Male and Female Relations in Virginia Woolf's to the Lighthouse

She was furious, because Jankyn was reading a book aloud about the five wicked wives in history. She ripped a few pages from the book and punched him, causing Jankyn to strike her on the head; the Wife hit him back. Jankyn was one of the difficult husbands to dominate and would often beat on her, but she and Jankyn finally came to an agreement. Jankyn handed over all of his land to her, and she was kind to him. Jankyn was a tough cookie to break, which made her want him more. Her main goal in life was to have power and control. The Wife feels that she can speak about power because of her experiences with her five

Virginia Woolf is a famous novelist, critic, and essayist. She is most known for her novels such as: Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, The Common Reader, and several more. These novels are both fiction and nonfiction, and include compelling psychological insight. Professions for Women is another one of her famous works, and it is the shortened version of a speech that Virginia Woolf gave on January 21, 1931 to the Women’s Service League. In this speech, Woolf conveyed her message about women in the professional world through the use of multiple rhetorical strategies. These strategies include her use of understatements, a variety of tones throughout the speech, and the inclusion of differing sentence structures involving both short sentences and complex sentences. Overall, Woolf has a strong belief that women should be free to work in the professional world, and she conveys this quite well through the use of these strategies.

In the novel, The Light Between Oceans, the lighthouse serves as a guardian and guide over not only Tom and Isabel, but also to those adrift in sea. The “Lighthouse Animation” turns our archetype into video form, accurately showing its importance and how the “light” contributes to its personality. The poem, Let the Light Enter, reflects on the archetype of light and how it functions as a universal symbol in our world, and Sharon Kearns displays this symbol in a unique way through her painting, by comparing the lighthouse with our own lives. The lighthouse has influenced the way see our world by being a stereotype of a signal or a guide. The term “lighthouse” has also been used in business and marketing, as someone who can earn the trust of an audience to the point they look up to for information, insight, education and more. Some churches also use the word “lighthouse” as someone who can guide us through the storms of our lives if we let him be the captain of our boats. Church of Atlanta Lighthouse, compares themselves to a lighthouse and mentions that “we help navigate people through the storms, dense fog and dark nights of life" ("Church of Atlanta Lighthouse.”, Blogger.com). Lighthouses are powerful and religious symbols in today’s world and serve as an icon of supervision and guidance that is ready to help us when we feel helpless under the direst of

Her only means of “empowering” herself is by sleeping with Wilson. When she comes that night back he says to her “‘you think that I 'll take anything’ ‘I know you will, sweet” (12) because she feels that she can at least have power because of his weakness. She knows that she can’t get even by doing her acts in plain sight because that would be disrupting the calm, complacency of a wife’s place. She was smart enough to know that she won’t be mistreated without at least standing up for herself.

She pioneered the stream of consciousness, as well as displaying the character’s innermost thoughts (Cersonsky). She also challenged the literary concept of time. In her work, To the Lighthouse, Woolf relies on the course of everyday life more heavily than major events. In fact, part one covers only seven hours in the lives of the Ramsay family. It recounts the story of a family that lives across the bay from a large lighthouse. It concludes with the realization that her vision was attained.

Mr. Ramsay symbolizes the conventional male gender role through his behavior as a dominating husband and father. As Mr. Ramsey listens to his wife and Lily converse with Mr. Tansely he thinks, As Mr. Ramsey is a staunch Christian, this quote can be a reference to a biblical allusion to the story of Adam and Eve. Eve was blamed by God for tempting Adam to eat the apple, and so the unfortunate consequences brought on by eating the apple was construed as Eve’s fault. From a literal perspective, Mr. Ramsey may view women as bad luck. Mr. Ramsey may be referring to how women’s beauty lures men astray from their right minds. We can also see this from the relationship Mr. Ramsey has with his son James. James is almost always enraged with his

In To the Lighthouse, we can see that Lily Briscoe chooses not to conform to society’s expectations of her, to be married and to be a mother. We can see that through Lily’s decision by not marrying, she is under the judgement of Mr and Mrs Ramsay, “she would never marry; one could not take her painting very seriously” and Mr Ramsay, who thinks she is “not a woman, but a peevish, ill-tempered, dried-up old maid”, but Lily is unaffected by her knowledge of how Mrs Ramsay might think of her, “She need not marry, thank Heaven: she need not undergo that degradation. She was saved from that dilution”. Virginia Woolf cleverly challenges the traditional gender roles by using Mrs Ramsay to portray a traditional “homemaker” woman, and Lily as an unmarried artist, clearly protesting for the rights of the female artist. Her frequent use of stream of consciousness and shifting perspectives are effectively used to express the opinions a variety of people as well as well as her own, through the voice of Lily Briscoe.

It is impossible to discuss the role of women in literature without mentioning the influence of feminism. The later in the timeline one reads, the more prominent it becomes. Each new wave of feminism brings with it its own goals, yet it also continues to strive for some of the same goals as past generations because not everything is accomplished all at once. Although “The Well of Loneliness” by Radclyffe Hall and “Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown, are two starkly different texts that strongly reflect the feminist eras in which they were written, they have some similarities as well.

In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the heroine is portrayed as a neglected individual who desperately wishes to learn the skill of escaping the imprisonment of the troubled mind. Literary critic Nina Baym claims that Jane’s goal is to assert her dominance rather than to gain independence. However, in several parts of the novel, Jane is vocal about her desire to make it on her own without the assistance of money, love, or affection. She would rather be freed of any restraints that may hold her hostage than dominate the life of another.

Another example of her natural inclination towards power arises from a power struggle with her husband. In the end she, “smote him on the cheek,” and “He gave the bridle over,” (280). In the end the wife was satisfied because she had the last say and her husband gave her control, or at least the appearance of

The triangle is the strongest geometric shape. It cannot physically collapse, and stresses are equally distributed over all three legs. But the triangle, like many things that have roots in the number three, requires a dichotomy of balance and instability. To illustrate this dichotomy, take two triangles, one that sits upright with its single point above its base, and the other that is inverted, with the wide base above the single point, on which the shape balances and teeters. In Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927), the solitary points of these two triangles are personified in Mrs. Ramsay (in the upright, stable triangle) and Lily Briscoe (in the inverted triangle). The novel itself takes on a triad form, separated into three sections: “The Window,” “Time Passes,” and “The Lighthouse.” Mrs. Ramsay rules in the first section, and Lily Briscoe in the last, with the middle section—a mere twenty pages that covers ten years of time, including the death of Mrs. Ramsay—acting as a transient moment of flux in which the careful balance established during the dinner party scene in “The Window” fades and leaves Lily Briscoe the sole triangle. It is in “The Lighthouse” that Lily Briscoe finally finishes her painting and has her “vision” (Woolf, 209). This vision, and the creation and protection that both Lily and Mrs. Ramsay specialize in, are essential to their queering of their family unit.

Woolf portrays the character of Mrs. Ramsay as a self sacrificing woman and mother as defined through her interactions with men: Charles Tansley, Mr. Carmichael, Paul, Mr. Bankes, Mr. Ramsay, and James. During Mrs. Ramsay's lifetime she is admired by most of these men, and is continually striving to be esteemed by all of them, at any sacrifice to herself. Although there is goodness in Mrs. Ramsay, not unselfishly given, there are also rising questions of this representation of mother by Woolf, primarily put forth through the characters of Lily and Mrs. Ramsay's daughters.

Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse has been described as a Künstlerroman or artist novel. It traces the development of an artist, much like the Bildungsroman traced the development of a child into adulthood (Daughtery 148). The main artist of the novel is Lily Briscoe. As the novel progresses, Lily comes to terms with art and with life. To the Lighthouse is, in many ways, a quest novel (Daughter 148). This is evidenced by the title, which includes the preposition “to”. Nearly all the characters in the novels have a goal which they are aiming for. For example, in Part I, James Ramsay wants nothing but else but to go on an expedition to the lighthouse. Mr. Ramsay muses about how to reach the letter “R”. Lily sets sail with her canvas and her

Mr. Ramsay on the other hand is a selfish hard hearted man. Yet somewhere finds room for the great love he has for each of his children. He is worried for what comes in the future and the worth he feels that he lacks in his work, he hardly has any time for anyone but himself.

Traditional gender roles of men and women are associated with Lily’s painting. In the novel, men are portrayed as tough, smart, and rational. For example, Mr. Ramsey is described as being “lean as a knife, narrow as the blade of one...” (Woolf 8). Women, on the other hand, are portrayed as caring and gentle, caring for their families. Mrs. Ramsay is a