Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf's artistic legacy in her novel To The Lighthouse swells beyond the realm of the literary tradition of modernism and into the sphere of female consciousness and creation. As a woman creating at the turn of the century in a medium dominated by men, Woolf reconciles the traditional role of women as mothers and wives with the non-traditional role of the female artist, by way of the characters Mrs.Ramsay and Lily, in an attempt to converge these two identities into an all encompassing realm of female creation. In this novel, Woolf's tendency to dichotomize gender works in a way to create a legacy of creation and art sustained completely within the female realm by way of the structural and stylistic elements of her prose, such as the non-linearity of time and the cycle of repetition, which are intrinsically connected to the female voice and therefore in opposition to the male. Woolf's method of setting up these oppositions by means of stylistic representation of the female consciousness allows for the occurrence of female artistic creation and a permeating female voice, therefore deconstructing the traditional notions of modernist prose and male-female gender roles.

The relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay is the clearest example of the dichotomous relationship between the male and female consciousness present in the narrative. Mr.Ramsay's mind is guided by linear progression. His thoughts are laid out like the alphabet, where his mind was capable of "running over those letters one by one, firmly and accurately, until it had reached, say, Q" (33). His ambition is completely tied up in this progression of these linear steps. His greatest accomplishment would be to go through the entire alphabet in order, one by one, and reach the letter R. Mrs. Ramsay's thoughts, however, are completely devoid of any linear component of temporality, much like the prose of the text as a whole. Her thought is racked by parenthetical lapses and repetition of seemingly unimportant domestic trivialities. This constant repetition of thought "(the bill for the greenhouse would be fifty pounds)" disrupts the flow of consciousness and becomes very cyclical, consistently bringing her back to a certain thought or moment in time.

Mrs. Ramsay is obsessed with the idea of this repetition, of revisiting the past in the present and disrupting the flow time. Her preoccupation with propagating marriage, of creating something for others she once created in her own life, is a testament to her obsession with repetition. However, it is Mrs. Ramsay's freedom from linear time and thought that gives her the ability to create and leave a legacy of memory and relationship that would outlast her husband's philosophical discourse. Mr.Ramsay's obsession with his personal progression impedes his relationships with others, thereby limiting his ability to create something beyond mediocre philosophy. Lily Briscoe asks herself, "why he needed always praise; why so brave a man in thought should be so timid in life; how strangely venerable he was and laughable at one and the same time"(45). It was Mrs. Ramsay who creates in him a sense of worth through this "praise". He is dependent on her for his livelihood, for his ability foster enough confidence to put something out into the world; therefore through him she too creates beyond the domestic sphere of relationships and into the patriarchal world of academia.

Lily Briscoe, in contrast to Mrs.Ramsay, develops a non-traditional mode of creation and expression; she is an artist. Lily is, at first glance, placed in a state of opposition to Mrs. Ramsay. She is uninterested in marriage and according to Mrs. Ramsay is "an independent little creature" (17). Her medium of expression is dominated by men and excluding to women. She seems to be not at all like Mrs. Ramsay. However, the very force fostering and allowing this creative independence is entirely related to the kindred relation to Mrs. Ramsay's mode of non-linear progression of thought and repetition. Lily's stream of consciousness is plagued by the constant interruption and repetition of Mr.Tansley's words, "women can't paint, women can't write" (75). This repetitive claim by Mr.Tansley seems to confront Woolf's struggle to enter into a male-dominated mode of expression and create a lasting artistic impression. Woolf continuously inserts Mr.Tansley's words into Lily's thoughts in order to compel Lily to disprove him. This male notion of inability only fosters within Lily a need to create. Lily, although non-traditional, is not free from the oppressiveness of patriarchy, and can only foster a certain amount of independence. Woolf writes:
And it was then too, in that chill and windy way, as she began to paint, that there forced themselves upon her other things, her own inadequacy, her insignificance, keeping house for her father of the Brompton Road, and had much ado to control her impulse to fling herself (thank heaven she had always resisted so far) at Mrs.Ramsay's knee and say to her-but what could one say to her? "I'm in love with you?" No, that was not true. I'm in love with this all," waving her hand at the hedge, at the house, at the children. (19)

Lily, by keeping house for her father, is still the subordinate member in a patriarchal system. Her independence is limited by her gender. The way which Mrs. Ramsay and Lily share their mode of thought and stream of consciousness is a direct product of this subordination. They both are weighed down in the present by the forces of patriarchy, by the men in their presence (i.e. Mr.Tansley and Mr. Ramsay). Their only true escape is within their thoughts and their ability to be removed from the present progression of time and into a consciousness and creative ability uniquely their own. Although Lily is consistently disapproving of Mrs.Ramsay's actions and perceived thoughts, they share something very personal: an artistic way of blending art and reality. Lily seems to be devoid of any want of domesticity; yet, as mentioned above, she claims to be in love with the domestic life of home and children that Mrs. Ramsay had created for herself. It is not the wish to make her life similar to Mrs. Ramsay's that makes her love these things and feel 'insignificant', as she consistently resists the thought of marriage. It is her respect and admiration for Mrs.Ramsay's creative ability; it is weaving one's own creative expression into one's surroundings that makes her love that domestic sphere. It is this problem that plagues Lily's painting, how to make of a moment something permanent and reflective.

Mrs. Ramsay's ability to "wound about in [peoples] hearts", to "refashion" human relations is her inherently feminine art (113). Lily, years after Mrs.Ramsay's death, is still connected to her existence. Her painting cannot be completed at the end of the novel until she can reconcile Mrs. Ramsay's contribution and connection to her creative ability. Lily, while toiling over this painting, remembers:
When she thought of herself and Charles throwing ducks and drakes and of the whole scene on the beach, it seemed to depend somehow on Mrs.Ramsay sitting under the rock, with a pad on her knee, writing letters. (She wrote innumerable letters, and sometimes the wind took them and she and Charles just saved a page from the sea.) But what a power was in the human soul! she thought. That woman sitting there writing under the rock resolved everything into simplicity; made these angers, irritations fall off like old rags; she brought together this moment of friendship and liking-which survived, after all these years complete, so that she dipped into it to re-fashion her memory of him, and there it stayed in the mind affecting one almost like a work of art. "Like a work of art", she repeated…(160)

This regression of thought that Lily encounters while painting and her repetition of those words "like a work of art" in reference to Mrs.Ramsay act as a reconciling proponent with Mrs.Ramsay. She acknowledges the influence that Mrs.Ramsay had over people, including herself, and on a level of female understanding respects her for the artistry of her creations. This slip of her consciousness in to the past and the repetitive quality of the essential meaning of that regression, "like a work of art", is similar to the thought processes of Mrs.Ramsay. With this reconciliation, Lily gets closer to her creative vision and her ability to make art and make permanent a moment in time.

These women, though different in form, represent the female essence of creation and artistic endeavors. The female voice is resonated through these characters and made uniquely their own, moving away from the patriarchal standard of artistry ad creation. With this novel, Woolf paves the way for the female artist to create within her own realm. She helps to create a new standard for creation. Within the very form of her novel she recreates the traditions of modernism for women through her decidedly different sentence and narrative structure, remaking and deconstructing the traditional patriarchal role of the artist/creator and more importantly the misconception of women's inability to fill that role.