TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf- finished

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, by Virginia Wolf, published first in 1927 in Great Britain by the Hogarth Press, my edition is included in the Everyman's Library through the publishing company ALFRED A. KNOPF, 1991. I like the Everyman's Library books, they always give a time line that gives information about the author, current events, and other books and writer's at that time. It also gave an introduction by Julia Briggs, I have not read this yet as I like to form my own conclusions first, but after I write this I will go back and read that section. My first comment about the book is that it is divided into three sections: The Window, Time Passes and finally The Lighthouse. Each of these is written in a slightly different way with different points of view. The Window, encompasses the whole family and friends of the Ramsay's, mostly focusing on Mrs. Ramsay and her opinions and peoples opinions of her, her husband, each other. It starts in a summer house that more people are invited to because she cannot say no to people who want to visit. She wants to go to the lighthouse because her youngest son James wants to go. But the weather does not look like it is going to cooperate, so they are all having arguments, unspoken arguments sometimes. Mr. Ramsay is older than his wife, they have 8 children. He hates that they have so many people, long dinners and just about everything, he is often wandering around spouting out quotes. We find that even though his wife loves him in her own special way she does not ever say it, nor he to her. They are always tip toeing around one another. Apparently Mrs. Ramsay is a great beauty but people have differing reactions to her, which he is well aware of. You get to see many expressions of the rest of the people in the group. Mostly you are hearing their thoughts about everything. And windows are key, Mrs. Ramsay does not like the doors open, she wants people to open the windows so she goes around doing this. She is sitting at a window with her son reading, while Mr. Ramsay is ranting and Lily Briscoe, a guest is out on the lawn trying to paint and capture the window. We are also told about Mrs. Ramsay's love for the lighthouse, her watching for the long light that passes through her window. I feel that THE WINDOW is about the soul. We do not hear the words we are looking at what each person thinks, a window into the soul. A window into the life of these people, their likes, dislike the interactions. We see love lost, foundering, trying to find itself. We see the light house with its illumination, the center of a major fight. Disappointment in not getting to go because of things outside of their control, but wanting them none the less. There is a method I find that Mrs. Woolf used that was interesting in this section, whenever people intersected we would jump to the persons thoughts who they passed and stay with that character until they intersected someone else. I liked that, at first confusing, but then you get the rhythm. The second section, TIME PASSES, is about the house. The only voice we hear is that of the housekeeper. It is all about the house falling down. There are snippets of information about the family in this section, the sudden death of Mrs. Ramsay and two of her children who she had high hopes for. No one comes back to the house. There are rats, leaks, ceilings falling, butterflies beating their wings against the windows from the inside. Just a mess and the housekeeper lamenting that she is too old to keep this up. She also notes that the only constant is the light from the lighthouse trying to get in. Then after 10 years the family wants to return. They want the house to be as they left it, so this means the housekeeper has to hire people and get the place tip-top shape. The third section THE LIGHTHOUSE, this is mostly told through Miss Briscoe, who has come to the house with the family and several of the people who had been there ten years ago. She is trying to wrap her head around why she is here, why she is missing Mrs. Ramsay or is she, why she does not want Mr. Ramsay to pay any attention to her, because she feels that is what caused Mrs. Ramsay to perish. His always wanting praise, which Miss Briscoe is not willing to do. She watches as Mr. Ramsay, Cam (his daughter) and James(his son) go off to the lighthouse. Mr. Ramsay is urgent that they should do this. He is in his 70's and has never been the favorite of these his youngest children who are now 16 and 17. James has several times contemplated killing Mr. Ramsay if he speaks to him. He has had this hatred even before his mother died. I think that they are actually very much alike, both needing Mrs. Ramsay approval and praises. You the thoughts of the children in regards to the trip, there father on the way to the lighthouse. Cam is the first to acknowledge that her father is not as bad as she thought he was. It is not until he gets his first praise from his father that you see a positive but veiled response from James. The arriving at the lighthouse is the culmination of the trip needed so long ago. It is the acceptance of life lost, a reconciliation of what is left of the family. It is also where Miss Briscoe finishes her painting, though she is believes it will be thrown out. She draws a line between the two parts of the painting, across the wall that separates everything. Virginia Woolf had experience much loss at an early age her she has the death of her mother when she was 13 followed by the deaths of a half-sister, her father and her brother all within the first 23 years of her life. She starts with depression shortly after her mother dies (Everyman's Library timeline.) In 1941 she commits suicide because she does not want to succumb to more illness. We are never told how Mrs. Ramsay dies, just suddenly. We know that Mrs. Ramsay was in her 50's when she dies. There are several scenes in this book where the characters stand on the edge of a cliff thinking it would be so easy to go over, but then something holds them back, family, work unfinished. Virginia Woolf left a book unfinished when she walked into the River Ouse, the power of depression is so debilitating sometimes that nothing can hold you back. I do not know if I could do it, I always think what devastation that leaves behind for others.