Assignment on Symbolism In To The Light House
Name : Chauhan Hetal M
Course: M.A English
Paper No. :09
Paper Name : Modernist
Literature
Semester:03
Roll No.:14
Email Id: hetalchauhan137@gmail.com
Submitted To: Dr. Dilip
Barad,Smt.S.B.Gardi,Department Of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji,
Bhavnagar University.
Ø Symbolism In To The Lighthouse:
§
Introduction
Of Novel
To the Lighthouse is 20th century novel which is
written by Adline Virginia Woolf. She was an English Author, Writer, publish,
essayist and short story writer. She is regarded as a famous figure of that
era.
To The Lighhouse:
To the Lighthouse is many ways
revolutionary book. Writing in the 1920,and published on 5th may- 1927. The
novel is landmark of high modernism. To the lighthouse, Virginia Woolf used the
language of Psychoanalysis. Reader can find stream of consciousness during
reading the novel. The novel set on duration of 10 years , It deals with the
novel is Mr. and Mrs. Ramsays and their visit to the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
Virginia Woolf was attempting something quite new in the English novel. The
Novel is about different ways of perceiving the process of life. Many of the people in it are struggling to find
answer to the question that is ‘who know that what we are? What we feel? She wanted to capture in worlds the nature of
human consciousness. What is actually feels like to be alive. To the Lighthouse
is a book which makes one think as much about the methods and techniques of
fiction as about the character and scenes it describes.
Virginia Woolf wrote about this
novel that- “I suppose that I did this work for myself.”
The novel captures its readers
with its characterization of Ramsay family and their guest who meet at their
holiday home on Isle of Skye, an island near the Scottish mainland. As know
that novel is set on a ten years period of time.
To the Lighthouse is divided into
three sections; 1) The Window
2)
The Lighthouse
3) Time Passes
The Novel’s first section is
taking place on a day before the First World War. A Middle period in which all
the action happens “off stage” during the War. The last section is taking place
on a day after the World War. Each section is fragmented into stream of
consciousness contribution from various narrators.
§ Symbolism In To The Lighthouse:
As a modernist Writer, Virginia
Woolf used May symbol in her work. If we look from normal eye site, we cannot
find any image for the use of that symbol, but if we see it from different
perspective, reader can understand the use of that symbol. Woolf did not
followed the tradition of writing style in To the Lighthouse, the reader can
tell that an image or object that appears in the novel is significant, its
shown something but it may be hard to understand that what exactly it means
–shows.
What is
Symbolism
A symbol is a mark, sign or word
that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or
relationship. symbols allow people to go beyond
what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very
different concept and experiences.
All communication(and data
processing)is achieved through the use of symbols. Symbols take the form of
words, sound, gestures, ideas or visual image and are used to convey other
ideas and beliefs. For example :- A red Octagon may be a symbol “stop”. On a
map, a blue line might represent a river. Numerals are symbols for number.
Alphabetic letter may be symbol for sounds. personal names are symbols representing
individuals. A red rose may symbolize love and compassion.
§ Symbolism In Literature:
Symbolism is often used by writer to enhance
their writing. Symbolism can give a literary work more richness and color and
can make the meaning of the work deeper.
In literature, symbolism cans
many forms including:
-
A figure of
speech where an object, person, or situation has another meaning other than its literal meaning.
-
The action of
a character, word, action, or event that have a deeper meaning in the context
of the whole story.
In literature many kind of
symbols used as symbolism:
-
Metaphors as
symbolism
-
Allegory as
symbolism
-
Symbolism in
poetry etc.
Let’s see
variety of symbols is used in the novel. Symbols used
are in which context and let’s interpreted it. The all symbols are woven with
each other. Let them study closely under the following heads.
§
Lighthouse: Titular significance
§
Lily’s Painting
§
Ramsay’s summer House
§
Rose’s arrangement of the grapes and pears
§
The Sea, the Storms, the rock, reefs and shallow water
§
The Boar’s Skull
§ The Light House:
This is the most
important symbol in the novel. As it is also included in the title, the
Lighthouse is also a symbol. This symbol is interpreted by different critic by
different ways. It reflects the life of mankind. Building of The Lighthouse is
showing something. As we see the building of Lighthouse is tall, huge and big
stand alone on rock or island. It has light and darkness. During the night time
it gives Light to ships and sea fares. The
It stands alone and tall in both light and darkness and it, along with its
beacon, is a focal point which Symbolizes strength, guidance and safe
harbor; it is Spiritual hermit guiding all those who are traveling by sea.
If we apply to character of the novel, each
character has different meaning of the lighthouse.
If we see the lighthouse from the perspective
of Mr. Ramsay, he sees the lighthouse as source of stability and comfort. It
stands as strong feelings of ownership.
To Mrs. Ramsay, the predictability of the
lighthouse is most important, implying that truth lies in the cycles that
govern life.
For Lily Briscoe, the lighthouse becomes a
sort of fixation during her final artistic vision – she is watching Mr.
Ramsay’s boat reached at the lighthouse as she approaches the solution of how
to finish her painting. As the lighthouse is difficult to understand just like
that Lily Briscoe finding problem to complete the picture of Mr. and Mrs.
Ramsay. Finally
"the Lighthouse had become almost
invisible, had melted away into a blue haze" (308)
And with this she is finally relieved, and her
painting is finished. As the lighthouse disappear and Lily got some Idea to
finish her picture. Thus, this suggest that the lighthouse is also inspirable
to her and she got her vision.
For, James the lighthouse is also symbolized
strongest feelings. At the beginning of the novel, it was ambition of James to
go the lighthouse, at the end of the novel they reached at the lighthouse. Sees
that:
"The Lighthouse was then a silvery,
misty-looking tower with a yellow eye…." (276)
James arrives only to realize that it is not
at all the mist-shrouded destination of his childhood. Instead, he is made to
recon cite two competing and contradictory images of the tower-how it
appeared to him when he was a boy and how it
appears to him when he is a man. He decided that both of these images
contribute to the essence of the lighthouse.
And at the end of novel, Mr. Ramsay admires
the effort of James. And their relation becomes stronger. Thus the lighthouse
is symbol of goodness. The lighthouse surrounded by sea always describes and clarifies the human
condition in some way. If we see from the perspective of general way that the
lighthouse is symbols for something goodness.
The lighthouse is stand
alone on a rock with the huge construction. At night it stands alone and the
tip of lighthouse there is a ray of light. That light symbolized the ray of
goodness, that light gives direction of sea voyages. So at this debate we can
say that the lighthouse is symbolized and it gives glimpses .it is symbolized
like truth triumph over darkness.
§ Lily’s Painting
Lily’s painting is another and important symbol of this novel. Lily’s
painting represents a struggle against gender convention, represented by
Charles Tinsley’s statement that: “women can’t paint or write.” This
symbol of picture is symbolizes the condition of woman during those days. It
shows woman’s struggle of woman in the patriarchal society. She desire to
express Mrs. Ramsay’s essence as an individual wife and mother in her painting.
Lily’s vision depends on balanced and synthesis: how to bring together
disparate thing in harmony; this mirror Woolf’s writing creed – “the novel is a
both a critique and a tribute to the enduring power of Mrs. Ramsay.
This symbol is started in the starting of the novel and completed in the
end of the novel when James and Mr. Ramsays reached at the lighthouse.
Perhaps the meaning of Lily’s Painting is unclear and the process of
making that painting is difficult. The reflection of her Woolf’s character can
be finding in Lily’s character. It
is often suggested that Lily Briscoe is a semi-autobiographical character
representing Woolf herself and her artistic process. The process of Lily’s
painting throughout the novel can be seen as not only a symbol of the artistic
dilemma faced by the modern artist, but especially o a female artist.
At
the beginning of the novel, Lily is clearly self-conscious about her art - when
looking at her painting, she sees only what could be different about it,
constantly comparing it to how other painters would have depicted it, not
wanting others to look at it
Lily’s Picture: Lily sees that Mrs. Ramsay’s gift of harmonizing human
relationship into memorable moments is “almost like a work of art” and in the
book art is the ultimate symbol for the enduring ‘reality’.
In life, as Mrs. Ramsay herself well knows relationships are doomed to
imperfection, and are the spot of time and change; but in art the temporal and
the eternal unity in an unchanging form- through, as in Lily’s picture, the
form may be very inadequate. We cannot doubt that Lily’s struggles with the
composition and texture of her painting are a counter part of Virginia
Woolf’s tussles and
triumphs in her own medium, but she chooses poetry as the image that reminds
mankind that the ever changing can yet become immortal. Lily is a
Postimpressionist painter, descendant of a poor family, and has spent most of
her life taking care of her father. In many ways, Lily is the chorus figure of
the book—providing the histories of the characters and commenting on their
actions. The beginning and completion of her painting form the frame of To the
Lighthouse, and her final line, “I have had my vision,” is the final line of
the novel, acting as Woolf's own comment on her book.
The painting also represents dedication to a feminine artistic vision,
expressed through Lily’s anxiety over showing it to William Bankes. In deciding
that completing the painting regardless of what happens to it is the most
important thing, Lily makes the choice to establish her own artistic voice. In
the end, she decides that her vision depends on balance.
Her desire is to
express Mrs. Ramsay’s essence as a wife and mother in the painting. The
painting also represents dedication to a feminine artistic vision, expressed
through lily’s anxiety over showing it to William Bankes. Lily decides that her
vision depends on balance and synthesis, How to bring disparate things together
in harmony.
§
Ramsay’s summer House
The
Ramsay’s house is a stage where and her character explain their beliefs and
observation. During her dinner party, Mrs.ramsay sees her house display her own
inner notions of shabbiness and her inability to preserve beauty. In the “time
passes” section, the revenges of war and destruction and the passage of time
are reflected in the condition of the house rather than in the emotional
development or observable again of the characters. The house stands in for the
collective consciousness of those who stay in it. At times the characters long
to escape it, while at other times it serves as refuge. From the dinner party
to the journey to the lighthouse, Woolf shows the house from every angle, and
its structure and contents mirror the interior of the characters that inhabit
it.
§ Rose’s
arrangement of the grapes and pears
The arrangement of fruits in the basket by Rose, it symbolized some truth
of life and death. Metaphorically it gives message. This is very important
symbol of the novel. Rose arranges a fruit basket for her mother’s dinner party
that serves to draw the partygoers out of their private suffering and unite
them. Although Augustus Carmichael and Mrs. Ramsay appreciate the arrangement
differently—he rips a bloom from it; she refuses to disturb it—the pair is
brought harmoniously, if briefly, together. The basket testifies both to the
“frozen” quality of beauty that Lily describes and to beauty’s seductive and
soothing quality. The absence of fruit basket in 3rd part signifies
the transitory nature of beauty, art and truth.
§ The Sea
References to the sea appear
throughout the novel. Broadly, the ever changing, ever moving wave’s parallel
the constant forward movement of time and the changes it brings. Woolf
describes the sea lovingly and beautifully, but her most evocative depictions
of it point to its violence. As a force that brings destruction, has the power
to decimate island, and, as Mr. Ramsay reflect, “Eats away the ground we stand
on” the sea is a powerful reminder of the impermanence and delicacy of human
life and accomplishments.
§ The Boar’s
Skull
After
the completing of dinner party, Children went upstairs for plating some games.
Then Mrs. Ramsay went upstairs to find the children wide-awake, bothered by the
boar’s skull that hangs on the nursery wall. The presence of that skull is something
unpleasant and disturbing. This skull reminder us that death is always at hand.
Even during life’s blissful moments. It explains that if we are so happy in any
time, we should keep in mind that we have to die at some moment of life. We
have to leave all things here. This symbol shows ultimate reality of this cruel
life that we can die any time.
If we see in the play ‘Hamlet’ we can find that there is
also a scene of Grave Digging Scene. We can see that there is also a symbol of
ultimate reality of life that A great person were dead and their body convert
into ashes. Thus we can say that Death is ultimate truth, no one can avoid it.
Thus the symbol of boar’s skull is symbolized with death. Boar’s skull points
out about the futility of life and death.
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