TO THE LIGHT HOUSE BRIEF NOTES

USE OF SYMBOLS

The character of James Ramsay; a six years old child gives a clue as to interpret symbols
in To the Lighthouse. From the very start, novel shows that James wishes to visit the
Lighthouse & finally he draws the Ramsays’ boat the lighthouse. Here, he tells two quiet
opposite meanings of the lighthouse. The first depends upon the lighthouse as it appeared to
him as a child; second, it was a “silvery, mist-colored tower” & seemed to portray the
romantic quality of the past. But when he arrives at the lighthouse, he finds nothing romantic
about the place as the windows are bared & the clothes drying on the rocks. He resolves,
however, to honor the truth of both images, deciding that “nothing [is] simply one thing.”

Like James’s interpretation of the lighthouse, the dominant symbols in the novel demand
open readings. Mrs. Ramsay wrapping her shawl around the boar’s head can be read merely
as protection of her impressionable children from the unsightly suggestion of death, but it can
also be read as a selfish attempt to keep from them a profound & inescapable truth. Choosing
one option or the other diminishes the complexity of the novel’s symbols & characters. Woolf
resists formulaic symbols, whereby one entity straightforwardly stands for another; she thus
places us in the same position as her characters. The world of the novel is not filled with
solidly or surely determined truths. Rather, truth, as Lily points out, must be collected from an
endless number of impressions—she wishes that she had more than fifty pairs of eyes with
which to view Mrs. Ramsay & understand her. We must approach the symbolism of To the
Lighthouse with the same patience for multiple meanings.

If To the Lighthouse is a novel about the search for meaning in life, how do the
characters conduct their search? Are they successful in finding an answer?
ANSWER Although all the characters engage themselves in the same quest for meaningful
experience, the three main characters have vastly different approaches. Mr. Ramsay’s search
is intellectual; he hopes to understand the world & his place in it by working at philosophy &
reading books. Mrs. Ramsay conducts her search through intuition rather than intellect; she
relies on social traditions such as marriage & dinner parties to structure her experience. Lily,
on the other hand, tries to create meaning in her life through her painting; she seeks to unify
disparate elements in a harmonious whole.
While these characters experience varying degrees of success in their quest for meaning,
none arrives at a revelation that fulfills the search. As an old man, Mr. Ramsay continues to be
as tortured by the specter of his own mortality as he is in youth. Mrs. Ramsay achieves
moments in which life seems filled with meaning, but, as her dinner party makes clear, they
are terribly short-lived. Lily, too, manages to wrest a moment from life & lend to it meaning &
order. Her painting is a small testament to that struggle. But, as she reflects while pondering
the meaning of her life, there are no “great revelations” but only “little daily miracles” that
one, if lucky, can fish out of the dark.

Compare & contrast Mr. & Mrs. Ramsay. How are they alike? How are they
different?
ANSWER
TO THE LIGHT HOUSE BRIEF NOTES

Although Mr. & Mrs. Ramsay’s love for each other & for their children is beyond doubt, their
approaches to life could not be more opposite. Mrs. Ramsay is loving, kind to her children,
selfless, & generously giving, while Mr. Ramsay is cold & socially awkward. He is stern with his
children, which causes them to hate & fear him, & he displays a neediness that makes him
rather pathetic in the eyes of his guests. Despite these profound differences, however, Mr. &
Mrs. Ramsay share the knowledge that all things—from human life to human happiness—are
destined to end. It is from this shared knowledge that their greatest differences grow. Keenly
aware of human mortality, Mrs. Ramsay is fueled to cultivate moments that soothe her
consciousness, while Mr. Ramsay nearly collapses under the weight of this realization.