Father's Portrait : A Study of To the Lighthouse

When we study Virginia Woolf's diary we find To the Lighthouse was meant to be her father's portrait. But when we read the novel, we are easily dazzled by Mrs. Ramsay's fascinating figure in the first, part "The Window" and think it a portrait of Woolfs mother. To see the novel as her father's portrait, we must shift the angle from which we see the novel. Woolf wrote this novel when she was 44 years old, and Lily the painter is 44 years old in the third part. So we see the novel taking our stand with Lily in the third part, and we find the two main features in the novel are the sail to the lighthouse and the completion of Lily's picture. The sail to the Lighthouse means a process of reconciliation. Cam who represents Woolf as daughter to Leslie Stephen can easily be reconciled with her father. James who represents Woolf as a seeker for truth identifies himself, and is reconciled, with his father during the sail. The sea on which the boat sails is for Cam and James the time during which they grow up, and for Woolf the time during which she came to lay her father in her mind. Lily sees them off the island and completes her picture when she feels she has given Mr. Ramsay what she wanted to give when he left her. She began her picture at the beginning of the novel, and when she finishes it the novel itself is finished. Lily is Woolf as an artist, therefore the picture she completes is the novel itself. So Virginia Woolf gave her father what she had wanted to give. Thus she accomplished a razor edge of balance between her father and her work. To the Lighthouse is most properly called an elegy