To the light house
...her husband has handled the situation. Among the guests are Lily Briscoe, an unmarried woman who choses not to marry inspite of Mrs. Ramsay’s matchmaking attempts, William Bankes, the kind man Mrs. Ramsay believes would make a fine husband for Lily. Charles Tansley, a student of Mr Ramsay. Tansley, like most who are insecure, is harsh and judgemental. Lily paints and Tansley has infuriated her when he says “Women can’t paint. Women can’t write”. The next book, the shortest tells of the three books ten years are glossed over. Mrs. Ramsay is dead, Andrew Ramsay, the oldest of the Ramsay sons, is killed in WW1, their oldest daughter Prue dies in childbirth. No one come to vacation at the summer home for ten years. The house is in shambles. But, then word comes, the Ramsay’s are returning and the house must be made ready. In the third book Mr. Ramsay and two of his children, daughter Cam and son James are at long last going to the lighthouse. The sea is calm and the sail goes well. Lily Briscoe picks up an old painting , a portrait of Mrs. Ramsay she began ten years ago. She remember Tansley’s remarks, she recalls and dreadfully misses Mrs. Ramsay. The painting is complete. The Ramsays return from their sojourn to the lighthouse. It is a difficult novel. Virginia Woolf, a woman who lead a very insular life was more interested in form over content. A leading writer of modernism she utilized poetic symbols of life and wrote in a stream of conscious style. Definitely not a light read. It is the minutiae in the writing the creates the relationships between the character. The thoughts, what is said, what is left unsaid that creates the novels tention. Mr. Ramsay, unsure ...