Symbolism, Anti-Patriarchal Chauvinism, and the Emotionalism Style of To The Lighthouse

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In the novel, To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf successfully creates a unique form of writing through her experimentation with language that allowed her to break from the conventional writing style of her era to land into a radical modern style of literature. Her experimentation with writing came at a time where no women had a feminine voice in literature. Although, her new form of writing veered into a dimension unknown to the conventional style of writing, the novel was still able to capture the character’s fleeting internal thoughts, reactions, and struggles. Thus, Woolf’s use of techniques such as symbolism, structure organization, narrative voice and the unusual time treatment allowed her novel to express precisely the women condition and to plead the feminist enigma.
Symbols constitutes an important sector of To The Lighthouse that allowed Woolf to convey impressions and thoughts where language failed to express. Woolf uses private symbolism to convey the inner consciousness of her characters in order to reveal their emotive life and to immerse her readers in the character’s mind. One of the most significant symbols in the novel is the lighthouse. It appears in the beginning as a dream jaunt to James, however, his view changes towards the end of the novel when he realises that the lighthouse was only a desirable object for him. It is not a matter of serendipity that the death of Mrs. Ramsay and the overcoming of her influence on James appears right before the conflict between him and his father is resolved and their relationship is bettered. Since, subtly throughout the novel, she yearns for her own country as a metaphor for her freedom of patriarchy “some moon country, uninhabited of men.” (11). On the other hand, Mrs. Ra...

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...deals with external events and so the passage of time becomes poignant since these events lack any meaningful experiences. In her transformation of time, Woolf is conveying that the perception of time is depended on the experience itself rather than any trivial external factor.
To The Lighthouse is one of the masterpieces of the modern era produced by Virginia Woolf. Symbolism, fragmented organization, stream of consciousness narrative style, and the unusual chronological treatment are all techniques that were utilized by Woolf to allow her to explore the issue of feminism. She was able to immerse the reader into the subjective reality of her characters emblematizing Lily’s journey as the sprout of feminine voice. Thus, Woolf’s efforts paved the way for the modern female writer and unshackled her from the masculine form giving her the freedom to write as she wished.

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