The Illuminating Gaze: Light and Consciousness in Woolf's To the Lighthouse Anne-Marie Walsh
Light, by its very nature, is only visible by the shadows created by the things it doesn't touch; this entwined duality represents the balance of life itself: the rush of energy and movement created by a crashing wave, and the emptiness and place of stillness it leaves in its wake. Virginia Woolf, in her novel To the Lighthouse explores the themes of light, inspiration, vision, truth and order through the characters of Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe. Each woman perceives light in their lives in different ways—Mrs. Ramsay through the strong, guiding beam of the Lighthouse, and Lily as the light she tries to capture in her paintings—yet both use light to connect to a higher spiritual energy and rhythm, which gives inspiration and meaning to their lives. Mrs. Ramsay can be seen as the personification of the Lighthouse by the way in which she becomes the guiding beacon that illuminates life and draws people into her circle of energy, warmth and safety. Within Mrs. Ramsay there exists an essential pull between the giving of herself to others, and the sustaining of her own self, which is represented by the shadow and quiet that is her innermost being: “To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others.” (62). From this place of inner quiet she is able to connect to herself and the world in a profound way that allows her to tap into an elemental source of energy and radiance—“a rain of energy…burning and illuminating” (p. 37) that lives through her being, channeled by her will into a guiding and sustaining presence. Like the “penetrating gaze” of the Lighthouse's beam, Mrs. Ramsay has the ability to see into people, into their inner selves and to their potential. When looking at her children, she sees each of them as she imagines they will be when they grow up: a lawyer, a great beauty, a mathematician, a free soul. She searches herself for faults, her husband for love and brilliance, and others for their potential, yet she also guides those around her, steering them to the safety that she herself creates for them. Light can be seen as a creative energy basic to all life, and so can Mrs. Ramsay—she is connected to this vital power of giving: giving life, giving comfort, giving strength, and giving love. This ability to give and to love unconditionally becomes her strength, especially the love and adoration she bestows upon her husband. Mrs. Ramsay is only truly herself when she is able to give herself to others, and she needs Mr. Ramsay to need her in order to be complete: “It was sympathy he wanted, to be assured of his genius, first of all, and then to be taken within the circle of life, warmed and soothed, to have his senses restored to him, his barrenness made fertile, and all the rooms of the house made full of life…” (37). After pouring into him her devoted love and admiration, after regenerating his own energies with the “fecundity” of her own, Mrs. Ramsay is utterly depleted, having given all of herself, all of her “life” to him: “…there was scarcely a shell of herself left for her to know herself by; all was so lavished and spent…” (38). Yet like the Lighthouse, this bestowal of light and energy is her purpose in life and what she lives for; and as the shore is swept with the illumination of the Lighthouse, so Mrs. Ramsay gives light and life to her husband, her children and everyone around her. The Lighthouse beam can also be seen as a pure, illuminated consciousness, which is a connection Jack F. Stewart makes in his essay entitled Light in to the Lighthouse. In her meditation of the Lighthouse's beam and in that inner quiet and stillness Mrs. Ramsay taps into a universal consciousness, a spiritual “oneness” with all things that Stewart sees as almost sacred: “…and pausing there she looked out to meet that stroke of the Lighthouse, the long steady stroke, the last of the three, which was her stroke, for watching them in this mood always at this hour one could not help attaching oneself to one thing especially of the things one saw; and this thing, the long steady stroke, was her stroke…she became the thing she looked at—the light for example” (63). Here Mrs. Ramsay achieves a sublime connectedness with light which transcends her own self and consciousness; it is from this source that she renews her own inner strength and light. In quoting J.E. Cirlot's A Dictionary of Symbols, Stewart suggests that there is a further relationship to spirituality and light in the novel and in Mrs. Ramsay: “Psychologically speaking, to become illuminated is to become aware of a source of light, and, in consequence, of spiritual strength” (qtd. Stewart, 377). By extension of her embodiment of this light, Mrs. Ramsay herself becomes an illuminating consciousness of “spiritual strength.” Stewart continues to connect light with spiritual “life-force” or energy by relating it to a universal rhythm: “But if the Lighthouse beam is a symbol of truth, introspection, purification, bringing mystical transcendence of time and existence, it is also an “objective correlative” for the life-force itself. It is rhythm as well as light.” (Stewart, 381). The rhythm of light and darkness that the Lighthouse beam creates in its three strokes mirrors the intrinsically rhythmical nature of life itself; the images of the wave gathering, cresting, and ebbing away, as well as the three stages of life are also reflected in the triptych of the novel's three parts. Stewart puts forth the idea that light manifests itself differently, yet as the central theme in each of the three sections: in “The Window” he sees light as being projected as a “positive force of visionary consciousness”, in “Time Passes” as “the negative counterpart of departed consciousness” and in “The Lighthouse” as “the reanimation of consciousness in a creative rhythm that seeks spiritual and aesthetic Oneness.” (Stewart, 377). Perhaps more than just becoming a part of a spiritual consciousness and rhythm, the light symbolizes the human consciousness and the longing to truly know and be understood by others. The light Mrs. Ramsay internalizes seeks out the light in others, especially the spark of genius and greatness within her husband. Because Mrs. Ramsay is able to truly see and know others, she becomes a symbol not only of purity and truth, but also of the natural order of life. Just as the Lighthouse symbolizes potential goals and dreams to be realized for James and Mr. Ramsay, it represents Mrs. Ramsay's goal of nurturing and giving. We can see this directly when she knits the brown sock for the Lighthouse keeper's boy, and describes how she wishes she could start an institution for improving the dairy system. Her “visionary” ideas of charity are as far away to her as the Lighthouse is to James, and renewed fame is to her husband; yet she still follows her vision, and tries to instill her values and ideals into others as well: “she…would have liked to take people by the scruff of the neck and make them see…” (p. 57). Just as the “penetrating gaze” of the lighthouse lights and protects the island, Mrs. Ramsay searches out and illuminates not only the good in individual people, but the possibility for goodness in all people and society as a whole. The other character in the novel who has a unique relationship with light is Lily Briscoe, who is not so much an embodiment of light as is Mrs. Ramsay, but is rather a student of light-- both in Mrs. Ramsay and the aesthetics of everyday life which she represents in her paintings. Lily interprets life through the prism of an artist's mind, and Henry R. Harrington remarks on this by saying of Lily: “[her] vision restores balance both to her painting and to her life, for the “shadow there” is required by “a light here” in her painting.” (Harrington, 368). Through the precise balancing of form, light and shadow in her paintings, Lily attempts to achieve order in her own life. Lily sees this order and balance in Mrs. Ramsay herself, and throughout the novel is “struggling to bring vision into focus” (Stewart, 386). For Lily, the ability to realize her vision, indeed, to see clearly what she desires to represent and understand (to attain that higher state of consciousness) is her main goal, not only as an artist, but as a person. As an artist she works with the medium of light that is manifested in the colors of her paints, which are brilliant and strong. Lily also pays acute attention to the interplay of light and shadow, both in life and in her art, the two of which she sees as almost symbiotic. Mrs. Ramsay and Lily are the two characters in To The Lighthouse who truly connect to Light in a spiritual way, and like everyone else in the novel, Lily is drawn to Mrs. Ramsay's inner light, strength and purity. However, Lily doesn't just bask in and absorb these virtues from Mrs. Ramsay, she attempts to understand why and how she can possess this light, and to re-create it in her paintings. Both women are drawn to the Lighthouse beam, and experience light in a way that transcends their ordinary consciousness: “This is the experience of the Lighthouse that goes beyond self depleting and completing it.” (Stewart, 380). While Mrs. Ramsay achieves a spiritual unity and harmony with the Lighthouse beam, Lily also loses herself in light, but in the form of the pigments of her paints and the interplay of light and shadow both on her canvas and in the scene she tries to capture: “she began precariously dipping among the blues and umbers, moving her brush hither and thither, but it was now heavier and went slower, as if it had fallen in with some rhythm which was dictated to her…by what she saw, so that her hand quivered with life, this rhythm was strong enough to bear her along with it on its currents. Certainly she was losing consciousness of outer things” (p. 159). Just as Mrs. Ramsay is drawn into the rhythm of life by the Lighthouse beam's three strokes, Lily is drawn into that same rhythm through the strokes of her paintbrush, illuminating the canvas with her vision; and as Mrs. Ramsay is filled with energy and light through her contemplation of the beam, Lily is filled with artistic inspiration. Once each woman is through channeling this energy, they are both spent and exhausted: “Often she found herself sitting and looking, sitting and looking, with her work in her hands until she became the thing she looked at—that light for example” (p. 63). Yet now they are also complete, having fulfilled the purposes they set for themselves. The “universal rhythm” that Lily is drawn to and echoes in the movement of her brushstrokes goes beyond mirroring the threefold rhythm of the Lighthouse's beam; it shows how Lily looks at the world in terms of opposites and balance: “And so pausing and so flickering, she attained a dancing rhythmical movement, as if the pauses were one part of the rhythm and the strokes another, and all were related” (p. 158). With each pause and stroke, as Lily chooses and places where to make her next shadow, highlight or line, she finally overcomes her own inhibitions and is able to create. Also, she finally has come to a place where she can clearly see both her life, and that of Mrs. Ramsay, and with this clear vision, she is able to see the solution—what will bring balance and an understanding of light and shadow—to her painting and her life: “it is through art that she seeks and ultimately finds balance”. (Carson, 23). This balance is something Lily has always seen in Mrs. Ramsay and striven for in her own work and life. Mrs. Ramsay's ability to give color and light to the world around her, living everyday with art and grace seems otherworldly, yet Lily finally comes to understand that there is nothing grand and spectacular about Mrs. Ramsay's life: “The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark…” (p.161). It is through living each small and insignificant moment of every day to the fullest, finding indescribable beauty in a flower and being passionate about one's ideas that sets Mrs. Ramsay apart from everybody else. Ultimately, Lily seeks to become engaged in life in this way, not detached from it; it is one thing to be able to perceive the art and light in life, and yet another to live it : “Finally, Lily has come to see the need of holding art and life in relation by means of the double vision: “One wanted, she thought, dipping her brush deliberately, to be on a level with ordinary experience, to feel simply that's a chair, that's a table, and yet at the same time, “It's a miracle, it's an ecstasy” (pp. 299-300) (Friedman, 79). Until she sees the lines of her own work on the canvas, it doesn't exist for Lily; she paints not from memory or from some sort of internal guidance, but what she sees and feels in the moment; and through painting she achieves this sublime connectedness with the colors and forms. This “double vision” goes beyond the ability to see the miracle of everyday objects, it has to do with superimposing art over life, and being able to see both as being integrally related and finely balanced. One of the qualities Lily admires in Mrs. Ramsay is the ability to truly see other people as well as to be seen and known herself--a kind of connected consciousness. Clearly Lily shrinks from anyone truly knowing and understanding her because she is afraid of anyone seeing (and thus criticizing) her work, something that is not only a reflection of who she is, but is her soul laid bare on the canvas. Somehow Lily feels that to see is to possess (as Mrs. Ramsay is the only one who “sees” Mr. Ramsay as he truly is, she possesses him and his love) and is afraid that if anyone sees her work, they will possess some intimate knowledge of her. We see this when Lily allows Mr. Banks to see her painting “…a light here, a shadow there. But it had been seen; it had been taken from her” (53). Lily finally comes to accept herself and her art when she lets Mr. Banks to see her painting; she is allowing her art to be part of her life, and recognizes their relationship. It seems that in her surrender of her work, by letting Mr. Banks see it, she is both giving up a certain amount of control over her life and the way in which she is perceived, as well as her deep-seated fear of disapproval. In turn, Lily becomes conscious of the value of her work and herself, and is able to clearly see her place in the pattern of life. Benjamin Carson, in his essay entitled Darkness Beyond the Lighthouse: Virginia Woolf, Charles Baudelaire, and Literary Modernism writes about the Lighthouse and its light as a lasting symbol of order, unity and truth: “the central theme of the novel is the attempt to make order out of chaos, to reconstruct a whole out of fragments” (Carson, 20). Through art, Woolf, like Lily Briscoe and Mrs. Ramsay, attempted to recover the “unity of the whole”. (Carson, 19) as well as a kind of permanence and place in the world. Through the art of Mrs. Ramsay's way of living and Lily Briscoe's paintings, they both struggle to achieve a certain completeness and order as well as something lasting. It is through Lily that we come to see and understand Mrs. Ramsay's impulse to make life whole; and it is because of Mrs. Ramsay that Lily attempts to make her life whole: to make life like a work of art; to capture the eternal and the immovable in the transient, the fleeting; to make order our of chaos; and to prevent all that is solid from melting into air” (Carson, 22). Lily especially struggles to solidify life into shapes and forms that can be recognized and understood, and until her vision clears and she is able to see where that final line belongs on her canvas that her painting finds balance and she is able to give order to her chaotic thoughts and perceptions. Lily also comes to find that “It is through art, or life as art, that the eternal can be found…” (Carson, 22). Even though Lily thinks to herself that her paintings may be hung in basements or rolled up under sofas, it is not that kind of permanence she aims for; it is not her work that she feels must last, but the understanding of life that she gains through finally completing it. Mrs. Ramsay's goal also pertains to life-lessons; she sees her light and strength living on through her children and her love and happiness living on through the marriages she arranges. While this may not come to fruition, the memory of Mrs. Ramsay after she dies is just as strong as her personality was in life, with just as much influence. Virginia Woolf, on being asked about the symbolism of the Lighthouse itself, replied: “I meant nothing by The Lighthouse. One has to have a central line down the middle of the book to hold the design together.” However, the essence of the Lighthouse-- its beam of light-- plays an integral role in the lives of Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe: Mrs. Ramsay finds fulfillment in channeling the many qualities of the Lighthouse beam, and Lily is finally able to find a sense of self and purpose in representing the balance of light in her paintings and in her life. Both women have a unique relationship with light, but while Lily seeks to understand it, Mrs. Ramsay lives through it. Just as her characters find inspiration by connecting to a higher consciousness, Woolf does the same in the writing of this novel; channeling that same creative energy which must be Woolf's own inner manifestation of the Lighthouse beam. Through her awareness of the complexities of life and her own artistic insight, Woolf succeeds in turning Light into a medium which instills in her characters a sense of purpose, and illuminates the balance between their internal creative energies and their external manifestations. Works Cited Primary Source: Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. A Harvest Book, Harcourt, Inc. Secondary Sources: Carson, Benjamin D. “Darkness Beyond the Lighthouse: Virginia Woolf, Charles Baudelaire, and Literary Modernism”Nebula, 2.3, September 2005. Stable URL: http://www.nobleworld.biz/pages/4/index.htmsource. Friedman, Norman. “The Waters of Annihilation Double Vision in to the Lighthouse” ELH, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), 61-79. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-8304%28195503%2922%3A1%3C61%3ATWOADV%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C Harrington, Henry R. “The Central Line Down the Middle of `To the Lighthouse'” Contemporary Literature Vol. 21, No. 3, Art and Literature (Summer, 1980), pp. 363-382. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-7484%28198022%2921%3A3%3C363%3ATCLDTM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A Stewart, Jack F. “Light in To the Lighthouse” Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Oct., 1997), 377-389. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0041-462X%28197710%2923%3A3%3C377%3ALITTL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A
|