Feminism in the novel To the Light House

Introduction
One of the most prominent literary figures of the twentieth century, Woolf is widely
admired for her technical innovations in the novel, most notably her development of
stream-of-consciousness narrative. In To the Lighthouse (1927) Woolf sought to
come to terms with her parents' stifling Victorian marriage and events of her own
childhood, as well as to explore such feminist issues as the necessity, or even
desirability, of marriage for women and the difficulties for women in pursuing a
career in the arts. A striking mix of autobiographical elements, philosophical
questions, and social concerns, To the Lighthouse is generally considered to be
Woolfs greatest fictional achievement.
Three phases of Feminism
In her book A Literature of Their Own Elaine Showalter writes on English women
writers. She says that we can see patterns and phases in the evolution of a female
tradition. Showalter has divided the period of evolution into three stages. They are:
1. The Feminine,
2. The Feminist, and,
3. The Female stages.
1) The first phase, the feminine phase dates from about 1840-1880. During that
period women wrote in an effort to equal the intellectual achievements of the male
culture. The distinguishing sign of this period is the male pseudonym. This trend
was introduced in England in the 1840s. It became a national characteristic of
English women writers. During this phase the feminist content of feminine art is
typically oblique, because of the inferiority complex experienced by female writers.
2) The feminist phase lasted about 38 years; from 1882 to 1920. The New
Women movement gained strengthwomen won the right to vote. Women writers
began to use literature to dramatize the ordeals of wrong womanhood.
3) The latest phase or the third phase is called the female phase ongoing since
1920. Here we find women rejecting both imitation and protest. Showalter
considers that both are signs of dependency. Women show more independent
attitudes. They realize the place of female experience in the process of art and
literature. She considers that there is what she calls autonomous art that can come
from women because their experiences are typical and individualistic. Women
began to concentrate on the forms and techniques of art and literature. The
representatives of the female phase such as Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf
even began to think of male and female sentences. They wrote about masculine
journalism and feminine fiction. They redefined and sexualized external and
internal experience.
Female Characters
After reading Virginia Woolfs, To the Lighthouse, readers are left with the
disturbing reality of the role of a woman during this time period. The characters of
Mrs Ramsay and Lily Briscoe portray these demeaning roles. Both are giving
different polar areas of the woman in the novel. They are portrayed with the stream
of conscious technique. There are other minor female characters too. However,
instead of completely giving in to the domination of men, they are starting the
womans movement of resistance in the period of the beginning of World War I.
* Mrs Ramsay
Mrs Ramsay is the character who is constantly present not only as worldly presence
but also in the mind of the other characters. Beautiful, charming, and nurturing, Mrs
Ramsey holds the Ramsay family together as she holds together every social
context she enters by her charisma and instinct for putting people at ease. Mrs.
Ramsay also holds To the Lighthouse together, for the novels shape is structured
around her: her perspective dominates Chapter 1 and, even after she dies in
Chapter 2, Mrs Ramsay remains central in Chapter 3 as the surviving Ramsays
manage their grief and Lily revisits her memories of Mrs Ramsay and makes peace
with her ghost. For her own part, Mrs Ramsay exalts in the beauty of the world and,
though she insists she is no thinker, frequently reflects on the nature of time and
human experience. An eager matchmaker, Mrs Ramsay is also, as Lily sees an artist
who can make out of the fleeting moment something permanent
She is the character who used to take all the responsibility of their family. Carefree,
calm graceful lady she is! She is the perfect homemaker. Always she is buffering the
situation between the Mr.Ramsay and the children. Mrs Ramsay is a good wife &
creater of the comfort for everyone. Mr Ramsay failed to treat her with chivalry. She
is the means to satisfy his male ego, physical needs as well as needs of the family.
And sometimes when he realizes he cannot help her and that, astoundingly, her
remoteness irritates him. So consistently does he get things wrong? On the other
hand family is everything for Mrs Ramsay. Her constant concern about small and
basic needs of family keeps her alive after her death too. For in Mrs. Ramsays
impulse to call to her husband is the essence of her life, the sensitive and
idiosyncratic alchemy of feminine intuition, along with the terrifying notion that the
very act of being a woman, a wife, a mother, enervates, and far worse, may even
kill. But here a question rises that is it necessary to be so concerned for needs to be
in someones memory and heart? If she is an independent woman just like Lily
Briscoe would she not be missed by family?
Ultimately, as is evident from her meeting with Mr. Ramsay at the close of The
Window, Mrs. Ramsay never compromises herself. Here, she is ablemasterfully
to satisfy her husbands desire for her to tell him she loves him without saying the
words she finds so difficult to say. This scene displays Mrs. Ramsays ability to bring
together disparate things into a whole. In a world marked by the ravages of time
and war, in which everything must and will fall apart, there is perhaps no greater
gift than a sense of unity, even if it is only temporary.
But beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty it came too readily, came
too completely. It stilled life froze it. One forgot the little agitations; the flush, the
pallor, some queer distortion, some light or shadow, which made the face
unrecognizable for a moment and yet added a quality one saw for ever after. It was
simpler to smooth that all out under the cover of beauty.
According to Lily Briscoe she was great at pulling together her family. But by doing
so, she smoothed over all of the complexities and individual interests of her children
and her friends in favor of a greater whole. Mr. Ramsay is an overt bully, but Mrs
Ramsay quietly influences people to take the shape that she wants them to take, in
the name of a greater idea.

* Lily Briscoe
In Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse, the struggle to obtain and assert female
autonomy is constantly threatened or undermined by a society built upon the
foundations of patriarchy. The clash of gender ideologies permeates much of the
novel and Woolf emphasizes a subversion of traditional female gender roles through
the character of Lily Briscoe. She represents an idealized feminist woman who
challenges male hegemony to achieve a sense of individuality. Her finished painting
and epiphany at the end of the novel serves to establish her role as a truly liberated
female artist.
The desire to break away from conventional female cultural norms and stereotypes
in order to achieve autonomy can only be fully realized when she experiences the
vision after the completion of her painting at the end of the novel. Woolf is keen to
stress Lilys role as an outsider attempting to analyze and comprehend her
precarious social predicament. Her status as a middle-aged woman, who values
artistic achievement over the prospects of marriage becomes increasingly difficult
to maintain against the circumscribed expectations of society. The pressure to
conform to specific female gender roles weighs heavily upon her conscious:
Even while she looked at the mass, at the line, at the color, at Mrs.
Ramsay sitting in the window with James, she kept a feeler on her
surroundings lest someone should creep up, and suddenly she would find
her picture looked at.
Lily suffers from a moral crisis over her desire to pursue art as a vocation because
of gender inequality and male prejudices imposed upon women. She is challenging
the status quo by picking up a paintbrush and experiences a pervasive sense of
guilt as if committing a heinous crime. Lily is fully aware of the gender stereotypes
and impediments of circumstance that society places upon women, which explains
her shrewd disposition to remain inconspicuous. Considering that she is adamant to
conceal her painting from prying eyes suggests that her art is essentially
metaphorical: a radical political statement of feminist ideals. Yet, she is not
confident enough in her abilities to showcase this controversial work to a
judgmental public. Her personal independence from the negative influences of male
hegemony is directly linked to the aesthetic development as an artist; thus, it is only
after reaching a satisfactory level of creative expression that the submerged
metaphor becomes most vivid.
Indeed, since Lily is unable to obtain an empowering sense of female liberation until
she has finished the painting at the end of the novel, the first section emphasizes
the juxtaposition between her destabilized sense of self as an artist and as a woman
living in a world ruled by patriarchy. The tenuous relationship between the
subjective and the objective self is a cause of great psychological distress because
of her shifting attitudes towards female gender roles. Lilys first appearance in the
novel provides a suitable qualification of her social status as an outsider. She is
introduced through the perspective of Mrs. Ramsay sitting in the openly transparent
window of the cottage with James, her youngest son. They are both having their
portrait painted by Lily who is looking at them through the window from a position
outside on the lawn.
Mythical References
In this novel Dr. Joseph M Blotner reads mythical connections with female
characters. According to him three mythic female figures are traced in the designing
of the characters. Thay are: Zeus (Rhea),Demeter & Persephone.

Mrs.Ramsay is the symbol of female principal in the life. She is not merely goddess
but more than this. We can say that she is the meaning of the novel. Rhea is the
daity who bore the God children of God Zeus. Rhea has six children. Mrs. Ramsay
resembles Rhea. She has eight children. Many a times she is relates with nature.
Female Gender Roles
Many women in To the Lighthouse either overtly or silently subvert conventional
female gender roles. Lily Briscoe, for example has no desire to marry but rather
wants only to dedicate herself to her work. She is independent and self-sufficient,
and she is able to disregard Mr. Tansleys prejudiced comments about women being
unable to paint. Despite Mrs. Ramsay persuasion, she holds her ground throughout
the novel, refusing to become any mans wife. These choices and ideas were very
unconventional in the early 20th century.
Three of Mrs. Ramsays daughters also silently reject the life that their mother
chose for herself, in all of its domesticity. They know that they want their lives to be
different and more complex then what they perceive as limited realm of wife-mother
and they are stubborn and adventurous.
Moreover, the novel promises only misfortune for the woman who accept the roles
carved out for them. Mrs. Ramsay dies unexpectedly at a relatively young age. Prue,
shortly after getting married, dies as a result of childbirth. Even Minta, who had
been a somewhat unconventional lady, suffers in her marriage, for Paul leaves her
for another woman. The novel seems to punish the women who accept positions as
wife and mother, while it abounds with young women who are sure that want a
different existence.
Thus, the characters themselves stand for feminism. During that period woman are
considered as of substantial or derogatory. For Mrs Ramsay we can connect the
Indian Shloka of Manusmriti-
Karyeshu mantri Karneshu dasi, Shayneshu Rambha bhojaneshu mata,
This shlok shows the very role played by Mrs Ramsay in the novel. Her character is
juxtaposed with Lily Briscoes character who is an independent individual and
creative artist as well as sensible lady. The feministic view has only one question
that Why cannot the woman be allowed to be herself, why she is not at the ease
and have to carefree for every persons minor needs, why cant she get comfort or
feeling of emotional support from the man in her life, doesnt she need that?