Skip to main content

Mrs.Ramsay as the central character in to The Lighthouse

“Mrs.Ramsay is the centre that holds the novel together.” Explain this.

Name: Minkal Italiya
M.A English semester: 3
Roll no: 19
Batch: 2018-20
Enrollment No: 2069108420190020
Submitted to: Smt. S. B Gardi, Department of English, MKBU
Paper no: 10 The American Literature

Topic : “Mrs.Ramsay is the centre that holds the novel together.” Explain this.



“Mrs.Ramsay is the centre that holds the novel together.” Explain this.

Ø Introduction

Virginia Woolf is one of the most well known figure of the 20th century who advanced the frontiers of the English novel by adopting a revolutionary technique for the expression of her vision of life and human nature. In her work she used the ‘stream of consciousness’ techniques in order to capture the closeness of character’s mind and express exactly the impact of life on their personality. Among of her novels such as “The Voyage Out”, ‘Night and Day”, “Jacob’s Room” and “Mrs.Dalloway”, “To The Lighthouse” discloses her increased maturity level and command over this technique.“To The Lighthouse” is considered to be Virginia Woolf’s greatest fictional work as it manifests various fictional characters with varying degree of success to establish relationships with people around them.

Virginia Woolf’s “To The Lighthouse” is a study of satisfactory human relationships between man and universe, husband and wife, children and mother and lover and beloved.

Beyond all these elements, the important matter is that who is the central character of novel? Mrs.Ramsay or Lily Briscoe? Though many discourses are going on, what I believe is that Mrs.Ramsay is the centre that holds the novel together.

Her Physical appearance

Mrs.Ramsay a middle aged woman who is the wife of Mr.Ramsay and a mother of eight children. In the novel there are frequent reference to her beauty. Though she is aged, she is a woman of great physical charms.

“the happier Helen of our times”

Such an great complements are frequently paid to her in novel which itself speaks about the beauty of Mrs.Ramsay. She is largely admired by all her gusests as well as also women are  mesmerized with his elegant beauty. She governs the  entire plot of the novel and exercises her influences on everybody, but a certain thing which we have to keep in mind is that its not possible only because of her physical attractiveness rather she has having positive trustful attitudes towards everyone which compels other to attract towards her. She is so dominating character because she is also very considerate, polite, cultured, humane and kind-hearted.

A Great Creator of Harmony/ Match-maker

Mrs.Ramsay gets an undefineble pleasure in bringing people together. It is an important aspect of her pleasant character which revealed to great advantage during the dinner party which forms the climax to the very first part of the novel.  As in the novel she was in search of partner for Lily Briscoe. By a glance she urges Lily to be obliging to Translay. Thus she plays a vital role in bringing out Tansley from his isolated world. Similarly, by her looks and by little nameless acts of courtesy, she pacifies Mr.Ramsay and draws both William bankes and carmichael out of their respective shells. She is the source of sympathy for her husband, throught the novel we can see that how Mr.Ramsay relies upon her for sympathy. Besides a good wife, she is best mother also who is constantly loved and admired by her children. She is proven as kindly mother who can tactfully sooth and comfort her children, even though sometimes she has to go against hard facts and sacrifice truth. She also wins James heart by convincing him that they  would have go to see the lighthouse the next day, while Mr.Ramsay said that it won’t be fine the next morning and the expedition would not be possible. Her sympathetic and kind nature enables her to understand the various psychology of various mind which allows her to bring them together. Truly she has been called a uniting force both structurally and psychologically.


As a match maker

She seems as match maker but the main aspect behind it is her keen interest of establishing harmony with others. In the novel there are frequent reference which highlighted her zest for match making. She is the one who brings Paul and Minta together. Though the marriage is unsuccessful, she is the responsible factor behind it. She would have also liked to see Lily Briscoe and Charles Tansley or Lily Briscoe and William Bankes as united in marriage bonds and she also would have made efforts for it as well.

Her Kind and Considerate Nature

Mrs.Ramsay is too full of the milk of human kindness. She tends to help the needy and poor people with whole heartedly and she used to go to the town and distributes clothes and foods among those needy and poor people; it gives her a great pleasure. When the Lighthouse keeper’s son is sick, she knits a brown-stocking for him and also sends foods and delicacies to him. She does her best to please Carmichael as he is a poor and also offers to bring a tobacco or anything which would have been needed for him whenever she goes to the town.

Her Sense of Humour

Because of his sense of humour she stays always happy in problematic situation. It enable her to please both her children by covering the boar’s head with her shawl.

Essentially feminine

Mrs.Ramsay is essentially feminine character, intentionally she was portrayed as feminine weakness. For instance her habit of exaggerating which irritates her husband.  She is muddle-headed and can’t remember facts or distinguish between one fact and another. Critics like James Hafley also stated that,

Mrs.Ramsay is merely a symbol, that she has not been individualised, and that is why the novelist has not given her a first name. However he agrees on the point that she is a human being of great appeal, one who can create moments of unity which remain intact in the memory, “affecting one almost like a work of art.”

Structural and Psychological centre

Mrs.Ramsay is the structural and Psychological centre and the main source of the novel. She is the central character who unites the everyone. It is only she who brings all the people together under a same roof. Without her its not possible from Lily Briscoe to Charles Tansley to live under the same roof as well as she is the one who helps Charles Stanley to come out from his isolation. She is the only one who brings all scattered stone together and builds out a beautiful building out of it. This symphatic role can be cleared on at dinner party where everyone seems as self centred it is not a cup of tea to communicate with them and to deal with them, but Mrs.Ramsay is able to do that. Communication is one of the most difficult jobs in life, over which Mr.Ramsay has mastery. The problem at the Ramsay household is particularly difficult, because the people assembled there are, many of them self-centred and self-willed and also some of them eccentric.  It is nothing less than sort of miracle that Mrs.Ramsay is able to weave them into cohesive whole. Along with it Mrs.Ramsay is a source of sympathy and understanding for her husband Mr.Ramsay, who is entirely depends upon her as well. She is one of very few people who understand his problem. Mr.Ramsay is a kind of person who constantly needs sympathy and encouragement, this need is only reassured by Mrs.Ramsay as he always encourages him and provides him a self confidence which he badly needs.

A Perfect Hostess

In a real sense Mrs.Ramsay is a perfect house wife who manages to feed and look after so many people in their meagre income. Her own family was very large while on the other side Mr.Ramsay did not earn that much of money out of his books. But Mrs.Ramsay- a shrewd house holder and patient housewife was able to make her little go long way. Even with this shortage of income she was able to look after their guests very well as well as with their own satisfaction.  She has ill will against none, and it was the only reason why she was liked very much by everyone. Because of his magnetic presence she was able to make Charles Tansley as comfortable as possible. In ever manner she was proved herself as a perfect hostess.

Dominance the novel, Even After Death

Though Mrs.Ramsay dies after the first part, her influence is felt throughout. Even after her death also she continue to influence the life of each and every person. Mr.Ramsay remembers her and undertakes the journey to the lighthouse in order to fulfil one of her most cherished wishes. Lily Briscoe also remembers her, has vision of her sitting at the window, just as she used to do in life, and it is this vision which enables her to complete her picture at that very moment when Mr.Ramsay lands at the lighthouse.  In the ending part of the novel she is presented through Lily Briscoe’s consciousness Even after the death of Mrs. Ramsay, Lily Briscoe was able to find the answer of her old unanswerable question:

What is the meaning of life?

The great revelation perhaps never did come.

Conclusion:

Mrs.Ramsay left a great impact on our mind. Whether it still remains a question who centre the novel Mrs.Ramsay or Lily Briscoe? But what I believe is that Mrs.Ramsay will always remain at the centre of the novel. Though she is mostly driven by emotions and feelings, the first part is dominated by herself as well as the second is dominated by her spirit. As James Hafley stated that,

Mrs.Ramsay arises from death and lives again.


Works Cited

Helpme. The Character of Mrs. Ramsay in To The Lighthouse Essay. <https://www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=9041>.
SparkNotes. TO The Lighthouse characters. <https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lighthouse/character/mrs-ramsay/>.
Tilak, Dr.Raghukul. To The Loghthouse (a critical study). New Delhi : Rama Brothers, 1993.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Old Man and Sea: Man's struggle against nature

The Old man and The Sea : the story of man’s struggle against   nature Name: Minkal Italiya M.A English semester: 3 Roll no: 19 Batch: 2018-20 Enrollment No: 2069108420190020 Email id: italiyaminkal@gmail.com Submitted to: Smt. S. B Gardi, Department of English, MKBU Paper no-10: The American Literature Topic : The Old man and The Sea : the story of man’s struggle against nature Ø Introduction                                 “The Old Man and the sea” is a widely famed work of the 20 th century and read short heroic novel which was brought out in 1952 by American novelist Ernest Hemingway. According to himself, the novel is based on true events, at least partially being an avid fisherman himself. It was his last major fiction which brought to him The Pultizer Prize award as well as was instrumental in winning him the Nobel prize two years later. In “The Old Man and the sea” we find a use of omniscient narration;   this narrative techniques   p

LSRW skills

Brief overview of LSRW skills                                    Name: Minkal Italiya M.A English semester: 3 Roll no: 19 Batch: 2018-20 Enrollment No: 2069108420190020 Email id: italiyaminkal@gmail.com Submitted to: Smt. S. B Gardi, Department of English, MKBU Paper no-12 English Language Teaching-1 Topic : Brief overview of LSRW Skills Ø Introduction:       English is known as the world’s most widely spoken language as it to be erected as a means of communication at international level. There are many languages spoken or well known across the world but among of all those languages English deserves to be world language because of its world widely use. Generally we, Indians are not a native speaker of English language that’s why learning English becomes a little bit difficult for us. With the help of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing skills we make an essential effort at developing command and control of the different components of the languag