The Lighthouse

Okay, this last portion of "Too the Lighthouse" is probably them most easily understood of everything by Woolf I've read...primarily, I think, because we so thoroughly deconstructed Mr. Ramsey's character that his actions in the third part hold no ambiguity. We know precisely what is going on with him and, therefore, what's going on with most of the characters. In fact, I think it's interesting that Mr. Ramsey, for all his faults, seems, ironically, to be the central figure in this entire section. Everything revolves around him: what the characters think, their reactions, their ruminations-it's almost like, meta-fictionally, Woolf is giving Mr. Ramsey exactly what he always desired, that is the unflagging attention of precisely...everyone...that's around him.

I thought the section with James was very true to life, and I would wager was a partial representation of Woolf's own feelings towards her father. The simultaneity of both hating your father and begging for his admiration is one of life's very, very, very true and hopelessly contradictory facets--well, if you have those kinds of conflicting feelings for someone. But James wants to strike his father down...wants to, in fact, stab his through the heart like a frackin' vampire...but then he entirely desires at the exact same instance that his father just affirm him, just compliment him, one time. There's something a little more poignant about this than Mr. Ramsey's desire for affirmation from Mrs. Ramsey.

Now this ending...there's something profound in it, that I haven't quite placed my finger on. It's become ridiculously obvious that the lighthouse stands for something--there's too much talk on it, what it looks like, its positioning...James' little rumination on how the lighthouse is the same ten feet away even though it looks completely different from the isle. So they reach the lighthouse, and their boat becomes lost in the haze, at the moment, more or less, that Lily finishes her painting, and Carmichael, who seems to be a stand in for some sort of Greek God, blesses the termination of the voyage, at least through Lily's eyes. What was this journey about? Why was the lighthouse so important? Why does the book end upon the completion of the journey--ten years in the making, mind you--and the last stroke upon Lily's canvas?