Escaping Femininity : the Body and Androgynous Painting in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse

This essay focuses on the character of Lily Briscoe in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. From a gender perspective it discusses Lily's striving to exceed her socially constructed position as a woman by attempting to be an artist. At the beginning of the twentieth century women were supposed to be housewives rather than artists. This ideology of femininity held women back from achieving anything outside the home, and forced women to attempt to escape their femininity in order to pursue their dreams. This essay discusses Lily's efforts to escape her femininity by attempting to transcend her body and by striving to achieve an androgynous mind