1 NOVEL II LECTURE 10 SYNOPSIS 2 Discussion

1 NOVEL II LECTURE 10

SYNOPSIS 2 Discussion continue (Chapter 1019) List of Characters Analysis of major Characters

Chapter 10 3 Cam (the temper tantrum daughter, or "Cam the Wicked") runs past, almost knocking over the easel. She ignores everyone who tries to get her attention: Mr. Bankes, her father, her mother. Mrs. Ramsay is stressing because Minta Doyle and Paul Rayley have not come back from their walk. She wants to know if they’re going to get married. Her son, Andrew, is with them as well.

4 James tugs on Mrs. Ramsay to remind her to continue reading. As she reads, Mrs. Ramsay continues thinking about Minta Doyle, and recalls her obligations to Minta’s parents, who she has nicknamed the Owl and the Poker. Mrs. Ramsay remembers Mrs. Doyle accusing her of manipulation.

5 Then Mrs. Ramsay thinks about her children. She doesn’t want them to get older. Basically, she thinks James is sensitive and full of promise; Cam is a demon of wickedness; Prue is a beautiful angel; Andrew is mathematically gifted; Nancy and Roger and "wild creatures"; Rose is gifted with her hands; Jasper shoots birds; and she clearly never should have had so many children.

6 Mrs. Ramsay then carries on a mental argument with her husband over her belief that the children will never again be as happy as they are now, in their childhood. Mrs. Ramsay’s thoughts then shift to Minta Doyle. She wonders briefly if she put too much pressure on Minta to marry Paul. Night falls.

7 Mrs. Ramsay finishes reading James the story about the fisherman and his wife. James turns his attention to the recently lit lighthouse. Mrs. Ramsay worries that James will forever remember not going to the Lighthouse tomorrow.

Chapter 11 8 Mrs. Ramsay continues to think about how children "never forget" and it’s therefore important to watch what you say. Despite all of Mrs. Ramsay’s thinking, if we were impartial observers, this is what we would have seen: Mrs. Ramsay knits, watching the Lighthouse. Mrs. Ramsay stops knitting.

9 Mr. Ramsay looks at Mrs. Ramsay takes a green shawl and goes to her husband. We know the whole sequence misses some explosions and bikini-clad babes, but this is "action" in a Woolf novel. Seriousl

10 What happens beneath the surface: Mrs. Ramsay finally has a breather, i. e. , a moment to herself. She has no one to check up on, take care of, attend to, etc. , so her real self is let loose. And just what does that real self do? Well, it becomes hypnotized by the strokes of light coming from the Lighthouse. Imagining that the beam of light is stroking her brain, she feels momentarily ecstatic.

Chapter 12 11 Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay walk past the greenhouse, which is beginning to get repaired, but Mrs. Ramsay doesn’t have the heart to tell her husband the cost (50 pounds, incidentally, and Mrs. Ramsay often thinks randomly on this fact). Instead, Mrs. Ramsay brings up Jasper’s fondness for shooting defenseless creatures.

12 Mr. Ramsay says that’s natural, and not to worry about it. Mrs. Ramsay thinks Mr. Ramsay is so sensible! They chat some more about Charles Tansley, Prue Ramsay (Mr. Ramsay fails to see her beauty), and about the garden. Mr. Ramsay brings up Andrew, and says that if the boy doesn’t work harder, he’ll lose a scholarship. Mr. Ramsay will be proud if Andrew gets a scholarship; Mrs. Ramsay will be proud either way. They seem to like this balance in each other.

13 Mrs. Ramsay expresses worry that some of the kids aren’t back yet, but Mr. Ramsay glosses over her fears. The two of them reach a place where the Lighthouse can be seen again. Mrs. Ramsay doesn’t look. Mr. Ramsay looks at everything and murmurs, "poor little universe. " Just who does this guy think he is? !

14 Mrs. Ramsay thinks his little phrases are ridiculous, and that it’s a perfectly fine evening. Then she brings up the idea that Mr. Ramsay would have written better books had he not married her. He says that he’s not complaining, and then kisses her hand passionately. Ooh… hot. The two of them walk up the path and Mrs. Ramsay reflects that even though her husband is over 60, his arm feels just like a young man’s.

15 Mrs. Ramsay contemplates her husband’s inability to understand the simple and the ordinary in favor of dealing with the complex and the extraordinary. Mr. Ramsay shouts at a woman named Mrs. Giddings. Mrs. Ramsay is not sympathetic to Mrs. Giddings, and instead bends down to examine her evening primroses. Mr. Ramsay makes some comment about the flowers to please his wife. Mrs. Ramsay looks at Lily Briscoe and William Bankes walking along, deciding in her head that the two of them must marry.

Chapter 13 16 • • • Mr. Bankes and Lily are talking about travel. Lily is arrested by the sight of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay watching a girl throw a ball, and this vision is enshrined for her as "marriage. " As Mrs. Ramsay turns and smiles at the couple, Lily realizes that Mrs. Ramsay wants her and William Bankes to marry. Mrs. Ramsay expresses pleasure that Mr. Bankes will be joining them for dinner. Prue runs into them, and Mrs. Ramsay asks her if Nancy was with the (still missing) group.

Chapter 14 17 (This entire chapter takes place within parentheses. And there are (parentheses within parentheses), which we will analyze later. Just note them for now and say "weird. "We’re in Nancy’s viewpoint. She went (reluctantly) with the others after Minta gave her a pleading look. Nancy and Minta hold hands. More accurately, Minta keeps reaching for Nancy’s hand. Nancy is understandably confused. What the heck does Minta want?

18 Andrew notes that Minta wears sensible clothes. (Thereafter, he states that "she wore short skirts"… and before you ask, we’re analyzing that later. Not now. )Minta is sensible about everything, except bulls. For some reason she reacts to them the same way most women react to mice. Minta sits on the edge of a cliff and sings the song, "Damn your eyes. " Everyone else joins in. They (in case you forget: Paul, Minta, Nancy, and Andrew) get to the beach.

19 Andrew and Nancy, being like third and fourth wheels, head out in opposite directions as soon as they reach the beach in order to give the couple some privacy. Nancy settles down with a tide pool and imagines that the pool is a giant sea, all the little minnows are ferocious sharks, and that she’s… um… there’s no delicate way to put this, but, God. She plays with giving them life and death, light and dark, etc. , and sits there and broods (actually, she’s just thinking, but with a side of sulking thrown in).

20 Andrew yells that the tide is coming in, and Nancy runs away from the sea – right into Paul and Minta getting their mack on. Andrew and Nancy get really awkward as they put their socks and shoes on. As they get ready to walk back, Minta freaks out because she lost her grandmother’s brooch. Everyone helps her look for it, but the tide is rising. Nancy gets the sense that Minta is crying for more than just the loss of the brooch. They mark the place where Minta was sitting, and Paul silently swears to wake up early tomorrow and go look for it.

21 Paul brags to Minta that he’s so good at finding lost items. Paul and Minta walk ahead of Nancy and Andrew. Paul can’t wait to find Mrs. Ramsay and tell her everything. Asking Minta to marry him was, to paraphrase, "the worst moment ever, " and Paul sort-of-kind-of-andbasically blames Mrs. Ramsay for making him do it. They get to the house, which is lit up for dinner, and Paul silently determines not to make a fool of himself. End parenthesis!)

Chapter 15 22 Short chapter! Prue tells her mother that Nancy did go with the others.

Chapter 16 23 Jasper and Rose come into Mrs. Ramsay’s room as she’s getting ready for dinner, asking if dinner should be postponed until the missing members return. Mrs. Ramsay, mindful that fifteen will be sitting down to dinner, tells Jasper to tell the cook not to put dinner on hold. Rose receives permission to pick out the jewels her mother will wear at dinner.

24 Mrs. Ramsay is annoyed that the missing four are late, because she wants tonight’s dinner to be especially nice. William Bankes had finally agreed to eat with them, and the cook will be serving a magnificent boeuf en daube. Mrs. Ramsay wants everything to be precise and perfect. Her children (now that Jasper has joined them) offer necklaces to try against her dress.

25 Mrs. Ramsay looks out the window absentmindedly and watches some rooks (birds) trying to decide where to settle down. She has named one of the old birds Joseph. The birds start fighting and then leave. Mrs. Ramsay deliberately lets Rose take her time in choosing the necklace she is to wear. After also choosing a shawl, all the preparations are finally over and Mrs. Ramsay descends to dinner with Jasper and Rose.

26 Jasper is talking to Mrs. Ramsay about the birds when Mrs. Ramsay is distracted by some commotion in the hall. Mrs. Ramsay is eager to find out if Paul and Minta are now engaged, but knows she’ll have to wait. She descends the staircase and is compared to a queen accepting tribute from her people. Yes. She’s apparently that beautiful.

27 Anyway, Mrs. Ramsay smells something burning and worries that it’s the boeuf en daube. The dinner gong sounds (apparently just yelling "dinner!" doesn’t work for these people) and everyone drops what they’re doing and heads to the dinner table.

Chapter 17 28 Let’s take a moment and establish who’s the fifteen people at dinner: Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, the eight Ramsay kids, Minta, Paul, Augustus Carmichael, Lily, William, and the "odious little" Charles Tansley. After a brief moment spent questioning what she’s accomplished with her life, Mrs. Ramsay organizes the seating, the food, etc. As she ladles out soup, Mrs. Ramsay feels a discord over the shabbiness of her surroundings and the separation of her guests. She feels it her sole duty to create beauty and harmony.

29 Mrs. Ramsay engages William Bankes in conversation. Lily Briscoe watches Mrs. Ramsay, noticing that she looks old and tired until she begins talking to Mr. Bankes, at which point Mrs. Ramsay brightens up. It’s clear that Mrs. Ramsay pities William Bankes. According to Lily, Mrs. Ramsay doesn’t pity William because he is pitiful, but because Mrs. Ramsay wants him to be pitiful, heck, needs him to be pitiful, even.

30 Lily thinks of her painting and realizes that she should put a tree in the middle of it. She moves the salt shaker on the table in front of her to remind herself of that intention later. Listening to Mrs. Ramsay and Mr. Bankes talk about letters, Mr. Tansley is irritated. Mrs. Ramsay takes pity on Mr. Tansley and tries to draw him into the conversation. Lily observes that Mrs. Ramsay always pities men, but never women.

31 Mr. Tansley is bothered by this superficial conversation. He had been reading (presumably something so very important and so very deep) before coming down to dinner. He’s also embarrassed that everyone is dressed nicely and he’s just wearing the same old clothes he has been wearing all day. Mr. Tansley then thinks mean thoughts about women being superficial and silly. Mean man. To assert himself and his manliness, he returns to the impossibility of a trip to the Lighthouse tomorrow. If he thinks this makes him attractive to Mrs. Ramsay, he’s definitely wrong.

32 Lily Briscoe is annoyed at Mr. Tansley, and thinks mean thoughts about him, including that he is the "most uncharming human being she had ever met. " She tries to think about her painting in an effort to control her temper. Lily sweetly asks if she can join Mr. Tansley on the Lighthouse trip, and Mr. Tansley can see that she obviously doesn’t mean a word of it and answers her like a jerk, "you’d be sick. “ Then we have a paragraph designed to put us in Mr. Tansley’s shoes and feel sorry for the guy: he’s wearing old flannel trousers; he didn’t mean to sound like a jerk with Mrs. Ramsay listening; he may have crappy clothes but he’s never been in debt; he is even helping his family financially, and educating his sister… yadda. Well, sure, we are feeling a bit more sympathetic now.

33 Mrs. Ramsay is now talking to Mr. Bankes about an old friend of hers named Carrie. Mrs. Ramsay feels very uncomfortable that Carrie has gone off and had her own life, and Mrs. Ramsay hasn’t given her a single thought over the years. Mr. Bankes feels superior because he never loses touch with friends. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t have many to keep in touch with. Mrs. Ramsay breaks off their conversation to talk to the maid, and Mr. Bankes is irritated. He regrets he stayed for dinner in the first place. When Mrs. Ramsay turns back to him, Mr. Bankes doesn’t really want to talk, but he’s afraid Mrs. Ramsay will realize that he doesn’t give a rat’s behind about her, so he continues chatting with her. Mr. Tansley daydreams that he’s bragging to his female acquaintances about staying with the famous Ramsays and how they failed to impress him at all. Mr. Tansley again feels uncomfortable, and looks around the table in the hopes that someone will give him an opportunity to be a jerk again.

34 Lily can see all this, and knows that social convention deems that she make conversation with the man, but remembering his nasty comments about women’s inability to paint and write, Lily leaves Mr. Tansley to struggle. Alone. Mrs. Ramsay asks Mr. Tansley if he is a good sailor, and Mr. Tansley gets ready to assert something and show admirable he is, but he realizes how it would be ludicrous and simply says that he never gets seasick. Which doesn’t really seem like an answer to her question, but we do learn that he has a major chip on his shoulder about having raised himself up by his own bootstraps. Mrs. Ramsay basically looks at Lily and telepathically tells her to take social pity on the poor, awkward Mr. Tansley. Lily proceeds to have a completely insincere conversation with Mr. Tansley, which Lily reflects is characteristic of all human interactions. She is cheered by the thought of painting tomorrow.

35 Conversation continues largely about fishermen and their wages, but everyone feels that something is lacking. There is no harmony among the group. Mrs. Ramsay looks down the table at her husband, expecting him to be magnificently holding forth about fishermen and their wages, but he is instead looking very angry that Augustus Carmichael has asked for another bowl of soup. Mrs. Ramsay knows that her husband hates it when people continue eating after he is finished. Then the married couple, sitting at opposite ends of the table, have a little mental argument.

36 Mrs. Ramsay, realizing that Nancy are Roger are about to laugh at their father, calls for the candles to be lit. Mrs. Ramsay reflects that Mr. Augustus never follows social norms – he does stuff like asking for more soup, takes a liking to Andrew, and lies on the lawn thinking of his poetry (for Mr. Augustus is a poet). Eight candles are lit along the table and everyone stares at Rose’s fruit arrangement. They are united in that stare. Minta and Paul finally come in to dinner; Minta fumbles to explain their lateness. Mr. Ramsay teases Minta, telling her it was foolish to take jewelry to the beach. That’s what their relationship is like, in a nutshell: Minta giggles and flirts and Mr. Ramsay calls her a fool.

37 Moreover, Minta’s got it going on tonight. She knows it, too, which is why she smiles a wide grin. Mrs. Ramsay sees the grin and assumes that Minta has gotten engaged to Paul Rayley. For a split second, Mrs. Ramsay is unexpectedly jealous. She flashes back to her own engagement to her husband. The boeuf en daube is set on the table as Paul sits down next to Mrs. Ramsay. She asks him to tell her what had happened. The first word out of Paul’s mouth is "we, " and Mrs. Ramsay can immediately tell that he and Minta are engaged. The boeuf en daube is unveiled and it is a triumph. Mrs. Ramsay says that it is a French recipe of her grandmother’s, and everyone talks about the culinary arts for a while. Mrs. Ramsay talks about vegetable skins.

38 Lily sees everyone silently worshipping Mrs. Ramsay. Lily, envisaging a wonderful rescue, offers to help Paul look for Minta’s brooch tomorrow morning. Paul doesn’t say yes or no. It’s obvious that he just doesn’t care about anything other than his love. Lily feels upset, then sees the salt shaker and remembers that she will paint tomorrow, and that she doesn’t have to marry. (Apparently, the two are connected. ) Lily feels that staying with the Ramsays causes her to feel two violently opposite emotions at the same time: On the one hand, that love is wonderful, but, on the other hand, it’s childish beyond belief. Mrs. Ramsay goes on and on about the British dairy system. Everyone laughs at her.

39 Mrs. Ramsay looks at Lily and Mr. Tansley, concluding that both of them suffer in the presence of the happy Paul and Minta Doyle. Mr. Tansley obviously looks like he feels left out because no woman is going to give him a second glance with Paul in the room, and Lily just seems faded and inconspicuous next to Minta’s beautiful glow. Mrs. Ramsay does believe, however, that if you compare Lily and Minta at 40, Lily will be the fairer of the two. She has an indefinable something that Mrs. Ramsay likes but is afraid no man will like. This sets her thinking about how to get Lily and Mr. Bankes together. Mrs. Ramsay gives Mr. Bankes more boeuf en daube.

40 Mr. Tansley continues being egotistical and Mrs. Ramsay reflects that he will probably continue being that way until he becomes a professor or gets married. Mrs. Ramsay tunes in to the conversation about numbers and philosophers, and monitors for topics that could potentially upset her husband make him think about his failures. Minta Doyle staves off a potential tantrum by Mr. Ramsay making some inane comment about Shakespeare. Paul Rayley tries to talk about Anna Karenina. He likes the name Vronsky for a villain. Paul asks if she wants a pear. Mrs. Ramsay says no and then realizes she’s been guarding the fruit basket jealously, hoping no one would disturb it.

41 Mrs. Ramsay looks at Prue and sees that Prue has caught some of Minta’s beauty of being in love. Dinner is over, but Mr. Ramsay is telling Minta some absurd story. Mrs. Ramsay determines to wait until everyone is done laughing. She decides she likes Charles Tansley. One story leads to another. Mrs. Ramsay waits patiently. Mr. Ramsay and some of the other guests start reciting poetry. Mrs. Ramsay gets up and leaves, looking once over her shoulder to confirm that dinner has already become part of the past.

Chapter 18 42 As though Mrs. Ramsay’s departure is a signal, everyone gets up and scatters in different directions. As Mrs. Ramsay walks off, she’s suffused with a sense of her own place in the stream of Time. She goes into her children’s room and is irritated to find that James and Cam are still awake. A pig skull has been nailed to the wall. Cam can’t sleep with it there and James gets mad if anyone touches it. Mrs. Ramsay finally covers it up with her shawl and tells Cam stories until the girl falls asleep.

43 Mrs. Ramsay then turns her attention to James, who asks if they are going to the Lighthouse tomorrow. Mrs. Ramsay says no, but that they will go on the next time the weather is good. Mrs. Ramsay leaves the room and encounters Prue, Minta, and Paul. Prue looks at her mother and feels very proud. She says they are thinking of going to the beach to watch the waves. Mrs. Ramsay suddenly turns into a giggling teenager. She tells them to go after making sure they have a watch. (They do, indeed, have a watch: a beautiful one belonging to Paul. )Mrs. Ramsay expresses a wish to go with them, but something holds her back. She goes into a room where her husband is reading.

Chapter 19 44 Mrs. Ramsay continues to knit the stocking as she watches her husband read. She’s troubled because she knows her husband is stressed about the legacy his books will leave behind. As she knits, Mrs. Ramsay murmurs snippets of the poem they had been reciting at dinner. Finally, she opens a book and begins to read it without really absorbing the words. Mr. Ramsay is pleased. He feels like he’s triumphed over an unseen adversary. Mrs. Ramsay continues to read until she becomes aware that her husband is watching her. To him, she is more beautiful than ever. But he’s also thinking about how she’s ignorant and less educated than he is, though he likes that too.

45 Mrs. Ramsay continues knitting as she searches for something to say, and finally she tells her husband that Paul and Minta are engaged. The two of them make awkward conversation. Mr. Ramsay continues to look at Mrs. Ramsay, but Mrs. Ramsay feels the look change. He wants her to tell him "I love you. "Mrs. Ramsay can’t do it – she says she has a hard time saying what she feels. She tries to figure out if there’s something else she can do for him, like brush his coat, but there’s nothing. She gets up and looks at the sea. Finally she turns around and just smiles at him, and when she smiles she is certain that he knows that she loves him. She tells him that he was right, they won’t be able to go to the Lighthouse tomorrow. She wins!

Characters… 46 Mrs. Ramsay - Mr. Ramsay’s wife. A beautiful and loving woman, Mrs. Ramsay is a wonderful hostess who takes pride in making memorable experiences for the guests at the family’s summer home on the Isle of Skye. Affirming traditional gender roles wholeheartedly, she lavishes particular attention on her male guests, who she believes have delicate egos and need constant support and sympathy. She is a dutiful and loving wife but often struggles with her husband’s difficult moods and selfishness. Without fail, however, she triumphs through these difficult times and demonstrates an ability to make something significant and lasting from the most ephemeral of circumstances, such as a dinner party.

Mr. Ramsay 47 Mrs. Ramsay’s husband, and a prominent metaphysical philosopher. Mr. Ramsay loves his family but often acts like something of a tyrant. He tends to be selfish and harsh due to his persistent personal and professional anxieties. He fears, more than anything, that his work is insignificant in the grand scheme of things and that he will not be remembered by future generations. Well aware of how blessed he is to have such a wonderful family, he nevertheless tends to punish his wife, children, and guests by demanding their constant sympathy, attention, and support.

Lily Briscoe 48 A young, single painter who befriends the Ramsays on the Isle of Skye. Like Mr. Ramsay, Lily is plagued by fears that her work lacks worth. She begins a portrait of Mrs. Ramsay at the beginning of the novel but has trouble finishing it. The opinions of men like Charles Tansley, who insists that women cannot paint or write, threaten to undermine her confidence.

James Ramsay - 49 The Ramsays’ youngest son. James loves his mother deeply and feels a murderous antipathy toward his father, with whom he must compete for Mrs. Ramsay’s love and affection. At the beginning of the novel, Mr. Ramsay refuses the six-year-old James’s request to go to the lighthouse, saying that the weather will be foul and not permit it; ten years later, James finally makes the journey with his father and his sister Cam. By this time, he has grown into a willful and moody young man who has much in common with his father, whom he detests.

50 Paul Rayley - A young friend of the Ramsays who visits them on the Isle of Skye. Paul is a kind, impressionable young man who follows Mrs. Ramsay’s wishes in marrying Minta Doyle - A flighty young woman who visits the Ramsays on the Isle of Skye. Minta marries Paul Rayley at Mrs. Ramsay’s wishes. Charles Tansley - A young philosopher and pupil of Mr. Ramsay who stays with the Ramsays on the Isle of Skye. Tansley is a prickly and unpleasant man who harbors deep insecurities regarding his humble background. He often insults other people, particularly women such as Lily, whose talent and accomplishments he constantly calls into question. His bad behavior, like Mr. Ramsay’s, is motivated by his need for reassurance.

51 William Bankes - A botanist and old friend of the Ramsays who stays on the Isle of Skye. Bankes is a kind and mellow man whom Mrs. Ramsay hopes will marry Lily Briscoe. Although he never marries her, Bankes and Lily remain close friends. Augustus Carmichael - An opium-using poet who visits the Ramsays on the Isle of Skye. Carmichael languishes in literary obscurity until his verse becomes popular during the war. Andrew Ramsay - The oldest of the Ramsays’ sons. Andrew is a competent, independent young man, and he looks forward to a career as a mathematician.

52 Jasper Ramsay - One of the Ramsays’ sons. Jasper, to his mother’s chagrin, enjoys shooting birds. Roger Ramsay - One of the Ramsays’ sons. Roger is wild and adventurous, like his sister Nancy. Prue Ramsay - The oldest Ramsay girl, a beautiful young woman. Mrs. Ramsay delights in contemplating Prue’s marriage, which she believes will be blissful. Rose Ramsay - One of the Ramsays’ daughters. Rose has a talent for making things beautiful. She arranges the fruit for her mother’s dinner party and picks out her mother’s jewelry.

53 Nancy Ramsay - One of the Ramsays’ daughters. Nancy accompanies Paul Rayley and Minta Doyle on their trip to the beach. Like her brother Roger, she is a wild adventurer. Cam Ramsay - One of the Ramsays’ daughters. As a young girl, Cam is mischievous. She sails with James and Mr. Ramsay to the lighthouse in the novel’s final section. Mrs. Mc. Nab - An elderly woman who takes care of the Ramsays’ house on the Isle of Skye, restoring it after ten years of abandonment during and after World War I. Macalister - The fisherman who accompanies the Ramsays to the lighthouse. Macalister relates stories of shipwreck and maritime adventure to Mr. Ramsay and compliments James on his handling of the boat while James lands it at the lighthouse.

54 Macalister’s boy - The fisherman’s boy. He rows James, Cam, and Mr. Ramsay to the lighthouse.

55 MAJOR CHARACTERS AN ANALYSIS

Mrs. Ramsay 56 Mrs. Ramsay is about as close as Virginia Woolf ever got to Angelina Jolie: Mrs. Ramsay's beautiful, beloved, charitable, and the mother of many children. (Although, Mr. Ramsay is no Brad Pitt. ) But that’s about as far as the similarities go. Mrs. Ramsay isn't a U. N. ambassador, and we very much doubt that she gave birth to, say, James Ramsay in Namibia, as Jolie did with Shiloh. But the point remains: Mrs. Ramsay is the lovely star at the center of the Ramsay family, and at the heart of the novel. Her unexpected death leaves the Ramsay family (and especially Mr. Ramsay) without its anchor.

57 Mrs. Ramsay is a complex character: she is invested in the importance of marriage between a man and a woman (and all men and all women should definitely be married, according to her), but she clearly sees the flaws in her own marriage. It becomes Mrs. Ramsay's duty to soften her husband's bullying and to support him in public. Even so, she's embarrassed by his constant quoting of poetry in a loud voice, and by his need for praise from the people around him.

58 In the midst of all of Mr. Ramsay's posturing and performing, he's actually insecure. And it falls to Mrs. Ramsay to soothe those insecurities, because that's what she perceives to be the job of the wife.

59 At the end of Part One, we see a clear division of labor between Mrs. Ramsay and Mr. Ramsay: "He found talking much easier than she did, " but "she felt herself very beautiful" (1. 19. 17). He's the one who talks – he's the intellectual one. But she's the one who attracts people and who makes social interactions possible, at least in part because she's beautiful. These are the roles they're each relatively comfortable playing: Mr. Ramsay gets to be the brains if Mrs. Ramsay gets to be the beauty.

60 The weird thing is, though, that neither of them are completely successful in their gender roles. Mrs. Ramsay loves the flattery of being checked out by the men around her, but she uses this admiration to influence Paul Rayley to marry Minta – a marriage that, Lily Briscoe reveals in the third chapter, is a disaster. Mrs. Ramsay's investment in her traditional gender role as a mother and matchmaker actually damages the people around her.

61 And Mr. Ramsay spends much of the first chapter secretly wondering why he can't complete the line of logical reasoning that would prove that he's really a genius. Those around him – William Bankes, Charles Tansley, and even Mrs. Ramsay – think to themselves that his last book was perhaps not his best book. The effort of trying to be the intellectual head of both his family (with the rebellious James) and of his social circle (with the ever-striving Charles Tansley) eats away at him inside.

62 The thing that's interesting about Mrs. Ramsay and her partnership with Mr. Ramsay is that Mr. Ramsay is obviously the oppressive patriarch. But Mrs. Ramsay's pretty darn oppressive, too, in a much subtler way. She's got this total love/hate thing going with Lily Briscoe, who adores Mrs. Ramsay but who also feels that, by being beautiful and completely stubborn, Mrs. Ramsay makes people do things that they wouldn't otherwise do (witness the terrible marriage between Paul and Minta):

63 But beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty — it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life — froze it. One forgot the little agitations; the flush, the pallor, some queer distortion, some light or shadow, which made the face unrecognisable for a moment and yet added a quality one saw for ever after. It was simpler to smooth that all out under the cover of beauty. (3. 5. 19)

64 The criticism that Lily's offering here of Mrs. Ramsay is this: she was great at pulling together family. But by doing so, she smoothed over all of the complexities and individual interests of her children and her friends in favor of a greater whole. Mr. Ramsay is an overt bully, but Mrs. Ramsay quietly influences people to take the shape that she wants them to take, in the name of a greater ideal ("beauty") that Mrs. Ramsay is pursuing. (For more on Lily's love/hate thing, check out the "Character Roles" section under "Foils. ")

65 Mrs. Ramsay and Men: Specifically, Mr. Ramsay Mrs. Ramsay thrives on male companionship, because she sets herself up as a kind of Superwoman: she gives great dinner parties and she raises eight children, yet she still has the energy to be effortlessly beautiful. And what better way is there to show off her womanhood than to be surrounded by men?

66 The thing is, though, when we talk about the symbol of "The Lighthouse" in "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory, " we mention that one of themes of this book is the gap between the ideal and the real. And there's definitely a gap here: Mrs. Ramsay works so hard to be a perfect wife that it freaks her out when Mr. Ramsay can't quite fill the role of perfect husband father:

67 She did not like, even for a second, to feel finer than her husband; and further, could not bear not being entirely sure, when she spoke to him, of the truth of what she said (that Mr. Ramsay is not a failure). Universities and people wanting him, lectures and books and their being of the highest importance— all that she did not doubt for a moment; but it was their relation, and his coming to her like that, openly, so that any one could see, that discomposed her; for then people said he depended on her, when they must know that of the two he was infinitely the more important, and what she gave the world, in comparison with what he gave, negligible. (1. 7. 7)

68 There are two things about Mr. Ramsay that are worrying Mrs. Ramsay in this passage: the first is that he comes to her directly and announces that he's a failure. So he's exposing his weakness to her in the showiest, most ostentatious way possible. For Mrs. Ramsay, it's as though he's suddenly strolled into the drawing room completely naked.

69 The whole point, for her, of manhood, is that it's all about hiding its weakness. She likes men "for their chivalry and valour, for the fact that they negotiated treaties, ruled India, controlled finance" (1. 1. 7). In her heart of hearts, she doubts that a real man would come up to his wife and say, "Lady, I'm not brave and I've never managed to negotiate a treaty, rule India, or control finance. " Yet, Mr. Ramsay is insecure enough to have done exactly that.

70 And what's all of her effort to become Superwoman worth if it's not going to be lavished on a Superman? Mr. Ramsay makes Mrs. Ramsay doubt what she's doing. And that's the second thing that's bothering Mrs. Ramsay in this passage. It's not just that she feels embarrassed by Mr. Ramsay's lack of emotional control in public, it's also that she hates to acknowledge that both she and Mr. Ramsay suspect that she (Mrs. Ramsay) is worth more than Mr. Ramsay. And that doesn't fit into the traditional model of motherhood that Mrs. Ramsay is so clearly

The Tao of Mrs. Ramsay 71 We definitely don't want to give the impression that Mrs. Ramsay is just some kind of monster, though. She's not just using her influence to make people do what they don't want to do ("having brought it all about, [she] somehow laughed, led her victims [. . . ] to the altar" (1. 17. 48), as Lily Briscoe says). The Way of Mrs. Ramsay is actually relatively positive. For one thing, she seems to be the only character in the novel that cares at all about the differences between rich and poor:

72 It seemed to her such nonsense – inventing differences, when people, heaven knows, were different enough without that. The real differences, she thought, standing by the drawing-room window, are enough, quite enough. She had in mind at the moment, rich and poor, high and low. (1. 1. 14)

73 The Ramsay kids get pretty snooty at Charles Tansley because he's awkward and can't play cricket. But Mrs. Ramsay (who also isn't that fond of Charles Tansley) isn't having it. In fact, it's precisely those social questions of correct dress and decent public behavior that Mrs. Ramsay smoothes over. She's all about facilitating social situations and making people comfortable (even if they're being jerks; check out the dinner party scene in Part One, Chapter Seventeen).

74 What Mrs. Ramsay dedicates herself to is charitable work. She's so compassionate that she has energy to spare from raising eight children to think of the Lighthouse keeper and his sickly son. But maybe this isn't as great as it appears. We get into this in "The Lighthouse" as a symbol, but we'll just say here that the problem with considering gender discrimination and class discrimination separately is that they're actually part of the same larger system. Mrs. Ramsay is good to the poor, but by supporting the status quo of the traditional family, she's actually maintaining the social structures of domination that keep some people poor and some people rich.

75 Still, Woolf finds value in Mrs. Ramsay's charitable efforts and daily family work. Maybe she's not some giant revolutionary trying to overthrow the Man, but her work shouldn't be devalued because of that.

Review Lecture 10 76 Discussion continue (Chapter 1019) List of Characters Analysis of major Characters

Agenda Lecture 11 77 Character Analysis continues… 1. Lily Briscoe Lily and Men: Specifically, Charles Tansley and William Bankes First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage. . . ? 2. James Ramsay

Agenda Lecture 11 78 Themes Time (How to present a theme…) The Transience of Life and Work Art as a Means of Preservation The Subjective Nature of Reality The Restorative Effects of Beauty Memory and the Past Love Gender

Agenda Lecture 11 79 Themes Marriage Manipulation Admiration Identity Victory Friendship Laws and Order

Agenda Lecture 11 80 Motifs The Differing Behaviors of Men and Women Brackets Symbols The Lighthouse Lily’s painting The Ramsay’s House The Sea The Boar’s Skull The Fruit Basket