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Virginia woolf as a modern writer.research paper
Virginia woolf as a modern writer.research paper
Virginia woolf as a modern writer.research paper
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Lily Briscoe is working on a painting throughout the book To The Lighthouse. She does not want anyone to see her painting and considers throwing it to the grass when someone walks by (Woolf 17-18). Other characters in the book seem to have different opinions about her painting. Mrs. Ramsay, William Bankes, and Charles Tansley all have differing views about Lily’s painting. While showing her painting to William Bankes, Lily realizes that she doesn’t like it. During Mrs. Ramsay’s dinner party, Lily realizes what she needs to do to fix her painting but doesn’t until the end of the story. The painting itself grows and changes throughout the book, just as Lily grows and changes as a person as she lives her life (Woolf 102).
The reactions to Lily’s painting represent the differing views about women and art during the time period in which the book is set. Mrs. Ramsay believes that Lily’s painting will not be noticed, either because she is a woman or because she looks Chinese - perhaps both (Woolf 17). William Bankes questioned the meaning of some of the elements of Lily’s painting, such as the use of a purple triangle to represent Mrs. Ramsay and James (Woolf 52). After Lily explained some of the elements of her painting to him, “He was interested. He took it scientifically in complete good faith” (Woolf 53).
Lily’s use of a purple triangle to represent Mrs. Ramsay and James (Woolf 52) could symbolize many different things. Lily says, “It was a question [of] how to connect the mass on the right hand with that on the left hand” (Woolf 53). To connect one with two requires three, the completion of a triangle, the third stroke. Mrs. Ramsay is a representation of that third stroke. She brings people together through her d...
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...msay’s death, Lily is able to reject the ideals of marriage and family that Mrs. Ramsay represented and choosing to remain unmarried and pursue her art (Koppen 386).
Works Cited
Derbyshire, S.H. “An Analysis of Mrs. Woolf’s To The Lighthouse.” College English 3.4 (1942): 353-360. Print.
Koppen, Randi. “Embodied Form: Art and Life in Virginia Woolf’s ‘To The Lighthouse.’” New Literary History 32.2 (2001): 375-389. Print.
Stewart, Jack. “A ‘Need of Distance and Blue’: Space, Color and Creativity in To the Lighthouse.” Twentieth Century Literature 46.1 (2000): 78-99. Print.
Walsh, Anne-Marie. “The Illuminating Gaze: Capturing Light and Consciousness in Woolf’s To The Lighthouse.” The English Journal, Sweet Briar College (2006). Web.
Woolf, Virginia. To The Lighthouse. Orlando: Harcourt Books, 1981. 17-19, 48, 52-53, 102, 147, 172, 209. Print.
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
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Painted by Vincent Van Gogh during a final burst of activity in Auvers before his suicide in July, Houses at Auvers features many of the characteristic elements typical of Van Gogh; the experimentation with color, texture, and thick brush strokes. This painting depicts the view and landscape in early summer, highlighting the patchwork of houses and the rolling greenery. Van Gogh’s unique, thick brush strokes lead the eyes through the painting, create texture and patterns and also highlight and shadow objects in the early summer sun, while his experimentation with color creates contrast and a bright, vibrant image.
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word “art” which may imply something about the materialistic world that she tries to be a part of. Interestingly, and perhaps most symbolic, is the fact that the lily is the “flower of death”, an outcome that her whirlwind, uptight, unrealistic life inevitably led her to.
Looking at landscape art, especially when painted by one of the masters, many have undoubtedly pondered: what would it be like to live there? Shapes and attention to detail are, of course, important in a painting. However, it is color that draws the eye and inspires the heart. Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet and dramatist, spoke well of this when he noted that, “Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. (qtd in “color”)”. Vincent Ward had a similar understanding of this impact when, in 1998, he directed the movie What Dreams May Come. Looking at this film, one can easily imagine being inside a living painting. The use of color to emphasize the emotional state of a character or event is common in films; nevertheless, Director Ward goes even farther in using color to represent the actual characters themselves. Red is the shade chosen to signify Annie and likewise, blue is used for Chris. Both of these, as will be shown, are accurate in defining these fictitious people. However, it is the profound use of purple in this film that is the true focal point. When mixing red and blue paint, one would find that, after being mixed, they cannot be separated. Likewise, this is true of the life and love these characters build and share. Purple represents the many ways in which Chris and Annie are melded, and joined.
Lily definitely undergoes a transformation, from being unable to make sense of her painting to an artist who completes her painting, through which she finally establishes her homosexual identity aesthetically through art. From “the Lighthouse had become almost invisible, had melted away into a blue haze, and the effort of looking at it and the effort of thinking him landing there, which both seemed to be one and the same effort, had stretched her body and mind to the utmost. Ah, but she was relieved” (169), Woolf highlights Lily’s enthusiasm when she was able to eliminate Mr Ramsay from her physical, emotional and psychological realm. By mentioning that the Lighthouse has melted away, Woolf metaphorically emphasizes the deconstruction of the patriarchal conditions through which Lily has come to terms with her homosexual identity. Lily clearly feels liberated and independent, although after undergoing great amount of emotional and psychological torment where she suppressed her homosexual desires in the face of patriarchy. By expressing and figuring out her emotional and psychological turmoil through art and her painting, Lily is able to visualise her immense independence autonomous of the patriarchal conditions. Hence, Lily finally asserts a masculine ambiance similar to the men in patriarchal order, where she can eventually be who she wants to be without any external pressure, particularly from male hegemony, that tells her how she is expected to act like a woman. Thus, Lily does not simply advocate gender equality, but radically promote acceptance of homosexuality as the truer reality of woman empowerment and
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Mrs. Ramsay provides her husband with support and sympathy. Mr. Ramsay comes to Mrs. Ramsay when he wants sympathy or “to be assured of his genius”. Mrs. Ramsay ha...