To the Lighthouse-Detailed Analysis

Narration and perspective

The novel maintains an unusual form of omniscient narrator; the plot unfolding through
shifting perspectives of each character's consciousness. Shifts can occur even mid-sentence,
and in some sense they resemble the rotating beam of the lighthouse itself. Unlike James
Joyce's stream of consciousness technique, however, Woolf does not tend to use abrupt
fragments to represent characters' thought processes; her method is more one of lyrical
paraphrase. The unique presentation of omniscient narration means that, throughout the
novel, readers are challenged to formulate their own understanding, and views, from the
subtle shifts in character development, as much of the story is presented in ambiguous, or
even contradictory, descriptions.[6][7]

Whereas in Part I, the novel is concerned with illustrating the relationship between the
character experiencing and the actual experience and surroundings, part II, 'Time Passes',
having no characters to relate to, presents events differently. Instead, Woolf wrote the section
from the perspective of a displaced narrator, unrelated to any people, intending that events be
seen in relation to time. For that reason the narrating voice is unfocused and distorted,
providing an example of what Woolf called 'life as it is when we have no part in it.'[8][9] Major
events like deaths of Mrs Ramsay, Prue, Andrew are related parenthetically, which makes the
narration a kind of journal-entry. It is also possible that the house itself is the inanimate
narrator of these events.[6]