Critical Thinkilng :- To The Lighthouse

                                    To The Lighthouse

 How can you explain that 'what' Virginia Woolf wanted to say (for example, the complexity of human relationship, the everyday battles that people are at in their relationship with near and dear ones, the struggle of a female artist against the values of middle/upper class society etc) can only be said in the way she has said?


Into the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf explains about human relationship and how relationship are so complicated. In this novel we see that how Mrs. Ramsay take care of her family members. Mrs. Ramsay is the central character of the novel and we see that how she connect their children and father relationship.


Do you agree: "The novel is both the tribute and critique of Mrs. Ramsay"?

Yes I agree with this, in the novel the Lighthouse symbolised Mrs. Ramsay character is the perfect woman or we can say that perfect typical Indian women. Generally we see that the lighthouse symbolised as a male symbol but in this novel we see that the lighthouse symbolised as a female. In India we see that how women handle all relationship and their family members I mean ideal woman.


Considering symbolically, does the Lighthouse stand for Mrs. Ramsay or the narrator (Virginia Woolf herself who is categorically represented by Lily)? 

According to me the lighthouse symbol is used for Mrs. Ramsay because in the novel we see that Mrs. Ramsay stand alone and she is always ready to help or to show right way to their family members like lighthouse.


In the article by Joseph Blotner, two myths are patterned together. Name the myths? How they are zeroed down to the symbols of 'Window' and 'Lighthouse'? How does the male phallic symbol represent feminine Mrs. Ramsay? 

The lighthouse itself symbolized as a male character and window symbolized as a female character but in this novel Virginia connected lighthouse symbol to Mrs. Ramsay. The protagonist of the novel is Mrs. Ramsay and the title of the novel is opposite to the protagonist. May be lighthouse and Mrs. Ramsay both are life giver that's why Verginia give this title.

Myth of Gaia & Uranus :-

According to this myth Gaia forced her son to kill Uranus. So, we connected this myth with Mrs. & Mr. Ramsay and his son James. Here Mrs. Ramsay never forced or tell to kill his father but we see that James wanted to kill his father because he never want to share his mother love.

Oedipus Myth :-

According to Oedipus myth, son unknowingly kill his father and married with his mother. In the novel we see that the son of Mrs & Mr Ramsay, James unknowingly hate his father. He never wanted to share his mother's love to any one. So unknowingly this type of thinking rise Oedipus complex. We see that many time little James want to kill his father.


What do you understand by the German term 'Künstlerroman'? How can you justify that 'To The Lighthouse' is 'Künstlerroman' novel?

A Künstlerroman meaning "artist's novel" in English, is a narrative about an artist's growth to maturity.
               - Wikipedia

The German term for a novel in which the central character is an artist of any kind, e.g. the musical composer Leverkühn in Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus (1947), or the painter Lantier in Zola's L'Oeuvre (1886). Although this category of fiction often overlaps with the Bildungsroman in showing the protagonist's development from childhood or adolescence—most famously in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)—it also includes studies of artists in middle or old age, and sometimes of historical persons: in David Malouf 's An Imaginary Life (1978), for example, the central character and narrator is the Roman poet Ovid (43 bce–17ce).
                                                                                                    - Oxfordreference

Yes, the novel The Lighthouse is a Kunstlerroman novel because in this novel we find out many artists like Mrs. Ramsay and liliy, Mrs. Ramsay who loves to cook. lily as painter and she struggle against patriarchal society.


"... the wages of obedience is death, and the daughter that reproduces mothering to perfection, including child-bearing, already has on her cheeks the pallor of death. One reminded here of various texts by Lucy Irigaray, in which she attacks mothers for being, however unwillingly, accomplices in the patriarchal system of oppression." (Viola). In light of this remark, explain briefly Lily's dilemma in 'To The Lighthouse'.  

 In the novel we see that two opposite character :-
                                   
                                      1. Mrs. Ramsay &
                                      2. Lily Briscoe

In the novel Mrs Ramsay loves her family, children and her husband. Lily is totally opposite of Mrs. Ramsay. She didn't believe in marriage life she wanted to live a life alone or we can stay single. She want to free herself from society for but it's not easy for her. From the beginning to end Lily never changed her thoughts. Even after the death of Mrs. Ramsay from my point of your Lily Briscoe is the strongest character in this novel because she never changed her decision. She faced all bad situation and make her self strong.


You have compared the 'beginning' and the 'ending' of the novel and the film adaptation of the novel directed by Colin Gregg (you can see it again in the embedded video below this). Do you think that the novel is more poignant than the movie? If yes, do you ascribe the fact that the power of words is much greater than that of the screen / visuals? 

Yes, the novel is more poignant than the movie. In movie we see only vision of directors mind. We understand so many scenes without world with help of camera language. In movie many times no need to say any dialogue or any word we understand whole situation through camera language but when we read any book at that time we read all lines and words so we directly connected with book and be connected with our self with book. When we connected our self with book at that time we realise the power of words or we can say language. So, we can say that the power of words is not greater than camera, screen & visuals.


How do you interpret the last line of the novel (It was done; it was finished.
Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.) with reference to the ending of the film (After the final stroke on the canvass with finishing touch, Lily walks inside the house. As she goes ante-chamber, the light and dark shade makes his face play hide-and-seek. She climbs stairs, puts her brush aside, walks through the dark and light to enter her room. Gently closes the door - speaks: "Closed doors, open windows" - lies on the bed and with some sort of satisfaction utters: "Dearest Briscoe, you are a fool".) 


Last line of the novel :-

It was done; it was finished.
Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I
have had my vision.

She said that it was done. She struggling for long time and at last she got her answer. She always thinks about Mrs Ramsay and her married life. She didn't know that Mrs Ramsay is important for her painting. She continuously think about Mrs Ramsay and In the end Lily realise that without Mrs. Ramsay her painting is incomplete. She complets her painting at last.

Last line of the film :-

"After the final stroke on the canvass with finishing touch, Lily walks inside the house. As she goes ante-chamber, the light and dark shade makes his face play hide-and-seek. She climbs stairs, puts her brush aside, walks through the dark and light to enter her room. Gently closes the door - speaks: "Closed doors, open windows" - lies on the bed and with some sort of satisfaction utters: "Dearest Briscoe, you are a fool"

We see in the end of the film Lily told herself as fool so one question rise in our mind that why she told herself as fool. So, according to me Lily live her life alone and single. She never think about marriage and other things and other side Mrs. Ramsay lives her marriage life. In the end we see that Mr. Ramsay lives in the mind of all family members and she was alone in the end. That's why she told herself as fool. In the last She draw mrs.Ramsay in her painting and finished her painting.


What does the catalogue named as 'Army and Navy' signify? What does cutting of 'Refrigerator'  signify?

Army & Navy symbolises of war(anger) and Refrigerator symbolises of frozeness(cool mind)
From my point of view in the novel we see that Mr Ramsay nature. He always in anger and he shouted to his son, daughter & Mrs. Ramsay. Another side we see that nature of Mrs. Ramsay. She always try to Solve problems and give right suggestion to family member.


Why did Virginia give such prominence to the tale of the “Fisherman’s Wife”? In particular, why did she weave such a misogynist tale into the fabric of a book which so eloquently challenges received patriarchal notions about the roles and capabilities of women? 

In the novel Mrs Ramsay tells story of fisherman's wife to her children. This is a story strongly reflect the patriarchal society. In the novel we see that Ramsay take care of her family and always help to everyone. She reflects the real face of society with reference of fisherman's wife story.


How is India represented in 'To The Lighthouse'?

• Men in power position in the family
• Patriarchal society
• Typical ideal Indian women

Write summaries of these articles:
Mythic Patterns in To The Lighthouse
Fluidity vs Masculinity: Lily's Dilemma in Woolf's To The Lighthouse
Vision in To The Lighthouse by Glenn Pedersen