him that she loved him. Mrs. Ramsay was not one to make such pronouncements, but she conceded to his point made earlier in the day that the weather will be too rough for a trip to the lighthouse the next day. Mr. Ramsay thus knew that Mrs. Ramsay loved him. Night fell, and one night quickly became another.
Time passed quickly as the novel entered the “Time Passes” section.
War broke out across Europe. Mrs. Ramsay died suddenly one night. Andrew Ramsay, her eldest son, killed in battle, and his sister Prue dies from an illness related to childbirth. The family no longer vacationed at its summerhouse, which fell into a state of disrepair: weeds take over the garden and spiders nested in the house. Ten years pass before the family returns. Mrs. McNab, the housekeeper, employed a few other women to help set the house in order. They rescued the house from oblivion and decay, and everything was in order when Lily Briscoe returned.
In “The Lighthouse” section, time returned to the slow detail of shifting points of view, similar in style to “The Window.”
Mr. Ramsay declared that he, James and Cam, one of his daughters, would go for a journey to the lighthouse. In the morning of the day of the voyage, delays threw him into a fit of temper. He appealed to Lily for sympathy, but, unlike Mrs. Ramsay, she was unable to provide him with what he needed and that would to know the fact that Mrs. Ramsay loved him. The Ramsays took off, and Lily took her place on the lawn, determined to complete a painting she started but abandoned on her last visit. James and Cam bristled at their father’s blustery behavior, and they were very embarrassed by his constant self-pity. Still, as the boat reached its destination, the children felt a fondness for him. Even James, whose skill as a sailor Mr. Ramsay praised, experienced a moment of connection with his father, though James so willfully hated him. Across the bay, Lily put the final addition on the painting. She makes a definitive stroke on the canvas and put her brush down, finally having achieved her vision.
I have written what I understood reading the entire novel by Virginia Woolf. In fact, I did find the story a bit repetitive but I actually liked it very much and the way Mr. Ramsay thought about his surroundings was very much similar to many philosophical thinkers, which I liked a lot.
The loss of Mrs. Ramsay obviously devastated the surrounding of Mr. Ramsay’s life. He finally took the full responsibility of his children and finally made James’s passion yet a dream of going to the lighthouse come true.
By Sayka
