William Woolf 's The Lighthouse And Louise Penny 's Still Life Differ

The Ramsey Summer House remains abandoned during those ten years, decaying slowly, groaning and weeping as it remembers the tenants it once possessed and the movements they made “how once hands were busy with hooks and buttons; how once the looking-glass had held a face; had held a world hollowed out in which a figure turned, a hand flashed, the door opened, in came children rushing and tumbling; and went out again” (Woolf 1927, 339). The house bore witness to every breath and every argument; it absorbed fluttering eyelashes, clapped hands, and footsteps; drowned in laughter and in tears; the house was enraptured by the Ramsey’s and remembers them fondly as their images haunt its halls (Wisker 2011, 6).

Throughout his journey, romantic endeavours cause Ramsay guilt, which he deals with to remain sane and happy. While in Britain, he meets a woman whom he loves, but must abandon, moving on and dealing with the

Lily herself feels “her own inadequacy, her insignificance” (Woolf 19). It is difficult for Lily to accurately transfer the scenes that she saw onto her canvas. “It was in that moment’s flight between the picture and her canvas that the demons set on her who often brought her to the verge of tears and made this passage from conception to work as dreadful as any down a dark passage for a child” (Woolf 19). Charles Tansley’s words, “women can’t paint, women can’t write...” (Woolf 48) echo in Lily’s head, causing her to further doubt her ability and whether or not her painting will be accepted. Charles Tansley represents some of the views of women during that period of time. Many men believed that women could not write or create art (Woolf 48).

Violence is the most recurrent gothic convention used in Jane Eyre, which is prominent in Charlotte Brontë's effective development of the novel and the character of Jane Eyre, who, throughout this novel, is searching for a home in which she would have a sense of belonging and love which would ultimately resolve this exact unfulfilled need she had as a child. The neglect she experienced in her childhood is manifested in the way she is treated by her aunt, Mrs. Reed, as in the first page of the novel Jane Eyre admits: ‘Me, she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, 'She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance’’. This opening shows how there is a clear line of separation drawn between Jane and her relatives due to her complicated family background which consequently results in their reluctance to accept her into their environment. These complications lead to her maltreatment, which also adds on to the violence she experiences acting as a catalyst for the development of the character and her subconscious quest.

Instead of relying on another power that is above her, she takes her fate into her own hands and tries to save her own home. This self reliance develops early, and can also be seen much later in her life. When she is twenty-seven, Lily learns that her husband has a secret second family. She leaves him immediately and manages to annul the marriage. Although he had taken all of her money from their joint bank account, she does not go back to her parents in Arizona or try to find another husband to take care of her. Instead, she begins preparing for her future alone. “Since I obviously couldn't count on a man to take care of me, what I needed more than ever was a profession. I needed to get my college education and become a teacher . . . the time flew by, and when both the dispensation and the acceptance letter arrived, I had enough money for a year of college” (p. 90). Instead of wondering what to do and moping about her ex-husband, Lily is practical and knows what she wants to do next. She also mentions that she cannot depend on a husband to take care of her. If she did not have to fend for

[Here Mr. Carmichael, who was reading Virgil, blew out his candle. It was midnight.] [Mr. Ramsay, stumbling along a passage one dark morning, stretched his arms out, but Mrs. Ramsay having died rather suddenly the night before, his arms, though stretched out, remained empty.] [Prue Ramsay died that summer in some illness connected with childbirth, which was indeed a tragedy, people said, everything, they said, had promised so well.] [A shell exploded. Twenty or thirty young men were blown up in France, among them Andrew Ramsay, whose death, mercifully, was instantaneous.] [Mr. Carmichael brought out a volume of poems that spring, which had an unexpected success. The war, people

Good Afternoon Ms Atkinson and fellow peers, as you can see, the texts I have chosen to discuss with you are To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Lullaby by W. H . Auden, all of which have modernist themes, including conforming to traditional gender roles, time and love. To the Lighthouse revolves around the lives of the Ramsay family who are at their holiday house, hosting some guests, including Lily Briscoe (a painter) and Charles. The family are faced with different obstacles throughout the day, Lily with a discouraging comment from Charles and James’ oppositions with his father, but in the end, despite the differences, it is clear the Mr Ramsay heavily depends on Mrs Ramsay. Ten years later, Mr Ramsay is still lamenting the death of his wife and Lily is still affected by the discouraging comment. It ends with James not hating his father and Lily, building up her confidence and erasing her self-doubt. The Great Gatsby follows the story of Nick Carraway, a man from the Midwest who had just moved to the east coast. He visits his cousin Daisy, her husband Tom and Daisy’s friend Jordan, who suggests he visit Gatsby’s parties. There, he meets Gatsby and quickly learns that Gatsby and Daisy were lovers. They are reunited and start an affair, but Tom is suspicious even though his infidelity is known to Nick and Jordan. Gatsby pressures Daisy to leave her husband but eventually Tom convinces Daisy to stay with him. Nick’s disgust for

Alice Walker's In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens and Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own

In Virginia Woolf’s “Night and Day”, we, as the reader, can examine various feminist themes throughout the novel. Even though, “Night and Day” is one of her more conventional novels, many of the issues fly in the face of traditional values and capitalizes on the female oppression that was present in that time era. Even though, this was one of her earlier works, I believe that her conventional structure was an intentional creation, as she was trying to make a point on literary tradition and feminism. In contrast to many of her later novels, like “To The Lighthouse”, which had much anti-structure and stream of consciousness, “Night and Day”, is full of carefully written

The Importance of Place in To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Lily Briscoe is a character that can be viewed as unique. Unique in the sense that she was living in an era when women were expected to take on the domestic role and fulfill the role as a traditional woman. Lily did not live up to those expectations. She struggled to stay true to herself and found it a difficult task to conform to society’s conventions as it relates to gender roles and expectations. The novel “To The Lighthouse” takes place in the 19th century during that time often referred to as the Victorian era. During the Victorian era, the expectation was that individuals should follow strict gender roles and people who did not follow those roles were frowned upon. Women were expected to take care of their husband and children, take care of the home and make themselves available to fulfill their family’s needs. Men on the other hand were expected to provide for the family, work outside of the home and do “manly” things. They were considered to be the breadwinner for their family. As one reads throughout the novel, you are able clearly identify Lily’s struggles with society’s expectations of her as a woman and the difficult task of staying true to oneself as she visits and shares with the Ramsay family.

Woolf shows that Mr. Ramsay has rearranged his life priorities by showing how he reads Lily and what he seeks from her. When Mr. Ramsay and Lily reunite at the summer house in part three, Mr. Ramsay seeks one thing solely from Lily. As Mr. Ramsay sees Lily outside, readying her materials to paint, “an enormous need urge(s) him, without being conscious what it (is), to approach any women, to force them, he did not care how, his need was so great, to give him what he wanted: sympathy (Woolf 151)”. This need for sympathy is Mr. Ramsay’s way of connecting to others. He wants to feel the emotional comfort of someone feeling sad for him just like Mrs. Ramsay does before her death. This want is so strong that he does not have trouble with encouraging sympathy within others. This shows how much Mr. Ramsay has changed. Although Mr. Ramsay still asks for what he wants through indirect mean and still craves sympathy from those around him, that sympathy is not about his scholastic work anymore but about his losses. Mr. Ramsay no longer wants invalidation for his work; he wants connection. The loss of his wife and children rendered Mr. Ramsay incapable of ignoring his pre-existing feelings of loneliness and insecurity. Although insecurity has always been a part of Mr. Ramsay, the source of his insecurities have switched. The deaths of Mrs. Ramsay and their children reset Mr. Ramsay 's priorities. Instead of seeking approval as a philosopher he now seeks

Though Mrs. Ramsay was the conjoining light that brought people together, Woolf decides to kill Mrs. Ramsay in part two of the novel. During the moments of Mrs. Ramsay lighting, Woolf incorporates dark thoughts that expresses a different side to the novel. “Bitter and black, half-way down, in the darkness, in the shaft which ran from the sunlight to the depths, perhaps a tear formed; a tear fell…” (p.32). Woolf is reflecting on her perception of death and how she dealt with the thoughts of killing herself. As for Woolf’s own death, she left her house leaving behind a note to Vanessa Bell, her sister, and a note to Leonard Woolf,

Virginia Woolf is a prominent female writer, and is regarded as a skilled exponent of the stream of consciousness technique in English literature of the twentieth century. Being uninterested in the traditional way of novel writing, she made great efforts on the experiment and innovation of novel writing and rebelled against some of the British novelists of her era, including Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy and H. G. Wells. By trying out her technical experiments with fiction in her earlier sketches, Virginia Woolf is intended to seek to develop a new technique of expression to put her theories into practice. The short piece The Mark on the Wall published in 1919 was her first experimental novel, being considered to be her first successful achievements.

As one of the preeminent modernist authors, Virginia Woolf championed Ezra Pound’s insistence to “make it new.” By utilizing such novel methods as stream of consciousness, Woolf sought to explore intricate subjects like the complexity of interpersonal relationships and the indeterminateness and ephemerality of human existence. In her novel To the Lighthouse, many characters struggle with the impermanence of their own presence in the world and seek to resolve this issue through various means. Chapter V of Part One serves as an exceptional microcosm of Mrs. Ramsay’s own understanding and approach to these struggles. While Mrs. Ramsay comment on the decaying of the house reflects her own struggle with mortality, her comment on the desire to unite Lily and William exemplifies her desire to resolve this issue through emotional intimacy.