Vrignia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse
In To The Lighthouse, Woolf provides an important perspective of consciousness, grief, and memory. The initial part of the book, that is, “The Window” touches on the relationship of the characters and their surroundings. “Time Passes” is the second section of the book and it is arguably the most informative portion of the book as the narrator discusses the aspect of feeling and absence from the perspective of Ramsay’s house. This portion causes rapid acceleration of the events and the narrative in general as one witnesses the elapse of about ten years within about twenty pages. Within this brief section of the narrative, the Ramsays lose virtually everything including several family members who die abruptly. While the portion provides a sense of great loss, it also portrays how time can be merciless even though there is still a ray of hope provided by the fact that the Lighthouse beams continue to enter the house.
The Lighthouse in the course of the portion is portrayed as ever-present yet passive given that it does not interfere with the ever-changing world of the Ramsay family. The house bears witness to everything that happens but it also seems incapable of withstanding the test of time or the perspectives of individual consciousness. The fact that the house is not intrusive means that its purpose is to draw the attention of the reader to the seemingly inevitable changes that occur during the course of the narrative.
The Use of the brackets in the section creates an aspect of subjective consciousness. The information contained in the brackets such as the death of Prue Ramsay gives the impression of a news brief. That is, information that comes to the attention of the narrator briefly, something that shows that the narrator is not ever-present to witness every happening to the Ramsay family.
The third portion of the novel “The Lighthouse” gives the sense of a return to places that hold memories. Notably, the “Time Passes” section acts as a significant bridge between the first and the third sections of the book in the sense that in its absence it would be virtually impossible to understand the book. As such, the portion provides an important flow to be novel because it compresses a significant amount of time and events that gives an overview of what causes the emptiness that is eventually felt in the house.
Work Cited
Woolf, Virginia. To The Lighthouse. N.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2017.
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91t/part2.html
