Blog task - " To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf

This blog is a part of my thinking activity for the novel " To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf

1. How can you explain that 'what' Virginia Woolf wanted to say (for example, the complexity of human relationship, the everyday battles that people are at in their relationship with near and dear ones, the struggle of a female artist against the values of middle/upper class society etc) can only be said in the way she has said? (Key: The 'How' of the narrative technique is to be discussed along with features of Stream of Consciousness technique which helps Woolf to put in effective manner what she experienced in abstractions.)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Ans.  Virginia Woolf as woman writer when we see at that time we can say that compare to men all women are more sensitive and this quality we can feel in the writing style of women, here in this novel we can find that how she portrayed minute observation of all the character because as a woman she very much aware the problems of family, woman situation , relationship of each other etc, and through the stream of consciousness technique she expressed well. she portrayed the psychology of the all character. In the Chartres of Mrs.Ramsay and Lily Briscoe, we find the struggle of women, how james hatred his father ,“Had there been an axe handy, a poker, or any weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father's breast and killed him, there and then, James would have seized it.” – Part 1 . so we can say that she represent good human psyche, and their relation. And these type of sensitive or social problems women writers or film maker shows well in many movies also. For ex-" Lipstick under my burka"  script written by Alankrita Shrivastav. 

2. Do you agree: "The novel is both the tribute and critique of Mrs. Ramsay"? (Key: Take some clues from the painting of Mrs Ramsay drawn by Lily Briscoe and the article by Andre Viola and Glenn Pedersen. Can we read Mrs. R in context of the idea of Ideal Indian Woman - Karyeshu dasi, Karaneshu manthri; Bhojeshu mata, Shayaneshu rambha; Kshamayeshu dharithri, Roopeshu lakshmi; Satkarma yukta, Kuladharma pathni. )                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Ans.  Yes, the novel is both tribute and critique of Mrs. Ramsay. She is good as house wife, good wife and being human also. Her nature was also very kind, because we find in novel that how she helped her ill relatives.But her behavior was good more only for man like her husband and james, not towards her daughters and lily. Though she can live in whole novel after her death also.so as a character she achieved succeed of tribute. But on the other side when we read article we can said that the character of Mrs,Ramsay is " Gray", " as a Victorian mother", " Angle in the House" or " Bad" mother. 

3. Considering symbolically, does the Lighthouse stand for Mrs. Ramsay or the narrator                                                                                                                                                                                                          Ans.    As it is suggested in presentation and in article also, so we can interpret that Lighthouse stands as a symbol of Mrs. Ramsay. Her character portrayed the whole womanhood , she became the central character of the novel. Lighthouse symbolically represent for strength , guidance and harbor same way mrs. Ramsay stands as guiding star and harbours emotional safety to other like family and guests. like a spiritual bridge. when Mrs. Ramsay praise lighthouse at that time she praise herself.on the other side we can say that Mrs.Ramsay become wall rather than Bridge as per poojaba madam said in her comments. Because narrator and lily both are more significant as a symbol of Lighthouse, through what they did, " Women can speak , write, and paint also". 

5.  What do you understand by the German term 'Künstlerroman'? How can you justify that 'To The Lighthouse' is 'Künstlerroman' novel?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Ans.   " To the Lighthouse" is many way we can say " Kunstlerroman" means artistic growth, struggle of an artist . Bildungsroman is another word for it.Novel it self a very artistic and in this novel writer used many artist and their struggle like Lily Briscoe as painter that how she achieved their goal at the end, and Augustus Carmichael  as a poet first he can't write during war time his poetry became famous. so quality come when moment of crises come. 

11. How is India represented in 'To The Lighthouse'?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Ans.  Many characteristics of this novel are mach with indianness. Because in this novel we find the " Ruled India" means patriarchy. Mr. Ramsay is more powerful rather than Mrs. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay is like purely Indian Mother ,who pampered husband ego and carrying all the family members.  Augustus Carmichael visits to India ,because that time India  as land of desire to visit and exotic land.