NOVEL IILECTURE 12

1

SYNOPSIS

1. Critical Discourse2. Important Lines3. A Critique of the Lighthouse

4. Comparison between James Joyce and Virginia Woolf

2

CRITICAL QUESTIONS…

3

The Main Symbols

What are some of the main symbols in To the Lighthouse, and what do they signify? How does Woolf’s use of symbolism advance her thematic goals?

4

The Main Symbols

James gives us a clue as to how to interpret symbols in To the Lighthouse. As he finally draws the Ramsays’ boat up to the lighthouse, he considers two competing, and seemingly contradictory, meanings of the lighthouse.

The first depends upon the lighthouse as it appeared to him as a child; then, it was a “silvery, mist-colored tower” and seemed to suggest the vague, romantic quality of the past.

The second meaning stands in opposition, for, as James nears the lighthouse and sees its barred windows and laundry drying on the rocks, there is nothing romantic about it. He resolves, however, to honor the truth of both images, deciding that “nothing [is] simply one thing.”

5

The Main Symbols

Like James’s interpretation of the lighthouse, the dominant symbols in the novel demand open readings. Mrs. Ramsay wrapping her shawl around the boar’s head can be read merely as protection of her impressionable children from the unsightly suggestion of death, but it can also be read as a selfish attempt to keep from them a profound and inescapable truth.

Choosing one option or the other diminishes the complexity of the novel’s symbols and characters. Woolf resists formulaic symbols, whereby one entity straightforwardly stands for another; she thus places us in the same position as her characters.

6

The Main Symbols

The world of the novel is not filled with solidly or surely determined truths. Rather, truth, as Lily points out, must be collected from an endless number of impressions—she wishes that she had more than fifty pairs of eyes with which to view Mrs. Ramsay and understand her.

We must approach the symbolism of To the Lighthouse with the same patience for multiple meanings.

7

Question 2

If To the Lighthouse is a novel about the search for meaning in life, how do the characters conduct their search? Are they successful in finding an answer?

8

the search for meaning in life

Although all the characters engage themselves in the same quest for meaningful experience, the three main characters have vastly different approaches.

Mr. Ramsay’s search is intellectual; he hopes to understand the world and his place in it by working at philosophy and reading books.

Mrs. Ramsay conducts her search through intuition rather than intellect; she relies on social traditions such as marriage and dinner parties to structure her experience.

Lily, on the other hand, tries to create meaning in her life through her painting; she seeks to unify disparate elements in a harmonious whole.

9

the search for meaning in life

While these characters experience varying degrees of success in their quest for meaning, none arrives at a revelation that fulfills the search.

As an old man, Mr. Ramsay continues to be as tortured by the specter of his own mortality as he is in youth. Mrs. Ramsay achieves moments in which life seems filled with meaning, but, as her dinner party makes clear, they are terribly short-lived. Lily, too, manages to wrest a moment from life and lend to it meaning and order.

Her painting is a small testament to that struggle. But, as she reflects while pondering the meaning of her life, there are no “great revelations” but only “little daily miracles” that one, if lucky, can fish out of the dark.

10

Question 3

Compare and contrast Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay. How are they alike? How are they different?

11

Compare and contrast

Although Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay’s love for each other and for their children is beyond doubt, their approaches to life could not be more opposite.

Mrs. Ramsay is loving, kind to her children, selfless, and generously giving, while Mr. Ramsay is cold and socially awkward.

He is stern with his children, which causes them to hate and fear him, and he displays a neediness that makes him rather pathetic in the eyes of his guests.

12

Compare and contrast

Despite these profound differences, however, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay share the knowledge that all things—from human life to human happiness—are destined to end.

It is from this shared knowledge that their greatest differences grow. Keenly aware of human mortality, Mrs. Ramsay is fueled to cultivate moments that soothe her consciousness, while Mr. Ramsay nearly collapses under the weight of this realization.

13

The Contribution of Virginia Woolf: The Stream of Consciousness

The first utterance when we say the term of Modernism, We remind of Virginia Woolf with her original use of the stream of consciousness in her works.

If consciousness is related to the mind of a person, then, what makes it so important to be used as the self consciousness?

The self consciousness resembles a river or waterfall to represent the flow of thoughts and opinions that are hidden in your own mind.

14

The Stream of Consciousness

We all have our secret opinions that nobody knows in a way that every human being has the same characteristic feature in terms of pondering from their mind and getting to know only this person. Virginia Woolf, in this point, has a huge contribution to reflect the nature of human effectively and she is the English writer who is the pioneer in this field and who presents stream of consciousness writing at its purest.

15

The Stream of Consciousness

But among the stream of consciousness novelists in England, Virginia Woolf is the most important name.

She realized that it is not enough to express only outside reality by regarding as the use of one technique.

She found limited and restricted to use only the conventions and traditions of writing style. Hence she created the concept of the stream of consciousness to reveal the inner sides of personality with experimental forms in her novel.

16

The Stream of Consciousness

Woolf shows not only the mirror of reality integrating with the society, but also the picture of people’s mind.

We easily see the most striking examples of how Woolf portrayed the concept of the stream of consciousness every detail in her great novels like Mrs. Dalloway or To the Lighthouse.

There is definitely some form or pattern and some inner unity in these novels. Of course the influence of Joyce and Bergson is also considerable.

17

The Stream of Consciousness

Her essential method is her own. That is why we find that the novelist is playing the role of a central intelligence in her outstanding novels and is constantly busy, organizing the material and illuminating it by her own comments.

In fact, Virginia Woolf was a great experimenter. She experimented with many methods and gave to ‘the stream of consciousness’ technique turns and finally achieved her complete success in Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse.

18

Virginia Woolf is interested both the inner and outer Life simultaneously. However; as we know from her stories, Woolf is more interested in the inner than in the outer life of a character.

19

the inner and outer Life

The main point that Woolf wanted to show us is to demonstrate the soul or ‘psyche’ truthfully and realistically by using the stream of consciousness technique. She wants to provide a message to us in that the human psyche is not a simple entity functioning logically and rationally.

That’s why there is the interior monologue and there are the fluid mental states. But, we get the interior monologue and the fluid mental states existing simultaneously at a number of points in a person’s total experience.

20

the inner and outer Life

Another point is that Woolf had an impact on interior monologue which is the consequences of the stream of consciousness.

In a novel, the interior monologue is, in fact, a fundamental part of the novels in a new literary genre which is referred to the use of self of consciousness.

This internal side or interior monologue is the silent speech flowing from the mind of a given character and introduces us directly into the internal life of the character without the author’s adding his or her own perspective.

21

the inner and outer Life

Briefly, it is an expression of the most deep intimate thoughts which represent outside reality allowing the main character to analyze in her mind and reflect his or her impression by adding the standpoints.

Therefore, we may say that this is a substantial technical device owing to the effect of the stream of consciousness that enables the reader to enter the inner life of a character straightaway and to pay attention the flow of sensations and lines of vision without depending on the rules of societies.

22

the inner and outer Life

This can cause the appearance of individuality or the self-realization as the result of the stream of consciousness.

23

the inner and outer Life

Virginia Woolf broke away the rules of general type of chronological of narration that attributes to the new shape of a genre. There is no set description of characters as in the older novel; there is a shift from the externals to the inner self of the personality.

24

the inner and outer Life

Moreover; the stream of consciousness takes away its direction in the sense of a logical arrangement of incidents and events, leading chronologically to survive in society and the development of the character according to the norms of society to the attraction of the character from his or her own mind.

25

the idea of subjectivity

Because, Virginia Woolf supports the idea of subjectivity in her novels in connectionwith no plot, no character, no tragedy, no comedy, and no love-interest as inthe traditional novel. That is why she abandoned the convention of story forthe same reason.

26

the idea of subjectivity

Woolf uses a stream of consciousness technique inorder to put the thoughts that pass from the characters' minds, their feelings,reactions and memories throughout the events of the day.

27

the idea of subjectivity

The novel does not follow a linear plot line, If you notice that, the self of consciousness is alwaysrelated to the events which are connected with memories from the characters‘ pasts or the reality that the main character of the story face.

28

the idea of subjectivity

Woolf shows the characters' internal realities with their external reality in order to resemblethe way in which we experience life. That’s because we see common qualities asthe same on human nature in Woolf’s every work so as to come people’s mindtogether.

29

Isolation

When we look at the biography of Virginia Woolf in her personal life, Woolf has the alienation, isolated lifestyle in the sense of evaluating her life from her own mind. How can we understand that Woolf can influence from the self of consciousness?

30

Isolation

She was not satisfied with the real life which gives a stable, limited description and saw the life is meaningless as it appears in front of our eyes looking at the reality and obeying the norms of society.

31

the meaning of life

"What is the meaning of life? … a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark."

32

the meaning of life

In her work called To the Lighthouse, she criticizes the society from adapting the self of consciousness. Even in her another work named “Mrs.Dalloway”, she used this technique excellently by putting herself inside of the main character.

33

the meaning of life

The stream of consciousness specifies what a person thinks about something and how he, she aggravates their vision and the ability of commenting by using the observable facts. Woolf supports this idea by saying that it is insufficient, unsatisfactory and unconvincing for the readers to illuminate them when a modernist text is explained by only external reality.

34

IMPORTANT LINES EXPLANATION

35

1. Who shall blame him? Who will not secretly rejoice when the hero puts his armour off, and halts by the window and gazes at his wife and son, who, very distant at first, gradually come closer and closer, till lips and book and head are clearly before him, though still lovely and unfamiliar from the intensity of his isolation and the waste of ages and the perishing of the stars, and finally putting his pipe in his pocket and bending his magnificent head before her—who will blame him if he does homage to the beauty of the world?

36

As Mr. Ramsay strolls across the lawn in Chapter VI of “The Window,” he catches sight of Mrs. Ramsay and James in the window. His reaction comes as something of a surprise given the troubled ruminations of his mind described just pages before.

He, like nearly every character in the novel, is keenly aware of the inevitability of death and the likelihood of its casting his existence into absolute oblivion. Mr. Ramsay knows that few men achieve intellectual immortality. The above passage testifies to his knowledge that all things, from the stars in the sky to the fruits of his career, are doomed to perish.

37

Here, rather than cave in to the anxieties brought on by that knowledge, punish James for dreaming of the lighthouse, or demand that Mrs. Ramsay or Lily lavish him with sympathy, Mr. Ramsay satisfies himself by appreciating the beauty that surrounds him. The tableau of his wife and child cannot last—after all, they will eventually move and break the pose—but it has the power, nevertheless, to assuage his troubled mind.

38

These moments integrate the random fragments of experience and interaction in the world. As Mr. Ramsay brings his wife and son visually “closer and closer,” the distance among the three shortens, buoying Mr. Ramsay up from the depths of despair.

39

2. Could loving, as people called it, make her and Mrs. Ramsay one? for it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscriptions on tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself, which is knowledge, she had thought, leaning her head on Mrs. Ramsay’s knee.

40

These musings come from Lily in Chapter IX of “The Window,” as she and William Bankes stand on the lawn watching the Ramsays. Bankes criticizes Mr. Ramsay for his hypocrisy in being narrow-minded, and Lily is about to respond with a criticism of Mrs. -Ramsay when she notices the look of rapture on Bankes’s face.

41

She realizes that he loves Mrs. Ramsay, and she feels that this emotion is a contribution to the good of humanity. Overwhelmed with love herself, Lily approaches Mrs. Ramsay and sits beside her. Her thoughts here are noteworthy because they point to the distinction between ways of acquiring knowledge: instinct, on the one hand, and intelligence, on the other.

42

Mrs. Ramsay knows what she does of the world by the former method, while Mr. Ramsay depends upon “inscriptions on tablets.” Here, as she wonders how one person comes to truly know another, Lily straddles the line that separates emotions from intellect, and that separates Mrs. Ramsay from her husband.

43

This position anticipates Lily’s role at the end of the novel, when she stands watching Mr. Ramsay’s boat and indulges in powerful remembrances of Mrs. Ramsay. At that moment, Lily arrives at her elusive vision, completes her painting, and achieves the unity she craves in the above passage.

44

3. It partook . . . of eternity . . . there is a coherence in things, a stability; something, she meant, is immune from change, and shines out (she glanced at the window with its ripple of reflected lights) in the face of the flowing, the fleeting, the spectral, like a ruby; so that again tonight she had the feeling she had had once today, already, of peace, of rest. Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that endures.

45

Chapter XVII of “The Window” is, in many respects, the heart of the novel. In Mrs. Ramsay’s dinner party, we see the rhythmic movement from chaos to order, from obscurity to clarity of vision, through which the novel progresses.

46

The dinner party begins, to Mrs. Ramsay’s mind, as something of a disaster. Not all of the guests have arrived (Paul and Minta, for instance, have yet to return from the beach with Andrew and Nancy); Charles Tansley makes hostile comments to Lily; Augustus Carmichael offends his host by asking for a second plate of soup. Soon enough, however, as darkness descends outside and the candles are lit, the evening rights itself.

47

Everyone is content, as Mrs. Ramsay intends, and everyone will remember the evening as beautiful and right. This passage describes these rare, priceless moments, which take on a kind of psychological permanence. The guests will remember this evening and will experience, with inexorable nostalgia, peace, and rest. In a world in which struggle and destruction are inevitable, the possibility for such domestic respite provides great comfort.

48

4. [S]he could not say it. . . . [A}s she looked at him she began to smile, for though she had not said a word, he knew, of course he knew, that she loved him. He could not deny it. And smiling she looked out of the window and said (thinking to herself, Nothing on earth can equal this happiness)—“Yes, you were right. It’s going to be wet tomorrow. You won’t be able to go.” And she looked at him smiling. For she had triumphed again. She had not said it: yet he knew.

49

This passage, taken from Chapter XIX of “The Window,” is a lyrical demonstration of how disjointed people and their fragmented emotions can come together. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay represent opposite approaches to life. Possessed of a stolidly rational and scientific mind, Mr. Ramsay relies on what can be studied, proven, and spoken. Hence, at the end of “The Window,” he wants to hear Mrs. Ramsay declare her love for him. Mrs. Ramsay, however, navigates life on a less predictable course.

50

She is led by her emotions rather than her mind. This approach provides her a greater range and freedom of expression. For instance, she can express her affection for her guests by orchestrating a lovely and memorable evening rather than forcing herself to articulate (or, like Mr. Ramsay, punish herself for not being able to articulate) these feelings. In Woolf’s estimation, these traits are gender-specific.

51

She argues that men are most often satisfied by direct declarations, as when, in the novel’s final pages, James is mollified only by his father’s praise of his sailing skills. Women, on the other hand, often convey their meaning by what they choose not to say. Like Mrs. Ramsay in her triumph at the end of “The Window,” Lily is able to convey her sympathy for Mr. Ramsay without pronouncing it: she lets him tie her shoe.

52

5. The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye, that opened suddenly, and softly in the evening. Now—James looked at the Lighthouse. He could see the white-washed rocks; the tower, stark and straight; he could see that it was barred with black and white; he could see windows in it; he could even see washing spread on the rocks to dry. So that was the Lighthouse, was it?No, the other was also the Lighthouse. For nothing was simply one thing. The other Lighthouse was true too.

53

As the Ramsays’ boat approaches the lighthouse in Chapter VIII of “The Lighthouse,” James reflects on images of the edifice that are competing in his mind. The first is from his childhood, when the lighthouse, seen from a distance, was a “silvery, misty-looking tower.” The second image, formed as he sails closer, is stripped of its shadows and romance.

54

The structure appears hard, plain, and real. Its barred windows and the laundry drying on the rocks present nothing magical. James’s first inclination is to banish one of these pictures from his mind and grant the other sovereignty, but he corrects himself, realizing that the lighthouse is both what it was then and what it is now.

55

The task that James faces is a reconciliation of these competing images into a whole truth. This challenge is the same one that Lily faces at the end of the novel, for she must reconcile her romantic vision of, and disappointment with, Mrs. Ramsay. To do so and to admit the complex, even contradictory, nature of all things, the novel suggests, is to possess a greater (and more artful) understanding of life.

56

A CRITIQUE OF TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

57

The lighthouse stands in the distance. It signifies a far off place that takes planningand work to reach. Depending on your perspective, the lighthouse may look different. Itmay appear large or small, short or tall, it may be dark and musty or bright and clear.Perspective is defined by Random House dictionary as "a broad view of events or ideasin their true nature and relationships".

58

Virginia Woolf, in To The Lighthouse, takes aninsightful journey into the true nature of relationships through the perspective of manydifferent characters. Many times throughout the novel, especially in the first part, it isdifficult to decipher who Woolf is speaking through, whose perspective she is taking, butas the novel unfolds it becomes clear that there really is only one reality.

59

The reader may see at once the opposing yet relative perceptions made betweenlife, love, marriage and death in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. In this novel, Woolfseems to capture perfectly the very essence of life, while conveying life’s significance ascommunicated to the reader in light tones of consciousness arranged with the play ofvisual imagery. That is, each character in the novel plays an intrinsic role in that theindividuality of other characters can be seen only through the former’s psyche.Moreover, every aspect of this novel plays a significant role in its creation.

60

For instance;the saturation of the present by the past, the atmospheres conjoining personalities andseparating them, and the moments when things come together and fall apart. We are toexplore such aspects of To the Lighthouse while incorporating the notion that the worldWoolf creates in this novel is one that combines finite and infinite truth. A created worldthat recognizes both limitation and isolation and how these themes are interrelated inand throughout the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay.

61

Conceptually, Woolf combines allof the aforementioned realities of life into the presentation of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, amarried couple that seem to stand for both accurate and visionary approaches to thereality of life. It is important, then, to consider that To the Lighthouse is not onlyrepresentational of life, but that it also catches life. It is thus the goal of this description toreadily show why this is so.

62

In the novel, the theme of marriage is a fundamental one. The actual meaning ofthis marriage, however, receives differing clarifications. In a book by Alice van BurenKelley, for example, an interpretation of the Ramsays’ marriage by Herbert Marder isconsidered: “Herbert Marder feels that Virginia Woolf ‘viewed marriage from twoessentially different points of view, describing it, in an intensely critical spirit as apatriarchal institution, but also expressing a visionary ideal of marriage as the ultimaterelation’”.

63

This quotation seems to illustrate both the strife and harmony of Mr. and Mrs.Ramsay’s relationship to one another. One could further suggest that the Ramsays’marriage represent an ideal balance between seemingly conflicted truths. Thisobservation of opposing truths is depicted in both characters. At the beginning of thenovel for instance, Mr. Ramsay is portrayed as a man who is always truthful: “What hesaid was true. It was always true.

64

He was incapable of untruth; never tampered with afact; never altered a disagreeable word to suit the pleasure or convenience of any mortalbeing, least of all of his own children...” This quality that Mr. Ramsay possesses, howeverpositive or negative, is juxtaposed with that of an opposing quality which ischaracterized in Mrs. Ramsay: “But then again, it was the other thing too - not being ableto tell him the truth, being afraid, for instance, about the greenhouse roof and theexpense it would be...”.

65

To the Lighthouse, then, is really a story of a struggle betweentwo kinds of truth - Mr. Ramsay’s and Mrs. Ramsay’s. For him, truth seems to beconcrete, factual; for her, truth seems to be one’s endeavour toward truth. To furtherclarify this claim; here a reference is to make to a point in the novel in which the reader isable to see just how different Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay perceive life. It is when they arediscussing their son Andrew, and what he might accomplish in life: “’Oh scholarships!’

66

she said. Mr. Ramsay thought her foolish for saying that, about a serious thing, like ascholarship. He should be very proud of Andrew if he got a scholarship, he said. Shewould be just as proud of him if he didn’t, she answered”. The differing approaches ofMr. and Mrs. Ramsay, (whether perceived as right or wrong) present a choice betweenthe former and the latter; which is indeed a matter of preference; of perception. For inthis novel there lies an alternative for the reader, a choice or option that is illustrative oflife.

67

We now shift focus back to Mr. Ramsay, to further emphasize just how his conceptof truth correlates with that of Mrs. Ramsay’s in relation to reality. To begin, it isnecessary to question why exactly, does Mr. Ramsay insist upon imposing on his family,and all the while in doing so combats with himself? From Mr. Ramsay’s perspective, theanswer seems to be objective. This statement proves true when Lily Briscoe offers to thereader some insight into this claim: “Whenever she ‘thought of his work’ she always sawclearly before her a large kitchen table.

68

It was Andrew’s doing. She asked him what hisfather’s books were about. ‘Subject and object and the nature of reality’, Andrew hadsaid. And when she said Heavens, she had no notion what that meant, ‘Think of akitchen table then’, he told her, ‘when you’re not there’”. One may consider thisquotation as evidence of the belief Mr. Ramsay holds about truth. It seems as though he’sconstructed a concrete, factual reality. A reality that almost discards the notion of beauty.Furthermore, Lily also sees that Mr. Ramsay is almost larger than life in his dedication tounveiled truth.

69

She sees him almost as a machine that processes rather than appreciates:“Naturally, if one’s days were passed in this seeing of angular essences, this reducing oflovely evenings, with all their flamingo clouds and blue and silver to a white deal four-legged table (and it was a mark of the finest minds so to do), naturally one could not be judged like and ordinary person”.

70

In reading this, it may seem easy for one to claim that Mr. Ramsay is missingsomething in his life, although he bravely grasps at the truth that he souncompromisingly perceives. For this, his character must be ascribed, as Alice van BurenKelley comments that: “Like the body of the lighthouse, then, Mr. Ramsay stands, facingthe limitations, the fact of isolation in life.

71

Without being able to accept a truth which isbased upon unity and boundlessness, without, in other words, sensing the vision, heprovides the firm foundation that lies at the core of that vision, the fact that must beperceived as solid before it can take on transcendence”. Thus, Mr. Ramsay’s attitude andperception of life and truth play an intrinsic role in To the Lighthouse. For he is a manwho maintains great character; he has substance. He also has Mrs. Ramsay.

72

Who is Mrs. Ramsay? She is indeed a character that can be defined in manydifferent ways, which has been done so by many different critics. However, here, shemay be defined above all as a wife and mother. She has eight children and enjoys playinga maternal role for all those who surround her. She is also a character who seems toalternate over her world, providing order and unity throughout her life and even afterher death. She is almost eternal, and her perception of truth in relation to life differsgreatly from that preserved by Mr. Ramsay.

73

The combination of opposing attitudestoward life is what makes this novel work; it is also what makes Mr. and Mrs. Ramsaywork. Again, their perceptions of truth differ, a statement that may be exemplified inmany passages throughout the novel. However, among all the differences in Mr. andMrs. Ramsay’s attitude toward truth, there is one passage that defines Mrs. Ramsay’scharacter and what truth really means to her.

74

It is a passage that demonstrates Mrs.Ramsay’s concern for her son James’ not being able to go to the lighthouse; it also allowsthe reader to get a sense for who Mrs. Ramsay really is? “In a moment he would ask her,‘Are we going to the Lighthouse?’ And she would have to say, ‘No: not tomorrow; yourfather says not.’ Happily, Mildred came in to fetch them, and the bustle distracted them.

75

But he kept looking back over his shoulder as Mildred carried him out, and she was certain that he was thinking, we are not going to the Lighthouse to-morrow; and she thought, he will remember that all his life”

76

However, it is necessary in noting that Mrs. Ramsay must not be depicted as adreamer of sorts. She can indeed be overbearing, almost trifling, but she is not a womanwho is able to wander through a dream world from which the nastiness of life is ignored.She is most definitely aware, except her approach to life simply differs from herhusband’s; which in turn is necessary for the novel (not the story) to progress.

77

Moreover, in a very perceptive commentary on To the Lighthouse, John Grahamcaptures the full significance of the Ramsays’ marriage, stating clearly everything that Ihave been building toward in this analysis “Crudely put, Mrs. Ramsay equals eternity,Mr. Ramsay equals time; they are married.

78

For Mrs. Ramsay, though she triumphs intime, triumphs because she intuits eternity; and Mr. Ramsay, though he loftily seeks aphilosophical absolute which will solve the problem of ‘subject and object and the natureof reality’, cannot break his bondage to time without the aid of his wife. Together theyfulfil each other, and are the creators of life”.

79

They think nothing alike, yet they needeach other nonetheless. Therefore, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay are deeply interdependent.Without one it seems as though the other would not exist, nor would there exist an all-encompassing journey of transcendence to the lighthouse.

80

In summation, the substance of To the Lighthouse is provided directly by life, itcatches life in a fashion that I have yet to see in any other novel. I enjoyed this book verymuch, however I recognize reasons for people’s not liking it so much. It is undeniablethat To the Lighthouse lacks progressive action that involves moral choices anddecisions.

81

The novel must tell a story. Although, who needs a story when an authorperfectly captures a concept such as the world of mind time and the world of linear timeand their relation to each other? For both are related to an inner and ceaseless reality.

82

Review Lecture 12

1. Critical Discourse2. Important Lines3. A Critique of the Lighthouse4. Comparison between James Joyce

and Virginia Woolf

83