Plot and Major Characters

To the Lighthouse is divided into three parts: The Window, Time Passes, and The Lighthouse. Despite the inherent complexities of Woolf s man! themes, the plot of the novel is simple. "r. and "rs. #amsa!, their children, and numerous house guests$including Lil! %riscoe, the central consciousness of The Lighthouse section$are vacationing in the remote &e'rides islands. ( )ourne! to a near'! lighthouse is postponed '! "r. #amsa!, and ten !ears later, after the deaths of "rs. #amsa! and two of the #amsa!s children, the trip is successfull! executed '! "r. #amsa! and his children *ames and +am. The Window is the longest section of the 'oo,, 'ut it ta,es place in a single da! and focuses primaril! on the character "rs. #amsa!, a 'eautiful, good-natured, upper-middle-class .ictorian wife and mother who devotes herself to famil! and friends. The !ears 'etween the planned trip to the lighthouse and the actual event are poeticall! narrated in the short section Time Passes, in which the effects of time are illustrated in a description of the slow deca! of the #amsa!s/ empt! vacation home, com'ined with flashes of imager! of World War 0, the ph!sical aging of the characters, and death. Lil! %riscoe 'ecomes the dominant character in the third section, The Lighthouse. ( struggling artist who never married$despite "rs. #amsa!/s attempts to pla! matchma,er for her$Lil! mourns the loss of "rs. #amsa!, whom she alternatel! adores and misunderstands, and attempts to resolve her feelings a'out "r. #amsa!, whom she considers at times overl! philosophical, arrogant, and detached. Lil! also must come to terms with her own decision not to marr! and to pursue wor, as an artist, despite social pressure to lead a more conventional life. 0n the final scene of the novel, "r. #amsa! and his children reach the lighthouse at last, and Lil! finishes the painting she has 'een wor,ing on throughout the novel, 'oth acts signif!ing the characters/ attainment of an integrated vision of life, art, and death.

Major Themes (fter the novel/s pu'lication, Woolf wrote of her interpretation of her parents/ marriage in To the Lighthouse, 0 was o'sessed '! them 'oth, unhealthil!1 and writing of them was a necessar! act. &er own mother had died suddenl! when Woolf was thirteen. +onsidered a model wife and mother, *ulia 2tephen was ,nown to tire out herself regularl! to please her demanding hus'and, the writer and intellectual figure Leslie 2tephen. %ut "r. and "rs. #amsa! are heavil! fictionali3ed portra!als of Woolf/s parents, and neither the! nor the other characters in To the Lighthouse are meant to full! represent the 2tephen famil!1 rather, the! are extremel! complex, s!m'olic, and, some sa!, m!thical figures who are not easil! categori3ed. Literar! theorists are sharpl! divided over the deeper meanings of Woolf/s characters. 2ome interpret "rs. #amsa! as the em'odiment of the feminine ideal and "r. #amsa! as that of the masculine ideal$the pure, elemental forces of the genders. 4eminist critics dispute this notion, positing instead that the #amsa!s/ marriage is t!pical of most marriages in the pre-World War 0 period, forcing the wife into the role of angel of the house$un5uestioning, supportive, generous, and self-sacrificing at an! cost to personal am'ition and satisfaction. These critics consider "r. #amsa! an over'earing and domineering patriarch who drives his wife to the 'rin, of fee'le-mindedness. 2till others surmise )ust the opposite: namel!, that "rs. #amsa! is a cold-hearted, socialclim'ing harp!, and "r. #amsa! a hen-pec,ed hus'and. #egardless of conflicting interpretations of the #amsa!s, Lil! %riscoe is generall! considered representative of Woolf/s strong feminist principles, particularl! in her refusal to marr! and her commitment to painting, despite the urging of others to a'andon art. 6verriding concerns of To the Lighthouse and all of its characters are death, mourning, and the inexora'le passage of time. When "rs. #amsa! dies, she ta,es with her the sense of order in the famil!1 children die, Lil! and "r. #amsa! fall into a'iding grief, and

even the house itself declines into disrepair. The consummation of the trip to the lighthouse and Lil!/s completion of her painting, with a single line down the center representing "rs. #amsa!, signif! the triumph of order over disorder and life over death and grief.