To the Lighthouse

First off, To the Lighthouse is definitely the most accessible of Woolf's works so far; I had little trouble understanding it, and I only had to read some paragraphs at the most two times! Although there is the possibility that I was so hyped up on caffeine while reading it that I was experience some type of preternatural focusing and mental alacrity.

Anyway, one of the biggest things I came away with after reading this first part is this sense of contradiction. EVERYONE in this novel has conflicted feelings about EVERYTHING. Mr. Ramsey's annoyed by and unable to survive without his wife, Mr. Tansley can't decide whether he wants everybody to hate him or to love him, Mrs. Ramsey can't seem to figure out WHO she is--possibly because she thinks she has to do whatever's necessary to please Mr. Ramsey, though the more she tries the more alienated Mr. Ramsey becomes, because he's so hopelessly dependent on her...whoa, circle, circle, circle, am I right?

I think it's really interesting the progress Woolf's made on the techniques of viewpoint hopping. Each person's thoughts flow into the other's so well that you don't even realize the POV has switched unless you really stop and think about it; but even then, the transition is so smooth and unfettered that it's practically poetic. She was never really bad at this, but there were times, as we know, in Jacob's room where the rapid changes were jarring, and we got lost in the novel, forgetting who was talking and who was thinking this. But in To the Lighthouse, these blips have been ironed out, so the POV hopping is nigh unnoticeable and entirely integral to the story.

I think the character of Mr. Ramsey is fascinating, personally. He wants to control his wife--but does so because he's a useless prig without her. He hates when she asserts herself--but loves it because it means she interacting with him. One of his most common phrases towards her is "Damn you," and yet he's madly in love. He doesn't like to think of her as well read, it bothers her when she shows intelligence, and yet he gets some sort of thrill from both these things. I've read that To the Lighthouse contains a lot of Woolf's own family in it; I wonder how much of these fictional parents are, in fact, truthful.