Essay - Bridge Between Worlds in Virginia Woolfs To The Lighthouse :: To The Lighthouse Essays

To the Lighthouse - Bridge amidst Worlds   Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse illustrates a bridge between the worlds of the Victorian mother and the modern, potentially independent woman. The Victorian woman was to be absorbed, as Mrs. Ramsay is, by the job of being mother and wife. Her reason for following was to complete the man, rather than to exist in her own right. Mrs. Ramsay certainly sees this role for herself and is disturbed when she feels, momentarily, that she is better than her maintain because he needs her support to feel good about himself and the vitality choices he has made. Yet the end of the Victorian era saw the formulate of womens rights and greater freedom for women to excel without men or children. Adrienne Rich, in Of charr Born, says that To the Lighthouse is about Virginia Woolfs need to understand her own mother and to prove, through and through the character of Lily Briscoe, that a woman can be independent of men, as Mrs. Ramsay is non (Ri ch, p. 228). The trauma of this transition from Victorian to modern woman is portended by Mrs. Ramsay herself, at the beginning of the story. In the first chapter, as Mrs. Ramsay defends Charles Tansley against the criticisms of her children, she muses on her appetency to protect men and the trustful, childlike, reverential attitude that her protection inspires in men. distress betide the girl. . . who did not feel the worth of it, and all that it implied, to the marrow of her finger cymbals she exclaims to herself, thinking of the way men respect and admire her. But Woolf shows us that as Mrs. Ramsay admonishes her children for ridiculing Charles Tansley, her daughters could sport with infidel ideas which they had brewed for themselves of a life different from hers. . . not always taking care of some man or other. The output of the change from one concept of womanhood to another is not as simple as the newer generation revolting against the older at the very(prenominal) time that Mrs. Ramsays daughters hope to be different, they admire and worship their mother for her strike and power. Prue, the eldest daughter, proudly watches Mrs. Ramsay as she descends the staircase and feels what an extraordinary stroke of fate it was for her Prue, to have her Mrs.