An Insightful Journey in Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse

An Insightful Journey in Woolf’s To The Lighthouse

The lighthouse stands in the distance. It signifies a far off place that takes planning and work to reach. Depending on your perspective, the lighthouse may look different. It may appear large or small, short or tall, it may be dark and musty or bright and clear. Perspective is defined by Random House dictionary as "a broad view of events or ideas in their true nature and relationships". Virginia Woolf, in To The Lighthouse, takes an insightful journey into the true nature of relationships through the perspective of many different characters. Many times throughout the novel, especially in the first part, it is difficult to decipher who Woolf is speaking through, whose perspective she is taking, but as the novel unfolds it becomes clear that there really is only one reality.

It seems as though the first section of this novel is written in a completely different facet than are the other two. "The Window", which is the opening section of the novel, is 6 times as long as the second part and twice as long as the last. It has echoes of love and poses questions of destiny. Through the many perspectives taken, the first section is thought provoking. What will happen to the characters of this story? This first section reveals a large array of emotions and it tackles many characters while posing many questions. What is life about? How do parents function in the eyes of their children? What is true success? How does one make things meaningful? The last two sections of the novel are devoted to making sense of the first, but in a drastically different tone. These sections are tainted with death and with the issu...

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...p; The ending to this novel is a perspective entirely different then one given before. Lily finishes her painting. What this says is that she has come to terms with her role. She knows who she is and who she wants to be. “Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision” (209). She, like Mrs. Ramsay, has found a place where she is happy. They are two different women who struggled, maybe not equally, to find that place where their roles seemed to signify a better place for them. Lily may not have been the “mother”, but she took on another role, one that was more difficult to come to grips with. She will leave that experience with a new perspective, one that will transcend to other women. I think the more the perspective changes, the closer woman will find themselves to the lighthouse.