In “The Window,” after the dinner party, Mrs. Whether engaged in a professional, artistic, household, or romantic endeavors, everyone tries to organize the people and things they come into contact with over the summer vacation to draw out beauty or truth.

Many of the ‘To the Lighthouse’ characters give ideals some thought. The Struggle Between Idealism and Realism It also explores the circular, ritualistic time of communal activity and habit as the characters repeat their daily routines of walks and dinners, behaves predictably around one another, and repeatedly express firmly held beliefs. The story also focuses on the Ramsay family’s vacation time and that of their visitors, for whom the story’s scenes serve as a “break” from their daily lives in London. Ramsay and Lily are especially aware of the particular precision of each moment. The activity described occurs within a time frame comparable to the time it takes to read the section therefore, Part 1, The Window, and Part 2, The Lighthouse, take place virtually in “real-time.” Each character’s perspective picks up on a vast array of detail in these portions, and the perceptive Mrs.

The narrative illustrates the many lengths of time that make up each experience between these two extremes. ‘To the Lighthouse’ investigates time at all scales, following the complex ideas and feelings experienced in a single second while also reflecting on the infinite geologic time that stretches back into the past and forwards into the future beyond the reach of human understanding. The Exploration of Time in To the Lighthouse This unity is symbolized by the painting she finishes that she has been working on since the beginning of the book. Lily Briscoe is Woolf’s ideal representation of the androgynous artist who embodies the harmonious union of male and feminine traits. Both have flaws due to their constrained viewpoints. Ramsay, a self-centered philosopher, expresses the male principle with his rational point of view.

Ramsay represents the female principle with her emotive, poetical frame of mind, whereas Mr. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe as of thematic importance to the overall narrative. Virginia Woolf explores a variety of themes in ‘To the Lighthouse.’ One of the prominent themes fleshed out in this book is the dichotomous intergender dynamics present in the 20th century when Woolf pens this book.

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf