This is shown more clearly in Charles Tansley's treatment of Lily and her painting; as an artist Lily is sensitive about the role of women and feels constantly pressurized by Mrs. Ramsay into bolstering the male ego. This draining effect Lily feels when she is expected to boost Tansley's ego is connected with the sensation she has when he is around, that he is constantly deprecating her work: 'Women can't write, Women can't paint' (130. To The Lighthouse.) Through creating Lily, Woolf is representing a different kind of women; she is investigating the variety of experiences accessible to women, the constraints and the possibilities..
Mrs. Ramsay's character at times does seem confused, on one hand she is trying to marry people off and maintain all the attributes that we have come to expect from 'the angel of the house', but there are times when we are ale to experience her inner thoughts through her stream of consciousness. When Mrs. Ramsay sits everyone down, we have first her thoughts, then her words and actions. In her thoughts she feels weary, as if her life has produced nothing, while her words to others are quite directing:
'But what have I done with my life? Thought Mrs. Ramsay, taking her place
at the head of the table, and looking at all the plates making white circles on
it..only this – an infinitely long table and plates and knives…'
(125. To The Lighthouse.)
Her female experiences translate into seeing the endless table with plates and cutlery – a very solid, concrete, domestic example. Her moods, responses and the slant she puts on the interactions between them all, move around and differ. In particular, how Mrs. Ramsay views others is with a polarized gender expectation, particularly with William Bankes and Lily Briscoe: 'Smiling, for it was an admirable idea, that had flashed upon her this very second – William and Lily should marry.' (42. To The Lighthouse.) As her defined role of wife and mother to everyone, Mrs. Ramsay believes she is there to care for others, harmonize everyone, marry people off and be protected by men. She also believes that women are there to protect the men, to nurture their egos, and to smooth over any awkward moments. Lily's character however breaks many conventional gender roles, she is an independent, educated women who has a talent to paint, and is not confined to the home domestically. At times Mrs. Ramsay appears to want to curtail Lily's independence, through attempting to marry her off to William. Mrs. Ramsay appears to feel persecuted when people do not conform to marriage and escape their gender roles.
Woolf does highlight the absence of women from higher education through oppressive protocol within To The Lighthouse; this does enforce the difference of gender roles. The male figures within the novel are educated, are studying for degrees and admire each other for their academic achievements. Science within the novel is seen objectively, and is portrayed as a masculine image:
'Her husband, however, is one of the clever people, a distinguished philosopher
with an acute intellect that was incapable of untruth; never tampered with a fact.'
(13. To The Lighthouse.)
Mrs. Ramsay's gender roles are shown in soft response to Mr. Ramsay, Mr. Ramsay emerges as a heroic tyrant and appears to represent the 'typical male'. He is compared to sharp instruments, knives, axe, poker with which his son wants to hit him: 'Had there been an axe handy, or a poker, any weapon that would have killed him, there and then James would have seized it.' (10. To The Lighthouse.) The language the surrounds Mr. Ramsay is assertive, opinionated, slightly patronizing and shows his philosophical prowess. He
has reached the level of 'ordinary experience'; as Lily calls it: he feels simply; 'that's a chair, that's a table', however in Mr. Ramsay's term he has managed to reach Q, but not R. The use of the alphabet shows the male mind; logical, chronological and linear but also child like:
'Still, if he could reach R it would be something. Here at least was Q. He dug
his heels in at Q. Q he was sure of. Q he could demonstrate… Then R. He braced
himself. He clenched himself.' (54. To The Lighthouse.)
R to Mr. Ramsay is a failure, as it represents knowledge, achievement and aspirations. Rachel Bowlby (Feminist Destinations 1988) illustrates how Mr. Ramsay's world view is logical and linear but it is limiting, rigid, despairing, she continues stating: 'The step from one logical step to the next is compared to letters of the alphabet, and contrasts with women's outsider position. However, women are seen as offering a kind of tour through life, through thought patterns, which are more flexible and fluid, various and able to hold opposition in harmony.' ( 132.)
However, Woolf show how the prioritization of the domestic space has repressed women and prevented them from taking part in everyday activities – Commerce, Travel, Work and Education. This is seen in To The Lighthouse in the public and private realms; Mrs. Ramsay and Lily find that oppression in the public realm is linked to that of the private. This illustrates how Woolf can deal with material and economic, historic conditions, which effect men and women's lives, and their ways of viewing the world, their perceptions and imaginative response's that differ. This is highlighted in To The Lighthouse with the constant comparisons between Mr. And Mrs. Ramsay, this is shown through the inner monologue of the characters and the inter subjectivity. Woolf investigates gender and the power of men and women, she explores the way in which we are constructed as gendered beings, and how culture, and society, restricts our actions, opportunities, and speech. Mrs. Ramsay eases us into this:
'…For the fact that they negotiated treaties, ruled India, controlled finance,
finally for an attitude towards herself which no women could fail to feel or
to find agreeable…pray heaven it was none of her daughters!'
(13. To The Lighthouse.)
Although at times Mrs. Ramsay does appear to be a idealized version of a women, being 'the angel of the house', thorough her inner monologue it is seen that inwardly she questions male and female roles and that in her inner thoughts an independent thinking women is trying to eradicate the presence of the Victorian female ideal. Although as an idealized perfect mother figure, she has greater aspirations for her female daughters:
'Her daughters, Prue, Nancy, Rose - could sport with infidel ideas which they had
brewed for themselves of a life different from hers; in Paris, perhaps; a wilder
life; not always taking care of some man or other; for there was in all their minds
a mute questioning of deference and chivalry, of the Bank Of England and the
Indian Empire, of ringed fingers and lace….which called out the manliness in
their girlish hearts.'(14. To The Lighthouse.)
However Lily portrays Mrs. Ramsay outwardly, within a painting as Madonna with child, she displays the strength in the representation of women. Lily's painting of mother and child is painted in abstract because she is painting the inner thoughts; her painting is in opposition to gender and creates an oppositional act. The men in the novel cannot understand what Lily's painting stands for (potential space and freedom), Lily is welcoming a loss of personality and is shredding her responsibilities and her cares through retreat (social pressures and responsibilities). Her painting challenged convention because it is abstract and is painted by a woman.
Perhaps, one of the most important running themes within the novel is self-deception, Virginia Woolf does not intervene on her characters, nor does she give objective views, their chains of thoughts question their identity. Woolf uses the automatic expectation of conforming to gender that society demands certain institiunal behavior.
The symbolism in the novel is poignant to out entire understanding of To The Lighthouse. The Lighthouse represents symbolically Mrs. Ramsay as the guiding force, this symbolizes her gender role and that the social construction of womanhood is one of protection and guidance. The waves symbolize women and their duties and responsibilities, as the waves are about constant repetition and the metaphor of the depths of women's consciousness. Routine and duties are portrayed through the ticking of the
watch, this contrasts the automatic and mechanical behavior of women. Mrs. Ramsay appears to panic when she is silent, as she has no public role, just internalized feelings.
'the old familiar pulse began beating, as the watch begins ticking – one, two, three.
One, two, three. And so on and so on, she repeated, listening to it,sheltering and
fostering the still feeble pulse as one might guard a weak flame with a newspaper.
(126. To The Lighthouse.)
Mrs. Ramsay finds the silence terrifying, as the clock stopping seems to show her identity falling apart. Mrs. Ramsay's ambitions can only be achieved when she is dead, and through Mrs. Ramsay's death, Lily achieves Mrs. Ramsay's unconscious desires. Yet unconsciously ( in life) Mrs. Ramsay wants the freedom that Lily has, she rebuffs it because she cannot have the freedom:
'She could never marry: one could not take her painting very seriously; she
was an independent little creature, and Mrs. Ramsay liked her for it; so
remembering her promise, she bent her head.' (29. To The Lighthouse.)
The painting is the one thing that holds the novel together, and reconciles everything that has happened, through Mrs. Ramsay; Lily has clarity and is able to have clear vision;
'She must escape somewhere, be alone somewhere. Suddenly she remembered.
when she had sat there last ten years ago there had been a little sprig or leaf
pattern on the tablecloth, which she had looked at in a moment of revelation…
She would paint that picture now:' (216. To The Lighthouse.)
The painting orders life and unifies, it shows how everything is related to each other:
'….All were related,' (232. To The Lighthouse.)
As they finally reach the lighthouse, it ends on a woman achieving her vision with negotiating the pitfalls and expectations of gender. The ending of To The Lighthouse, is significant in relation to the essay title because Lily is unable to make the self-sacrifices that Mrs. Ramsay made, she is unable to provide the sympathy to Mr. Ramsay that he feels is the women's role to provide for a man. Because she can't and won't give sympathy, she is able to achieve clarity and be selfish in order to complete something that interests her. She is able to do this because she refuses to conform to her gender role, thus showing ‘To The Lighthouse’ as a feminist text, as Woolf gives rise to a feminist analysis of a women's situation of the female experience.
Bibliography
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Bowbly. Rachel. Feminist Destinations and Further Essays on Virginia Woolf.
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