A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man

An ‘Aesthetic Autobiography’ of James Joyce

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel about the education of a young Irishman, Stephen Dedalus, whose background has much in common with Joyce’s. However, in determining the genre of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man readers and critics both face a lengthy debate. In terms of its critical reception A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man has had its share of detractors and its admirers. As far as its autobiographical elements are concerned A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man can be seen both as a ‘Bildungsroman’ which describes the youthful development of the central character and as ‘aesthetic autobiography’ or ‘Kunstler roman’. We will now carry out our discussions on Joyce’s portrayal of Stephen and see how he keeps varying his distance from Stephen but never does so drastically.

            If Lawrence’s personal experiences have shaped the material in Sons and Lovers or if we find several facts of the life of Somerset Mangham with little modification or distortion in Of Human Bondage, the same approach Lto Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man cannot be reached. The characters in Sons and lovers or Of Human Bondage seem to enjoy an independent existence; in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man they figure mainly in the hero’s reveries and resentments. And the question if Joyce stations himself in relation to his hero Stephen is a crucial one. Alike Austen in her Emma both attempts at objectivity and subjectivity; Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man maintains the same status. Sometimes the two personae, Joyce and Stephen almost merge but quite often a distance is kept though it is never too great. This kind of management of distance allows Joyce to bring irony also in play at places but even that is never allowed to become too hard-hitting.

           A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is based on a literal transcript of the first twenty years of Joyce’s life. If anything, it is more candid than other autobiographies. It is distinguished from them by its emphasis on the emotional and intellectual adventures of its protagonist. Joyce’s own life had a direct bearing on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Literally A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man covers the childhood and adolescence of Stephen Dedalus. We see him, over the course of the novel, grow from a little boy to a young man of eighteen who has decided to leave his country for Europe, in order to be an artist. This especially the case with how he reacted to Ireland and to Ireland’s treatment of Parnell. As we read the opening section the novel we can easily identify how the ‘betrayal’ of Parnell was a part of the Irish psyche of those time. The Parnell and the Irish situation in general have a direct bearing on the Christmas dinner scene. Again Joyce had a firm belief that the political subjection had led the Irish people to have a slavish mentality. Joyce had an attitude of deep distrust towards the Irish political activities and it is obvious in the closing sections of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. On the exchanges between students in the closing stages of the novel Stephen says to Davin with odd violence:

Except for the thin incognito of its characters, “Do you know what Ireland is?  … Ireland is the old saw that eats her furrow”.  Further there are other aspects of Joyce’s life that find more or less a direct echo in the novel. Alike Joyce Stephen too shares a large family. The family’s poverty and its frequent changes of house both happen in Joyce and Stephen.

            But despite of these similarities, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is not straight autobiography. Joyce was not the weak in health who figures in the novel. Joyce has drawn it true very largely upon his life and his own experience, but it is not an autobiography, it is an artistic creation. It is reshaped for artistic module. In a sense one can say that in offering us the growth and the development of Stephen Dedalus, Joyce was not exclusively concerned with getting to the heart of his own young self or an imaginary equivalent of that, but in getting to the heart of young artist as such. The destiny we are brought face to face with could be any young man’s destiny in Catholic Ireland. Especially, if the young man was sensitive and had artistic ambitions or pretensions!

            We may again deal with another controversial issue – its title. As the phrase ‘Portrait of the Artists’ hints at the self-portraitures of Joyce, the other phrase ‘as a young man’ hints at it universal aspects or generalization. Stephen is young Joyce, “purified in and projected from the human imagination’ of the developed artist who must, in the words of Stephen, “try slowly and humbly and constantly to express, to press out again, from the gross earth or what it brings forth, from sound and shape and colour which are the prison gates of our soul, an image of the beauty we have come to understand”.

            Thus Joyce uses his personal life as a framework for his novel but is free to revise his biography for artistic purposes or remodeled it, which can assert the growth of ‘artist’.

            What happens in A Portrait is that the autobiographical element, which is otherwise its very significant ingredient, is consciously and painstakingly recast into a mode of depersonalization, objectification and presentation of a myth of an artist borne.

As a Psychological Novel

It will be pointed out some main psychological features of this character that will further help the reader create and understand the complex teenager that is Stephen. From the very beginning, Stephen, possessing an undeniably aloof personality, himself admits that he is in some way different from others. He notes that is “hardly of the one blood” with his family, indicating that his life is filled with isolation, a sense of insecurity and growing independence.

At first, as suggested by Foley, while indulging his family’s wishes, appeasing the religious ideals of the community and church and trying to fit in, Stephen also tries to identify himself as an individual and goes through various stages.“…..constant voices of his father and of his masters, urging him to be a good catholic above all things….When the gymnasium had been opened he had heard another voice urging him to be strong and manly and healthy and when the movement towards the national revival had begun to be felt in college yet another voice had bidden him to be true to his country and help to raise up her language and tradition”

The pressure from expectations gradually becomes a burden and his soul search finally results in art a mea of breaking the cage. To Stephen art was nevertheless a way of liberating his soul by fulfilling his hunger for meaning not with what was imposed upon him by others but by something originating from inside himself. Stephen‘s path toward becoming an artist is seen at every step while going through the novel. His first act of courage, independence and rebellion is when he protests his palm-whipping. Later on, he would also commit heresy when writing a school essay and reject priesthood. The growing gap between him and his family, especially his father is ever more obvious as time passes. “Old father, old article, stand me now and ever in good stead.”

Stephen has experienced severe traumas in the early course of their lives. Namely repeated financial troubles which Stephen was a witness of and the deep divide over the question of religion and patriotism within his own family. It can be observed that Stephen‘s relations with his siblings are rarely mentioned and subsided, irrelevant to the overall story and formation of the artist. Stephen in times of stress and sorrow only occasionally relishes in the memories of his childhood, such as his friendship with a boy named Aubrey Mills or eating slim Jim out for his pocket cap. Stephen is experiencing religious, national and pressure from his family.

An adolescent individual will always be forced with multiple form of expectations and regardless of whether they are coming from the family, schools or society, it is the way these teenagers deal with what is expected of them with their own strength, mental potency and emotional capacity and deciding whether they are going to fulfill these expectations or not that will define them as a person later on, as opposed to the expectations themselves.

Joyce consumes alcohol; and uses foul language often, depicting some of the negative sides of adolescence and the temptations it brings along. Stephen, on the other hand, does not fall under these temptations or the pressure of conformity, but rather commits sins such as gluttony. Sex represents an important part of lives of this two teenager- Stephen Dedalus felt that “his childhood was dead or lost and with it nothing but a cold and cruel loveless lust”

Remained within his soul. He also believed that out of lust, all other sins originate easily. Lust and love for aesthetic beauty combined, however, lead him to numerous encounters with young prostitutes of Dublin. What can be noticed in Stephen‘s behavior is that through isolated, he is actually trying to protect himself even through he, like everyone else needs human contact and compassion. Of course, the boy had that “special someone” present in his live- Stephen  on the other hand , also idolizing the image of Emma , a girl who he has never actually met , through still considered her to be the temple of beauty and a symbol of femininity finds himself ashamed and daunted by the thoughts of his own teenage fantasies: “If she knew to what his mind had subjected her or how brute- like lust had torn and trampled upon her innocence! Was that boyish love? Was that chivalry? Was that poetry? The sordid details of his orgies shrank under his very nostrils”

It must, however, be note that the contradictions of his actions and sins against his position and role in the society did not seem to bother him at times. It can be concluded that traumatic experiences, unreasonable expectations and the lack of support are just some of the burdens halting a normal development of an individual during his or her teenage years. The result of these factors can vary from some of the negative, above mentioned perpetual circle of awkwardness and discomfort.

Epiphany in A portrait of The Artist as a Young Man

Critics have variously interpreted the experience of the modern novelist as tolling the death of story. The words are a proven truth for James Joyce. His expression of experience took a different turn as also a different form. The early years of his life were passed in Dublin. Joyce was almost blind from his childhood, and he lived in the world of sounds; in that glamorous town of Dublin, Joyce wanted to express the immediate and the present he called it ‘an epiphany’ (Greek epiphaneia, “appearance”). Unlike roust he wanted to express the immediate consciousness as reality. Joyce’s A Portrait of The Artist As a Young Man clearly demonstrates such epiphanies to signify the moment when all of a sudden the personae probes into the heart of things and experiences a sudden spiritual manifestation. In the present novel it is used to resolve and resolute a conflict the to be an artist face with.

Stephen’s spiritual manifestation and his aesthetic satisfaction is presented through the epiphanies which is a sudden revelation of the inner truth by paralleling a visual moment. The journey of Stephen from his very tender infancy till he becoming an artist is presented through certain epiphanies to express the inflow of Stephen’s conscious and its changing schedules. In the artistry of literary device Stephen’s rejection of priesthood, his peeling of nationality, his self-search in an artist in exile are presented through certain revelation meticulously and forcefully.

In fact, at the end of each chapter epiphanies are skillfully used. In Chapter-I Stephen at in childhood meets certain conflicts that makes in confusion. With the baffling impressions Stephen perceives the world of elders. He oscillates and vacillates over the implicit faith on the elders and his helpless insecurity. He has absolute trust, justice and morale from his elders yet how they quarrel over political and religious matter he cannot understand. So, naturally there is marked difference between the expectation and reality. But ultimately Stephen triumphs when he gets rustic at school and he is being hailed as hero. Thus at the end the finality of resulting the conflict and achieving justice is marked by epiphany.

In chapter-II we pass into Stephen’s adolescence where a few of the family problems disturbs him. In school, his essay is accused of heresy and his school mate’s unfriendly attitude to him hurts him dearly. But more distressfully increasing hatred for father on the part of Stephen widens. Interestingly enough, Stephen’s ideal shed beauty and notice of purity transits into a vague erotic fantasy of the girl Mercedes who often comes into dreams. So torn in disputes, ultimately resolving into an epiphany towards a learning experience. Stephen’s dream of Mercedes is united with the embrace of a whore. Thought it is an absolute sin, Stephen passes into an emotional learning and resolution: “Tears of joy and relief shone in his delighted eyes. In hat arms he felt that he had suddenly become strong and fearless and sure of himself.”

Extending the same conflict, Stephen in Chapter-III finds himself frequently in the embrace of whores. Stephen’s moral dilemma and sinned meeting the world of religion and doing the epiphany provides him immense relief: “He had confessed and God had pardoned him. His soul was made for and holy once more, holy and happy. The past was past. The ciborium had come to him.”

The journey of Stephen to be an artist born is narcissism and it is proving truth by the epiphany of muse at sea beach in chapter-IV. More complex than any other is the description of the figure of the girl on the beach after the vision of the hawk like man flying sun ward above the sea, and the suggestion of all the emotional associations which radiate from the glimpse of her. The vision of mysterious, birdlike, mythical figure is the certitude of Stephen’s vocation of an artist. It is the message he receives from the spy, heavenly yet flow of life. It is religiously ammunition and a voice of divinity. In romantic ecstasy Stephen learns the truth of beauty and art and an artist is born.

Finally, in chapter-V Stephen wishes to encounter ‘the reality of experience’ and invokes the mythical Daedalus to air him in that purpose. To note further, it is to be mentioned that there are many other epiphanies which contribute to a certainty in developing Stephen and his journey to an artist. Such as ‘tower of ivory’, ‘house of gold’, ‘fetus’ etc. are few examples. So, in conclusion, it is fair to say that epiphany is used to experience both the world of Stephen and Joyce as an artist in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Stephen in the Novel is the Search of an Artist in Exile.

 Escape is the natural complement to the theme of Entrapment and Constraint. Joyce depicts escape metaphorically by the book's most important symbol and allusion: the mythical artificer Daedalus is not at all an Irish name; Joyce took the name from the mythical inventor who escaped from his island prison by constructing wings and flying to his freedom. Stephen, too, will eventually escape from the island prison of Ireland.            

Truly speaking in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the hero moves from childhood to manhood, learning his own destiny as artist and as exile. Again, of all the characters in the novel, Stephen Dedalus is the only one whose portrait is fully realized. His most intimate thoughts, memories and sensations are revealed to us throughout; all the other characters exist for the reader only insofar as they matter to Stephen. Stephen is tied by family, country and religion, but one by one he releases himself from those ties to discover his true vocation on the free and uncommitted life of the artist. Stephen tends to view his life in terms of a heroic struggle to free himself from the various confinements he feels his native city imposes upon him—the “nets” of politics, religion and family. The church was the greatest rival to the world of art: it, too promised loneliness and power. But he understood at last that “he was destined to learn his own wisdom apart from others or to learn the wisdom of others himself wandering among the snares of the world”. And so the artist is born. The climax of the book comes soon after Stephen’s realization of his true destiny. He is wandering alone by the shore alone and young and willful and hardhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish water and the sea-harvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight and gay clad and light clad figures of children and girls and voices childish and girlish in the air. He sees a girl standing in mid-stream, “alone and still, gazing out to sea” and he contemplates her, intently, frankly, without desire or ulterior motive of any kind he is relishing the artist’s perception of life. And as he looks, he is overcome by joy: “Heavenly God! Cried Stephen’s soul, in an outburst of profane joy”. It is profane joy, the artist’s joy in life.

            Once Stephen recognizes his destiny, the shedding of his other loyalties proceeds quickly. He is haunted by the sea-gulls flying overhead in the evening sky. They symbolize escape for the artist, escape from the cramping environment where other claims on his loyalty oppress him. Like the Greek Daedalus who made the labyrinth for king Minos and afterwards made wings to enable him to escape across the sea from the labyrinth of life and claims of Dublin. Daedalus, too, was the first craftsman, ‘old artificer’. As epigraph to the book, Joyce has quoted a line from Ovid’s description of Daedalus’s construction of the labyrinth: “And he turned his mind to unknown arts”. So Joyce would turn his mind to enlarge the surname is that of the Old artificer, his Christian name is that of the first Christian martyr. Thus, the artist is both crafts man and martyr. However, Stephen identifies with the classical hero whose name he bears, but he is more like the son Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and came crashing down into the sea, than the father Daedalus, whose cunning enabled him to forge the wings that permitted his escape from Minos’s prison.

            So Stephen works out his theory of the artist as exile. “The artist like the God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails”. Stephen refuses to serve that in which he no longer believes – home, country, church; he will express himself freely, using for his defense the weapons of ‘ silence, exile and cunning’. He is prepared to take the risk of separating himself from others and of having not even one friend.

            As its title suggests, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a kind of self-portrait, a novel that traces the development of its central character, Stephen D, from infancy to young adulthood, as he finds himself drawn into and struggling with the social, religious, and political currents of late 19th-century Ireland. While Joyce clearly bases Stephen on his younger self, he maintains an ironic distance from his character, implying at the end of the novel that his youthful alter ego still has much to learn about both life and the art that he dreams of making. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is thus an important document in the history of the artist as exile. But it is also a remarkable work of art in its own right. Combining the naturalistic and the symbolist traditions, Joyce finds a solution to the problems of the literary artist in his time.

Joyce's Use of Imagery

Although Joyce is frequently praised for his mastery of the "stream-of-consciousness" narrative technique, his distinctive use of imagery has contributed much to the artistic development of the twentieth-century novel. Specifically, in A Portrait, he uses imagery to establish motifs, identify symbols, and provide thematic unity throughout the work.

Perhaps the most obvious use of imagery in the novel occurs during the novel's first few pages, with the introduction of the sensory details which shape Stephen's early life: wet versus dry; hot versus cold; and light versus dark — all images of dichotomy which reveal the forces which will affect Stephen's life as he matures. If we can understand this imagery, then we can better understand Stephen's reasons for deciding to leave Ireland.

The wet/dry imagery, for example, is symbolic of Stephen's natural response to the world versus a learned response. As a small child, Stephen learns that any expression of a natural inclination (such as wetting the bed) is labeled "wrong"; the wet sheets will be replaced by a dry, reinforcing "oilsheet" — and a swift, unpleasant correction for inappropriate behavior. Thus, wet things relate to natural responses and dry things relate to learned behavior.

Other examples of this wet/dry imagery include the wetness of the cesspool (the square ditch) that Stephen is shoved into and the illness which follows; likewise, the "flood" of adolescent sexual feelings which engulf Stephen in "wavelet[s]," causing him guilt and shame. Seemingly, "wet" is bad; "dry" is good.

A turning point in this pattern occurs when Stephen crosses the "trembling bridge" over the river Tolka. He leaves behind his dry, "withered" heart, as well as most of the remnants of his Catholicism. As he wades through "a long rivulet in the strand," he encounters a young girl, described as a "strange and beautiful seabird." She gazes at Stephen from the sea, and her invitation to the "wet" (natural) life enables Stephen to make a climactic choice concerning his destiny as an artist. Later, after Stephen has explained his aesthetic philosophy to Lynch, rain begins to fall; seemingly, the heavens approve of Stephen's theories about art, as well as his choice of art as a career.

The hot/cold imagery similarly affects Stephen. At the beginning of the novel, Stephen clearly prefers his mother's warm smell to that of his father. For Stephen, "hot" is symbolic of the intensity of physical affection (and, in some cases, sin); "cold," on the other hand, is symbolic of propriety, order, and chastity. Specific examples of this symbolism can be found in Stephen's memories: resting in his mother's warm lap, being cared for by the kindly Brother Michael (when Stephen is recovering from a fever), and receiving a heated embrace from the Dublin prostitute during his first sexual encounter.

In contrast, the cold, slimy water of the square ditch is evidence of the cruel reality of his changing life at school; in addition, Stephen initially experiences a "cold . . . indifference" when he thinks about the Belvedere retreat, and his vision-like worship of Eileen (the young Protestant girl) has coldly symbolic, touch-me-not overtones; her hands, pure and white, enable him to understand the references to the Tower of Ivory in an oft-repeated Church litany.

The last of this set of opposites is concerned with the light/dark dichotomy: light symbolizes knowledge (confidence), and dark symbolizes ignorance (terror). Numerous examples of this conflict pervade the novel. In an early scene, when Stephen says that he will marry a Protestant, he is threatened with blindness: "Put out his eyes / Apologise." Stephen is terrorized without knowing why; seemingly, a good Catholic boy should remain ignorant about other faiths — and perhaps even of women. Stephen's natural fondness for Eileen is condemned. Stephen is only a boy, but his sensitive artist's nature realizes that he is going to grow up in a world where he will be forced to suppress his true feelings and conform to society's rules and threats.

Stephen's broken glasses are also part of this light/dark imagery. Without his glasses, Stephen sees the world as if it were a dark blur; figuratively blinded, he cannot learn. And yet he is unjustly punished for telling the truth about the reason for his "blindness." He quickly realizes the potential, dark (irrational) cruelty of the clergy. Further on in the novel, there are recurrent images of darkness in the streets of Dublin — for example, when Stephen makes his way to the brothel district. Here, we also see the darkness within Stephen's heart as he wanders willfully toward sin. Later on, the philosophical discussion about the lamp with the Dean of Studies (Chapter V) reveals the "blindness" of this cleric, compared with the illumination of Stephen's aesthetic thoughts.

A close reading of the novel will produce many more images within these patterns. Joyce's use of them is essential as he constructs his intricate thematic structure.

Another kind of imagery in the novel is made up of references to colors and names. Colors, as Joyce uses them, often indicate the political and religious forces which affect Stephen's life. Similarly, Joyce uses names to evoke various images — specifically those which imply animal qualities, providing clues to Stephen's relationships with people.

For an example of color imagery, note that Dante owns two velvet-backed brushes — one maroon, one green. The maroon brush symbolizes Michael Davitt, the pro-Catholic activist of the Irish Land League; the green-backed brush symbolizes Charles Stewart Parnell. Once, Parnell was Dante's political hero par excellence, but after the Church denounced him, she ripped the green cloth from the back of her brush. Other references to color include Stephen's desire to have a "green rose" (an expression of his creative nature) instead of a white one or a red one, symbols of his class' scholastic teams.

Another reference to color imagery can be seen in Lynch's use of the term "yellow insolence"; instead of using the word "bloody," Lynch uses the word "yellow," indicating a sickly, cowardly attitude toward life. The idea of a "bloody" natural lust for living would be appalling to Lynch. Lynch's name, literally, means "to hang"; he has a "long slender flattened skull . . . like a hooded reptile . . . with a reptilelike . . . gaze and a self-embittered . . . soul."

Like Lynch, Temple is also representative of his name. Temple considers himself "a believer in the power of the mind." He admires Stephen greatly for his "independent thinking," and he himself tries to "think" about the problems of the world.

Cranly, like his name (cranium, meaning "skull"), is Stephen's "priestlike" companion, to whom he confesses his deepest feelings. Note that several of Joyce's references also focus on Stephen's image of Cranly's "severed head"; Cranly's symbolic significance to Stephen is similar to that of John the Baptist (the "martyred Christ"). The name "Cranly" also reminds us of the skull on the rector's desk and Joyce's emphasis on the shadowy skull of the Jesuit director who queries Stephen about a religious vocation.

Concerning the other imagery in the novel, perhaps the most pervasive is the imagery that pertains to Stephen's exile, or, specifically, his "flight" from Ireland. The flight imagery begins as early as his first days at Clongowes, when Stephen's oppressed feelings are symbolized by "a heavy bird flying low through the grey light." Later, a greasy football soars "like a heavy bird" through the sky. At that time, flight from unhappiness seemed impossible for Stephen, but as the novel progresses and Stephen begins to formulate his artistic ideals, the notion of flight seems possible.

For example, in Chapter IV, after Stephen renounces the possibility of a religious vocation, he feels a "proud sovereignty" as he crosses over the Tolka and his name is called out by his classmates; this incident is followed by another allusion to flight. Later, the girl wading in the sea is described as "delicate as a crane," with the fringes of her "drawers . . . like the featherings of soft white down"; her bosom is described as "the breast of some dark plumaged dove." Her presence in this moment of epiphany enables Stephen to choose art as his vocation.

Finally, note that when Stephen's friends call him, his name seems to carry a "prophecy"; he sees a "winged form flying above the waves and . . . climbing in the air." The image of this "hawk like man flying sunward" is at the heart of the flight motif. As Stephen realizes his life's purpose, he sees his "soul . . . soaring in the air." He yearns to cry out like an "eagle on high." He experiences "an instant of wild flight" and is "delivered" free from the bondage of his past. At the end of the novel, Stephen cries out to Daedalus, his "old father, old artificer," and prepares for his own flight to artistic freedom.

To the Lighthouse

Symbolic Setting of ‘To the Lighthouse’

Written from multiple perspectives and shifting between times and characters with poetic grace, ‘To The Lighthouse’ is not concerned with ordinary story telling. Rather through integrate symbolic web it reads the mind and recounts the passage of multiple experiences of different characters in the novel.

The sea with its waves is to be heard throughout the novel. It symbolizes the eternal flux of time and life, in the midst of which we all exist; it constantly changes its character. To Mrs. Ramsay at one moment it sounds soothing and consoling like a cradlesong, at others, “like a ghostly roll of drums remorselessly beating a warning of death it brings terror. Sometimes its power “sweeping savagely in”, seems to reduce the individual to nothingness, at others it sends up “a fountain of bright water” – which seems to match the sudden springs of vitality in the human spirit.

The lighthouse holds a whole cluster of suggestions. It is a mystery, yet a concern for day-to-day living. It is at once distant and close at the mercy of its destructive forces. The lighthouse surrounded by sea always illumines and clarifies the human condition in some way. Moreover, it is the quest for the values which lighthouse suggests. The tower is frequently shadowed in mist, its beams are intermittent in the darkness, the moments of assurance they bring the momentary, but upon these assurances reality rests, by landing on the general doubts, something which seems to triumph over the eternal cycle of change. To reach the lighthouse is to establish a creative relationship.

            Indeed, the lighthouse is the most important symbol and different critics have explained it differently. For example, Russel declares that the lighthouse is the feminine creative principle. Jon Bennett calls the alternate light and shadows of the lighthouse the rhythm of joy and sorrow, understanding and misunderstanding. The lighthouse as symbol has not one meaning, that it is a vital synthesis of time and eternity: an objective correlative for Mrs. Ramsay’s vision, after whose death it is her meaning.

 The window is not a transparent but a separating sheet of glass between reality and Mrs. Ramsay’s mind. Mrs. Ramsay experiences such moments of revelation and integration at watching the window. It is the very symbol of the imperfection of our knowledge and riddle of human mind. It is debates about philosophy, particularly theories about visual reality on the three main philosophers of British empiricism, John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. The basic argument of empiricism is whether or not a person can be empirically certain that objects have a distinct and continued existence apart from our perceptions of them.

The characters are carefully arranged in the novel in their relation to each other, so that a definite symbolic pattern emerges. Mrs. Ramsay pervades the whole book. Mrs. Ramsay is the mother of the Ramsay family who dies during the middle section of the novel. A beautiful, caring woman, she means all things to all people, and each character of To the Lighthouse has a different perception of her personality. Lily sees her as a mother, and doesn’t think she has ever inspired romantic passion. William Bankes and Charles Tansley adore her, and think she doesn’t realize how beautiful she is. The children see her as the “Lighthouse” of their lives—the stable, warm force that protects and guides them. She is above all the creator of fertile human relationships symbolized by her love of match making and her knitting; and of warm comfort symbolized by her green shawl. Just as Mrs. Ramsay stands for creative vitality, so Mr. Ramsay stands as the symbol of the sterile, destructive barriers to relationship. Just as Mrs. Ramsay is described in images of fertility and the warmth and comfort of love and harmony with others, Mr. Ramsay is evoked in images of sterility, hardness and cruelty and of deliberate isolation.

Lily Briscoe’s accomplishment of her painting is also symbolic to a great extent. Lily sees that Mrs. Ramsay’s gift of harmonizing human relationship into memorable moments is “almost like a work of art” and in the book art is the ultimate symbol for the enduring ‘reality’. She neither in first nor in second part of the work of fiction can be able to complete her picture. In the whole period that contains more than a decade, she is perplexed about to fill the gap of her picture, but at the lighthouse, she executes her production. This symbolizes that an artist can be impeccable in his art when he reaches and finds the final limitations of reality or truth.

The uses of symbols serve the purpose of introspection, self-awareness, and openness to the unconscious in the novel.  To The Lighthouse is a masterpiece of construction through symbolism.

‘To the Lighthouse’: Emblematic of Social Change/A Feminist Novel

‘To the Lighthouse’ scrutinizes the role of women or more specifically, the evolution of the modern woman. The two main female characters in the novel, Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe, both represent different views on life and follow different paths on their search for meaning. Lily Briscoe transcends the traditional female gender roles embodied by Mrs. Ramsay; by coming into her own as an independent and modern woman, she symbolises the advent of modernism and rejection of traditional Victorian values.

The traditional female gender roles of passivity and submission are first reinforced by Mrs. Ramsay's attitude and behaviour towards her husband and the guests at her house. Mrs. Ramsay is not a helpless woman but she is not independent in the way that Lily Briscoe is. While she is perfectly capable of being the boss of trivial and "womanly" things such as dinner, the higher level decisions are always made by her husband.

Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse illustrates a bridge between the worlds of the Victorian mother and the modern, potentially independent woman. The Victorian woman was to be absorbed, as Mrs. Ramsay is, by the task of being mother and wife. Her reason for existing was to complete the man, rather than to exist in her own right. Mrs. Ramsay certainly sees this role for herself and is disturbed when she feels, momentarily, that she is better than her husband because he needs her support to feel good about himself and the life choices he has made. Yet the end of the Victorian era saw the rise of women's rights and greater freedom for women to excel without men or children.

Adrienne Rich, in ‘Of Woman Born’, says that ‘To the Lighthouse’ is about Virginia Woolf's need to understand her own mother and to prove, through the character of Lily Briscoe, that a woman can be "independent of men, as Mrs. Ramsay is not".

The trauma of this transition from Victorian to modern woman is portended by Mrs. Ramsay herself, at the beginning of the story. In the first chapter, as Mrs. Ramsay defends Charles Tansley against the criticisms of her children, she muses on her desire to protect men and the "trustful, childlike, reverential" attitude that her protection inspires in men. "Woe betides the girl . . . who did not feel the worth of it, and all that it implied, to the marrow of her bones!" she exclaims to herself, thinking of the way men respect and admire her. But Woolf shows us that as Mrs. Ramsay admonishes her children for ridiculing Charles Tansley, her daughters "could sport with infidel ideas which they had brewed for themselves of a life different from hers . . . not always taking care of some man or other."

The issue of the change from one concept of womanhood to another is not as simple as the newer generation revolting against the older; at the same time that Mrs. Ramsay's daughters hope to be different, they admire and worship their mother for her beauty and power. Prue, the eldest daughter, proudly watches Mrs. Ramsay as she descends the staircase and feels "what an extraordinary stroke of fortune it was for her (Prue), to have her [Mrs. Ramsay]." Although this is the closest we come to knowing the thoughts and feelings of Prue, from others' perspectives, we gather that she follows in her mother's footsteps and dies in childbirth. Does this signify the death of the old vision of womanhood? Or does it have more to do with the particular strength of Mrs. Ramsay? Perhaps it signifies the futility of the daughter trying to imitate exactly the path of the mother.

Mrs. Ramsey is triumphant over Mr. Ramsey, by her awareness and intuitive feeling of the more important things in life: the value of human relationships. Though she is submissive, with no mention of extensive educational background, she innately possesses the crucial social skills that gain: the cohesion of the family as a whole; the respect and love of her children, and the continued survival of her marriage.

“The relation of art and life in ‘To the Lighthouse’

In ‘To The Lighthouse ‘, Mrs. Ramsay opens the novel and Lily Briscoe closes it, as the stuff of life may be converted, through a particular medium, to a work of art. So, if life and art are viewed as polar opposites in the novel. Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe may be regarded as their respective exponents. Norman Friedman opines that ’To the Lighthouse’ centres on questions of order and chaos, male and female, permanence and change, and intellect and intuition.

It cannot be disputed that art can be nourished only in life. But whereas art needs life to nourish it, life is often unaware of the power of art to give it permanence. Although Lily is in love with Mrs. Ramsay and, with all her family, she cannot take Lily’s painting seriously. Thus, too, Mrs. Ramsay’s quite literal short-sightedness is played against Lily’s ‘vision’. To Lily it seems ironic that Mrs. Ramsay presided with immutable calm over destinies which she completely failed to understand; Mrs. Woolf wants to suggest that life may be its own worst enemy, even as the artist may rebel against art’s strict exigencies. Although it is only momentary, Mrs. Ramsay ‘felt alone in the presence of her old antagonist, life’. And Lily is ‘drawn out of gossip, out of living, out of community with people into the presence of the formidable ancient enemy of her....this form....roused one to perpetual combat.’

In Part I, Mrs. Ramsay is so busy with her family and too numerous summer guests. With her masterfulness, she manages superbly other people’s lives, from trivial to important aspect. On the other hand, Lily can barely manage to manipulate her paint brushes, and shrinks from anything strange on her canvas. Later on, she realizes a fundamental difference between herself and Mrs. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay might fall occasionally into meditation but she ‘disliked anything that reminded her that she had been seen sitting thinking.’ But both in Lily the painter and Mr. Carmichael, the poet, there was some notion about the ineffectiveness of action, the supremacy of thought.

Mrs. Ramsay is a very ardent match-maker and she also feels protective towards the whole male sex. She is also eager to help the poor and the sick. And then she is found striving earnestly for the unity and integrity of social scenes such as her dinner party. Lily Briscoe also acknowledges Mrs. Ramsay’s manipulation of life. But, ironically, Mrs. Ramsay is seen ‘making’ while Lily merely ‘tried’. But unfortunately Mrs. Ramsay’s efforts are doomed from the start; life cannot stand still; time must pass. It is only in another sphere can moments be given permanence. And the notable difference between the two is that Mrs. Ramsay has the rare beauty of ordering a scene so that it is, ‘like a work of art’, but it is Lily who creates a concrete work of art.

From the very beginning, in spite of all her doubts and diffidence, Lily is found of painting with stubborn integrity to her vision. It is the resolution to move her tree to the centre of the canvas that sustains her through the dinner party, protects her against Charles Tansley’s pronouncement that women cannot paint or write. Lily’s paint brush has become for her ‘the one dependable thing in a world of strife, ruin, chaos’ and she seems more sure of her technique: the lines are nervous, but her brush-strokes are decisive. It is she who imagines the artistic creeds of Carmichael “how ‘you’ and ‘I’ and ‘she’ pass, and vanish; nothing stays all changes; but not words not paint”. Yet even then, even to the final brush-stroke that brings the novel to a close, she continues to be haunted by the problematical and shifting relationship of art and life.

This relation of art to life has been most beautifully treated in Part III of the novel. Lily is on the island accompanied by the corresponding movement of those in the boat getting closer to the Lighthouse and Lily, getting closer to the solution of her aesthetic problem. And the determining factor of each is love (the art of life), which might perhaps be defined as order. Lily finishes her painting as she feels that sympathy for Mr. Ramsay which she had previously refused to give. James and Cam give up their long standing antagonism towards their father. Mr. Ramsay himself, at the same time, attains a resolution of his own tensions and worries. Hence ‘the two actions, the arrival at the lighthouse and the last stroke of the push are also united; both are acts of completion and it is obvious that they are meant to happen together.’ Therefore, reality always has a doubleness which can be understood only through a double vision or synthesis.

‘Stream of Consciousness’ Technique in ‘To The Lighthouse

In ‘To The Lighthouse’ Virginia Wolf has not told a story in the sense of a series of events and has concentrated on a small number of characters. Their nature and feelings are represented to us largely through their interior monologue. In order to capture the inner reality, the truth about life, she tried to represent the moving current of life and the individual’s consciousness of the fleeting moments and secondly, also to select from this current and organize it so that novel may penetrate between the surface reality and may give to the readers a sense of understanding and completeness.  In other words, she has used ‘stream of consciousness’ technique.

The novel as a whole is reflective rather than spontaneous, and the obvious selection by the author focuses our attention on the idea of the working of the mind, which is more interesting than a more naturalistic limitation of its confused process. First the reader is introduced to the characters and the world they occupy. Since are put before us through the thoughts of on the characters they come to us with associations of the characters’ personality and so we begin to be involved in the tensions between; we being with the opposition of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, brought to us through the reactions of the sensitive child and with reference to the lighthouse, then move to the antagonism around by Tansley, the quarrelsomeness of the children the impassive Carmichael; and so the grow to number and the texture of the books becomes complex as the novelist being to weave them together.

Thus, too, the pattern beings to establish itself; the pattern that is of conversation and reaction, of the actual words in the first person and the present tense, and the reflections of the characters in the third person and the past tense. The opening conversation consists of only eight short remarks of a normal, even trivial kind, but from the beginning we are made aware that the surface of normal human relationships conceals a mass of tangled feelings and associations and that these feelings can be strong and passionate, though they are concealed. This violence of feelings is seen first in the child, James, and seems natural to the exaggeration of childhood, we are thus prepared in an acceptable way for the emotions of the adult characters, tempered by age and experience, but made more complex too.

It is by means of this combination of the conversation that is actually happening and the connected thoughts that may range over any event, that a time – scheme is also established in a sense of the present movement seen in relationship to the past which is continually woven in with the present in the minds of most people.

The third person narration is very common a device in novel. Virginia Woolf is however, very careful to make her direction of speech for the interior monologues of her characters which makes it easy for her to work into these mental soliloquies a number of statements and ideas which are outside the range of knowledge of the characters she is dealing with. When, for example, at the beginning, she describes the feelings of James about his father, she moves from the child’s thinking to what Mr. Ramsay habitually did and said, through impersonal sentences.  The statements in the middle here clearly develop from what James is thinking, but we seem to move away from the child himself into a general comment, which in turn, merges into the description of Mr. Ramsay’s attitude towards life. Yet we hardly notice this shift because of the uniformity of style; the two currents of thought seem to flow together. Just as this third-person narration makes it possible for Virginia Woolf to move smoothly from one character to another so in the novel as a whole it is a unifying principle.

Mrs. Woolf has cleverly avoided the drawbacks of the stream of consciousness novel as she has given from and coherence to her material. She is not haphazard and incoherent like the other stream of consciousness novelist.

To The Lighthouse is a Study of Human Relationships

The main subject of the novel may justly be called a study of the ways and means by which satisfactory human relationship might be established with the people around them. Human beings seemed to Mrs. Woolf isolated and a cluster of individuals having unsatisfactory communication that too was sometimes mistaken.

Since in a human society words are the main sources of establishing an agreeable relationship but words are very often inadequate for the purpose. Sometimes words cannot express the full complexity of a character’s thoughts and feelings. Moreover, what words express is only a fraction of what a character thinks and feels. Therefore, a speaker is misconstrued instead. To Carmichael, Lily tries to describe Mrs. Ramsay but her words are unable to transport her feelings. “Words fluttered sideways and struck the object inches to low. Then one gave it up; For how could one express in words these emotions of the body?”

Quite often it seems that silence is more expressive and eloquent than words. Lily realizes it fully and feels full communication with Carmichael without uttering words. While sitting on the lawn in perfect silence they seem to understand each other perfectly well without exchanging even a single word. Finally, Lily realises: ‘They had not needed to speak. They had been thinking the same thing and he had answered her without, her asking him anything’.

It can be observed that things of very little importance can be greatly helpful in establishing congenial human relationships. As we find Mr. Ramsay coming to Lily to seeking sympathy but Lily finds it hard to utter a single word. Suddenly, she praises his boots. And this brings great relief to Mr. Ramsay and he feels satisfied. Apparently Lily’s remarks may seem silly but it helped to establish perfect sympathy and Lily ‘felt her eyes swell and tingle with tears’.

Congenial and satisfactory human relationships are essential for happiness in life. It cannot be achieved through logic, reason and intellect, but through emotions. Emotional understanding and a pure considerate attitude are needed for pleasant relationships among family members.  Mr. Ramsay becomes a ‘sarcastic brute’ in the eyes of his children owing to his cold intellectual approach whereas Mrs. Ramsay with her loving soul and sympathetic understanding wins the heart of the children and is tremendously loved and admired by her children. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay signify intellect and compassion respectively.

In ‘To the Lighthouse’ it is conspicuous that Mrs. Ramsay plays a very significant to establish communication between people. She sincerely attempts to get Paul and Minta as well as Lily and Mr. Bankes married.  At the dinner party, seeing the unease of her guests, she makes efforts to get people talking in order to get them closer. In the novel we observe the feelings and reactions of the characters towards each other being in the state of isolation. No one is free from his private worries and is living in his own isolated shell. For instance, Tansley is sensitive, feeling socially inferior, unattractive and poor. So he tries to assert himself rudely. He repels and displeases almost all except Mr. Ramsay. Since Mrs. Ramsay is pictured as the rare person who can make others show their best side, and she draws from him simple and selfless behaviour and feeling, which are just as much part of her personality as rudeness, in the tender moments of their walk together.

At the dinner party Tansely desperately tries to assert himself but ends up without making any impression on the conversation. To Lily he is already repulsive and she pretentiously asks him to accompany her to the lighthouse which flares up Tansely. Mrs. Ramsay implores Lily’s help in making the party comfortable so Lily in almost in the same words, but with a change of feeling asks Tansely to take her to the lighthouse, now his egoism is satisfied and he is able to shine, for he is intelligent and well-informed.  Affable relationship between Tansley and the others at the table is established and the party thus becomes a success.

There is a note of pretence and falsehood even in the husband-wife relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay is compelled to praise Mr. Ramsay to his face just to boost up his confidence. He constantly needs ‘intellectual sympathy’ and reassurance. His fear of failure and resentment prevents his judgment. There is some sort of reserve between them, in her moods of sadness, he is unable to communicate with her. But his dependence on her and her respect and reverence for him balance these areas of difference.

we find them pools apart when their disagreement about going to the Lighthouse brings out their difference in their attitudes to life. Mr. Ramsay is upset, is rather infuriated.  “The extraordinary irrationality of her remark, the folly of women’s minds enraged him…..and now she flew in the face of facts, made her children hope what was utterly out of the question, in effect, told lies.” He thinks that children must learn to face facts and know life is hard. Mrs. Ramsay, who believes in protecting children from losing the innocence of childhood, finds her husband’s attitude quite repugnant. “To pursue truth with such astonishing lack of consideration for other people’s feelings, to rend the thin veils of civilization so wantonly, so brutally, was to her so horrible an outrage of human decency’.  But very soon after this incident they begin to come together again. It starts with Mrs. Ramsay’s apology. “And as she looked at him she began to smile, for though she has not said a word, he knew, of course that she loved him”.

It may be rightly assert that ‘To The Lighthouse’ is a close study of the ways and means by which satisfactory and congenial human relationships might be established.

Character Portrayal of Mrs. Ramsay in ‘To the Lighthouse’

Mrs. Ramsay, one of the finest creations of Virginia Woolf, is without the least shade of doubt the central figure around which action and movement in ‘To The Lighthouse’ is built. She is definitely radiating through the entire novel and impregnating all the other characters. From the very beginning of the novel, structurally or psychologically, she is the cohesive force and the source of unity.

Mrs. Ramsay’s great role as a unifying and cohesive force is superbly revealed to us at the dinner party. She performs creditably her duty of connecting the different individuals. And for this she has also to engage herself with some of them. Lily and Charles Tansley are at opposite poles. Mrs. Ramsay asks Lily to be considerate to Tansley, thus Tansley is brought out of his isolation and he feels at ease. Likewse, with the little acts of cooperation she pacifies Mr. Ramsay and draws both Mr. Carmichael and old Mr. Bankes are also brought out of their respective shells. Therefore, it is clearly revealed ‘the whole effort of the merging and flowing and creating rested on her’.

Mr. Ramsay is completely dependent on Mrs. Ramsay. He leans upon her for sympathy and encouragement and repeatedly comes to her to be reassured. She always encourages him and revives his self-confidence which he so badly needs. Mrs. Ramsay was, no doubt, advanced in age and the mother of the eight children, still she possessed great physical charm and attractiveness. Her personal appeal unmistakably lies in her physical charm. Mrs Woolf tells us how her husband feels about her: “Indeed, she had the whole of the other sex under her protection.”

Beauty without grace and dignity cannot have so much influence on others. She has abundant feminine graces. She is polite and cultured in her manners and kind and considerate in her temperament. She is absolutely free from all egotism and is never in a mood to assert herself. Hence her graceful manners and kind disposition combined with her extraordinary physical charm cast a healthy spell on all who came in contact with her.

Mrs. Ramsay often feels the need ‘to be silent, to be alone.’ In a mood of detachment, she muses upon the alternating flashes of light. This musing gives her a sense of victory over live. This is a one aspect of her vision. The second is evoked as her mood soon changes into one of grim recognition of the inevitable facts of ‘suffering, death, the poor’. She gradually descends from her state of triumphant freedom to the fret.

Mrs. Ramsay may also be taken as a symbol of the female principle in life. She is essentialy feminine and the novelist emphasized her famine weaknesses. As she has a habit of exaggerating which irks her husband and she muddle-headed and cannot remember the facts, or distinguish between them.  Some critics hold the view that Mrs. Ramsay has been treated as a symbol and has not been individualized by the novelist. In spite of this indefiniteness and symbolic traits Mrs. Ramsay is quite an individualized figure and is undoubtedly one of the great immortals of English literature.

The most outstanding trait of Mrs. Ramsay’s character is her compassion for the poor and the unfortunate, Her heart overflows with the milk of human sympathy and kindness. She knits stockings for the sick son of the Lighthouse-keeper. She feels for them all as they are to live a dull and unhappy life in a lonely island. She goes to the town to help the poor and the needy. She extends extra care to Tansely for the same reason.

Then we find her having great affection and sympathetic consideration for the children. She is a kind mother who can tactfully soothe and comfort her children. She knows the truth, yet not to dishearten her seven-year-old son she deviates from truth. But Mr. Ramsay shatters the hope of a young soul by bluntly telling him that they won’t be able to go to the Lighthouse the next day due to inclement weather. And this difference of attitude reveals the sharp contrast between the husband and the wife. Above all, in spite of great difference in temperament and in their attitude Mrs. Ramsay is a constant source of inspiration to Mr. Ramsay. She knows that he is absolutely dependent on her for sympathy and understanding.

Mrs. Ramsay’s mania for matchmaking reveals is yet another significant aspect of establishing peace and harmony among people. She sincerely attempts to get Paul and Minta as well as Lily and Mr. Bankes married.  It is a matter of pride for her for bringing them together. Of course she cannot be blamed if their marriage is a failure.

Mrs. Ramsay dominates the novel not only during her life time but even after her death with no less importance. The imposing physical presence of Mrs. Ramsay pervades the whole book. Her influence on other important characters—specially on Lily Briscoe —is really very great. It is only to fulfil one of Mrs. Ramsay’s cherished wishes that Mr. Ramsay undertakes the journey to the Lighthouse. Mrs. Ramsay is constantly presented through Lily Briscoe’s consciousness, and her full significance as a uniting force is clearly revealed.  And it is the vision of this departed soul that inspires Lily Briscoe to take up her brush again to complete her great picture. James Hafley is quite correct when he remarks that Mrs. Ramsay dead is more powerful than Mr. Ramsay living. According to James Hafley, Mrs. Ramsay rises from death and lives again and becomes an immortal.

Mrs. Ramsay might have some little flaws in her character such as her susceptibility to flattery. It might be that she wanted to be praised or appreciated while helping others or doing some good deed. But with her extreme civility and goodness, with her irresistible charms and dominating personality hers is a unique character from the pen of a great artist.