To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse is intended to ‘criticize social system, and to show it at its most intense.’ Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse can readily be seen as a lambaste upon the then society. With regard such characters as Mrs. Ramsay, Woolf embodies servitude and self-sacrifice; womanhood is lost in this age. It appears that Mrs. Ramsay’s chief role in life is as matchmaker, and housekeeper for the men. Mrs. Ramsay is set in …showed first 75 words of 1386 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1386 total…self, and his sanctuary. Lily is saying metaphorically that he is well set to make his way past life’s troubles. However the cost of this is what Ramsay craves most: authentic alterity, sincerity, and sympathy. Lily Briscoe, and others reject him this, and this is what Woolf critiques as well; a society seemingly unable to sincerely convey emotion at all. What is left is a society vacant of feeling: a society bereft of nature.