Virginia WoolfsTo the Light-house is a great experimental book, in which Woolf uses stream of consciousness to represent family dynamics, gender relations, and attitudes toward the ontology of art and the artistic subject matter. Thelighthouse by itself is an important mark in the new in that it brings a bright light to ships in sea, only to then give way to finish darkness, a definite parallelto Woolf’s maniac and depressive symptoms:
“When the darkness dropped, the cerebrovascular accident of the Lighthouse, which acquired laid on its own with such authority upon the carpet in the darkness…” (144)
One of the most crucial elements, if not the most crucial in To the Light-house, is time. During the first and third sections of the book, period passes little by little as Woolf uses stream of consciousness and the inner time of thecharacters, rather than another source, showing us their progression. During the the middle of section of the novel, there is a change and time moves much more speedily:
“Through the short summer time nights and the long summertime days…and in that case, night following night, and often in ordinary mid-day if the roses were bright and lightweight turned on them its form clearly there…” (145)
“Night and working day, month and year happened to run shapelessly together… But the quietness and the illumination of the day were as odd as the chaos and tumult of night” (147)
It can be in these, and many more sections of the novel we can see plainly the passing of time and, thinking of the concept of night changing into day, then to evening again, we can easily relate this to the inner fight of depression, as onegoesfrom depressed, to euphoric, to despondent again. One more element of this kind of second area of the novel, that could be thought of as a sign of while related to bipolarmood swings is definitely the prompt corrosion of the house when the family leaves:
“The property was deserted. It was left like a covering on a sandhill to load with dried out salt grains now that lifestyle had kept it. ” (149)
It followed by the housesequally immediate recovery, which in turn takes 10 years, is protected infewer than twenty pages. “And all of it looked, Mr. Carmichael believed, shutting his book, drifting off to sleep, much since it used to look years ago. inch (155)
If we require a closer check out the inner lives ofthe characters of the book, we can see that some of them display signs of despression symptoms. First, allow ustake a review of Mr. Ramsay, who has the most evident symptoms. He is a well known mathematician and philosopher, with published performs and his own pupils who have look up to him, however this individual has a hard time relating to other folks, especiallyhis own children and wife:
“The extremes of emotion that Mr. Ramsay excited in the childrens chest by his mere presence, standing, because now, trim as a cutlery, narrow as the knife of one, grinning sarcastically, not simply with the delight of disillusioning his son and casting ridicule upon his wife” (8)
Through the very beginning of the novel we all knowthat he’s a strange and cold guy, but after we can see, that he is likewise voluble, very much like Woolf herself because of her illness. He also calls himself “irritable” and “touchy”. Mr. Ramsay is additionally a very inferior and even unfortunate man, which usually we can see plainly when he would like his wife to reassure him simply by telling him she adores him. “He wanted something…wanted her to share with him that she adored him… heartless woman this individual called her, she under no circumstances told him that she loved him. ” (134) In this area of the novel, we are able to also notice that even though Mrs. Ramsay can be intimatelyinvolved in the life of her as well as guests, she has a ratherpessimistic view worldwide. This gives out a sensation, again, of Woolf’s depressive episodes. That they both share this darker thought that joy is temporary, whilepain and suffering happen to be eternal:
“With her head she acquired always seized the fact there is no purpose, order, justice: but struggling, death, the indegent. There was simply no treachery too base to get the world to commit, she knew that. No joy lasted, your woman knew that” (71)
The character of Lily Briscoeis a female artist, like Woolf, in a time whenwomen were thought incapable of a lot of things, as Mister. Tansley says to Lily: Women cant paint, ladies cant compose This kind of pressure hurts Lilly and her artistic capabilities and can not be good for her mental state. Lily is also the smoothness with the many conflicting stream of intelligence as it annoys and interferes with her not to be able to fulfill her duties as a girl who will need to bereassuring males in require in all those moments that she wishesto be impartial and to break the boundaries of girl servitude.
