Elizabeth Gagne
ENG 436.01
In the novel To the Lighthouse, there seems to be a large and, in my opinion, somewhat strange theme of all the men who encounter Mrs. Ramsay falling in love with her. It became especially odd when we find out that Mrs. Ramsay is not only married, but she has eight children. The woman is around fifty years old and still attracting the eyes of twenty or thirty year olds. She is described by each of the men as beautiful and caring and loving and such but there is never actually a description of her made by the author or an unbiased eye. Her husband also acts cold in the beginning but we find out later that he too finds her beautiful. At one point he even asks her if she loves him and although she does not say yes or no, he can draw from what she does say that she does indeed still love him.
Mrs. Ramsay's two oldest children, Andrew and Prue, are talked about quite a bit in the book even though they do not actually appear in it as characters. Mrs. Ramsay thinks about what she wishes for her children in much of her time at the house by the sea. For her daughter Prue, she hopes for a beautiful marriage and children and a kind husband whereas for Andrew, who is at school during their trip, she hopes that he can pursue his dream to be a mathematician. Prue must have achieved her wish but in finding out that she was with child, most likely from a husband, we also find out that she died from complications with the birth of said child not soon after. In regards to Andrew, he must have been pulled into a war for we also find out that he was killed “instantaneously” by an explosion somewhere in France (Woolf 137). These deaths, as well as Mrs. Ramsay’s, seem to be basically a side note in the actual story and not necessarily compared to the book, though, so it is as if nothing actually occurs in this book other than the trip to the lighthouse. One would think that the tragic deaths are what the novel is actually about but this is not the case in this tale.
Mrs. Ramsay's two oldest children, Andrew and Prue, are talked about quite a bit in the book even though they do not actually appear in it as characters. Mrs. Ramsay thinks about what she wishes for her children in much of her time at the house by the sea. For her daughter Prue, she hopes for a beautiful marriage and children and a kind husband whereas for Andrew, who is at school during their trip, she hopes that he can pursue his dream to be a mathematician. Prue must have achieved her wish but in finding out that she was with child, most likely from a husband, we also find out that she died from complications with the birth of said child not soon after. In regards to Andrew, he must have been pulled into a war for we also find out that he was killed “instantaneously” by an explosion somewhere in France (Woolf 137). These deaths, as well as Mrs. Ramsay’s, seem to be basically a side note in the actual story and not necessarily compared to the book, though, so it is as if nothing actually occurs in this book other than the trip to the lighthouse. One would think that the tragic deaths are what the novel is actually about but this is not the case in this tale.
Your point that "nothing ever happens except for a trip to the lighthouse" is an important one. Woolf is re-thinking time, events and what "counts" for representation in a novel.
ReplyDelete