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Experiencing the Journey in Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse: The Journey, The Dinner Party, The Summer House


"I do not believe that she wrote one word of fiction which does not put out boundaries a little way; one book which does not break new ground and form part of the total experiment."

Susan Hill
British novelist and dramatist. Referring to Virginia Woolf.
The Daily Telegraph (London)
        

The Journey to the Lighthouse (Not as Pleasant as the Children has Expected): The Journey to the island, where the lighthouse stood was not as pleasant as the children has expected. They had never really liked their father; he had taken too little time to understand them. He was short and sharp when they did things which looked foolish to him, through their actions were perfectly comprehensible to the son and the daughter. James especially exacted to the blamed caustically and pointlessly if the crossing were slow or not satisfactory in some other way for the he had been delegated to handle the sheets and the tiller of the boat.

Mr. Ramsay And Seamanship: Mr. Ramsay stood to the beach with his offspring’s, each carrying a paper parcel to take to the keeper of the lighthouse. They set sail and pointed the prow of the sailboat to the black and white striped spilled of the lighthouse in the hazy distance. Mr. Ramsay sat in the middle of the boat along with an old fisherman and his son. They were to take over the boat in an emergency, for Mr. Ramsay had little faith in James as a reliable seaman. In the stern, sat James himself, never tingling, lest his father should look up from the book and indulge in unnecessary and hateful criticism, But his nervous tension was needless, for within a few hours, the little party reached the lighthouse, and wonderful to relate, Mr. Ramsay sprang ashore like a younger, smiled each at his children, and praised his son for his seamanship.’

The Dinner Party: Mr. Carmichael pretending to read had actually fallen asleep early after lunch. The children, except James, who was busy cutting pictures from a catalogue, had beside themselves in playing cricket. Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Tansley had passed the time I pointless conversation. Miss Lily had made only a daub or two on the canvas. For some reason, the lines of the scene refused to come clear in her painting. Pure and Mr. Banks had gone walking along the shore. Even the dinner went by slowly. The only occasion of interest to the children, which was one of tension to the mother, was when M. Carmichael asked for a second bowl of soup, thereby angering his host, who liked the meals to be dispatched promptly. As soon as the children d had finished, their mother sent the younger ones to bed.  Mrs. Ramsay hoped that Pure will not fall in love with Bankes, and Lily who always became seasick, would not to accompany them in the small sailboat if they should go to the lighthouse the following morning. She also thought of the fifty pounds needed to make repairs on the house.

The Trip to the Lighthouse Cancelled: After dinner, Mrs. Ramsay went upstairs to the nursery. James had a boar’ skull which his sister desisted. Whenever Cam tried to remove it from the wall and from his sight, he fell in to a frenzy of screaming. Mrs. Ramsay wrapped the skull in a handkerchief. Afterwards she went downstairs and Joined her husband in the library; they sat throughout the evening. She went on knitting and he reading. Before they went to bed, it was agreed that the trip for the next day would have to e cancelled. The night had turned stormy.
                                        
To The Lighthouse: The Summer House: Night followed night. The trip to the lighthouse was never made that summer, nor did Ramsays return to the summer house for some years. In the meantime, Mrs. Ramasay died quietly in her sleep. Pure was married although not to Mr. Bakes, and died in child birth. The First World War began. Andrew Ramsaya enlisted, and was sent to France, was he was killed by an exploding shell.

Ardhendu De

 Answer these questions:
1. What are the differences between the two narrative techniques in Woolf's To the Lighthouse and Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?
2. Comment on / about its gender politics. 
3. Has James Ramsayan Oedipal Complex.
4. Woolf's novel is an attempt to create writing that is conceptually identical to Lily's postimpressionist painting-  Comment.

Reference

To The Lighthouse : Virginra Woolf : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/ToTheLighthouse

To The Lighthouse
To The Lighthouse

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