"Everything seemed possible. Everything seemed right. Just now (but this cannot last, she thought, dissociating herself from the moment while they were all talking about boots) just now she had reached security; she hovered like a hawk suspended; like a flag floated in an element of joy which filled every nerve of her body... in the face of the flowing, the fleeting, the spectral, like a ruby; so that again tonight she had the feeling she had had once today, already, of peace, of rest. Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that endures.”
Virginia Woolf's 'To The Lighthouse,' pages 104-105
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Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse is on the Literature Humanities syllabus at Columbia; meaning, it is recognized as one of the great works of the Western canon. As one of the only women on the recognized syllabus, I was immediately intrigued by Woolf’s work and life story. She is one of the great modernist writers and truly shaped the genre of modernism, along with T.S. Eliot and Ernest Hemingway. The novel is said to be a tribute to Woolf’s recently deceased mother, Julia Stephen. May 5th of 1895 is said to be “the death of Julia Stephen and the birth of To The Lighthouse” because as Woolf’s mother died, she transposed her being into Mrs. Ramsay, the protagonist of To The Lighthouse.
Woolf’s mother, or Mrs. Ramsay, dies in To The Lighthouse within a pair of parentheses. These parentheses are used brilliantly, yet intertwined seamlessly with heartbreak, anger, and fear for the reader. Additionally, these parentheses allow us to understand, quite blatantly, time’s ephemeral melt.
We fall in love with Mrs. Ramsay because of her definite ability to hold everything together and her ability to handle herself and her family with effortless ease and kindness, yet a necessity for her presence of silent power. Mrs. Ramsay wants to help at all times and she is, indeed, self-aware of how she wants to act towards others and the reasoning behind her actions. She desires to improve the flawed nature of human interactions. She expresses her ability to enjoy and experience daily life, yet is a beacon of strength, like the lighthouse itself. Her love glows and shines on even after she dies through Lily Briscoe’s work.
Lily Briscoe allows us to understand who Woolf desires to be, and the beauty of time’s fleeting melt. The reason why Briscoe finishes the painting is to restore and reinforce her own beauty of life itself as well as her physical beauty through her painting. Her vision for her painting has eerie ties to Woolf’s literary pursuits. Her painting is meant to sort out her daily life and lived experiences through painting the lighthouse itself and Mrs. Ramsay.
The first part of the novel entitled ‘The Window’ takes place in seven hours, yet spreads over half of the book. Woolf’s vivid descriptions and stream-of-consciousness narrative structure allow us to delve deeply into the minds of the characters and realize everything that could occur in the span of seven measly, constantly fleeting hours. Woolf teaches us that time in our lives is constantly fleeting, and we should take every beautiful, flawless moment to heart as it fades.
