So we see that Charles is a dull man who views Mrs Ramsay as a mirror for his ego- and that he’s lonely, needy, a bit sad.
And later, having revealed a vulnerability (he’s never been to the circus, he’s poor), he’s overflowing with pride to be walking with her, because she’s so beautiful. He imagines achieving great things while she watches on. Having enjoyed Mrs Ramsay’s hint at ‘the greatness of man’s intellect … the subjection of all wives’, Charles wishes they were in a cab, so he could pay or at least, that she’d let him carry her bag. For example: Mrs Ramsay tells Charles that a mutual friend should have been a great philosopher, but made an ‘unfortunate marriage’. Watching Woolf’s characters interact is a joy. And it does it so well that you care whether Mrs Ramsay is cold without her shawl feel James’s rage at his father’s interruptions want Lily to finish painting her scene, whether it ends up in the attic or not.
You know how we all move through the world, peering out from inside our own heads? Paying partial attention, sometimes being helpful, sometimes total crap? His mother says he can go, if the weather is fine.
The story opens with James hoping to take a trip to the lighthouse. The main characters: Mrs Ramsay, Mr Ramsay, their eight children (among them 6-year-old James), and a cast of visitors, including Lily Briscoe (an artist) and Charles Tansley (an acolyte of Mr Ramsay’s). Set in the Ramsay family’s holiday house in the Hebrides. So yeah, the subject matter’s interesting and important.īriefly, the background: Published in 1927. It conjures up-if you’ll excuse my earnestness-the joy and dread of being alive. To the Lighthouse is about love, and subjection, and forgiveness. The guy who said Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse is ‘not about anything very interesting or important’ … well, he was wrong. Lighthouse photo by Sam Hernimanįirst, to dispense with an irritation.
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