DISSERTATION
A critical analysis of Virginia Wolf’s deconstruction of the feminine ideal in Mrs
Dalloway and To The Lighthouse, examining the literary techniques she uses to
illustrate her views of woman’s essential dilemma in a patriarchal society.
This essay examines the thoughts, experiences and actions, and reflects the pressures
placed on women to play ideological roles in the early 1900’s, where the traditional
role of women was that of a selfless devotion as a wife and mother. One of Woolf's
great concerns was the role of women in a patriarchal society and was aware of the
important differences in the opportunities open for women of different social classes.
She understood the pressures placed on women not to write which was strong during
the Victorian period, and that educational privileges were reserved for the men in this
society. Women in Victorian society were discriminated and degraded at this time;
men domineered at home and dictated a woman’s role, regardless of wealth or status.
One pressure was created by the ideology of womanhood during the early 19th
century, women’s roles were strongly defined by their marriage and this role was
almost complete subordination to their husbands and children. This struggle
highlighted in Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own” is visibly presented in these
two novels where Woolf exposes the distinctive roles for both men and women.
Although the central female characters in both novels lead different lives there are
connections in how they feel the must conform to what is considered the norm in their
privileged society. By conforming to these norms Woolf reveals the frustration they
experienced whilst trying to fit in to these stereotypical roles.
Woolf was born in 1882 the middle of the Victorian era. The feminine ideal that she
struggled against was prevalent in that society. The ideal woman was thought to be
“passive, pretty and proper”. In an essay titled “Professions for Women” Woolf
discussed an obstacle she must overcome that haunted her throughout her creative
life. This personal barrier was known as the “Angel In The House”, a Victorian
image of the ideal woman who was expected to be devoted and submissive, just like
the two female characters Mrs Ramsay and Clarissa Dalloway. The phrase “Angel in
The House” comes from a poem written by Coventry Patmore in 1854, in dedication
to his wife Emily whom he believed was the perfect Victorian wife. This angel was
passive and powerless, self-sacrificing and sympathetic.
“She was intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming.
She was utterly unselfish. She excelled in the difficult arts of
Family life. If there was a chicken she took the leg; if there was
A draught she sat in it – in short she was so constituted that she
Never had a mind or a wish of her own, but preferred to sympathise
Always with the minds and wishes of others”.
Woolf criticises Patmore’s work because of the oppressive effect this ideal placed on
women’s lives at this time. For Woolf this Angel represented all that a woman is
expected to be by society and men. It is a very repressive version of womanhood.
Woolf believed that, in order for her to write freely she first had to rid herself of the
presence of the Victorian ideal female figure. “I discovered if I was going to review
books I should need to do battle with a certain phantom, and that phantom was The
Angel In The House, she was intensely sympathetic, she was immensely charming,
she was utterly unselfish, and she sacrificed herself daily”. These attributes are
particularly true of the character of Mrs Ramsay, who was the true “Angel in The
House” in her role of mother, hostess and wife. She is completely devoted to her
children, looks after her guests and is in complete subordination as a wife. “she did
not like even for a second to be finer than her husband”, this illustrates that she
sacrificed herself in order make her husband feel superior. She visits the sick and the
poor and fulfils the deepest needs of those around her.
In “Mrs Dalloway” and “To The Lighthouse”, Woolf deconstructs the principles of
the idealised feminine roles of Mrs Dalloway and Mrs Ramsay by revealing their
internal discontent. Despite great feelings of hopelessness in their roles both
characters maintain an outwardly appearance of contentment as a means of survival in
their privileged and patriarchal society.
Mrs Dalloway is a novel that is constantly overlaying the past with the present, where
Clarissa, the central female character struggles to balance her internal life with the
external world. As the story begins Clarissa is planning to throw a party. Clarissa
becomes Mrs Dalloway when she marries her husband Richard. In her marriage she
takes on the role of “Mrs” and is expected to be the “perfect wife and hostess”. When
taking on this role Clarissa loses a vital part of her being, “This being Mrs Dalloway;
not even Clarissa any more; this being Mrs Richard Dalloway”. She frequently
reflects back to the past at important times in her life when decisions she made cost
her happiness and inner peace.
Woolf displays glimpses of Clarissa's dissatisfaction through her thoughts and fears
that run through her mind. In the first few pages of “Mrs Dalloway”, we see Clarissa
sinking down and reflecting back to the past when she was a younger and happier girl
at Bourton. “Oh if she could have her life over again! She thought”. Clarissa has
sacrificed the excitement and love she could have had with Peter Walsh for a marriage
of security and safety with Richard Dalloway. It is clear that Clarissa still has feelings
for Peter Walsh as it is him we learn about on the first page of the novel and not Mr
Dalloway. It was Peter that was constantly on Clarissa's mind all through the
narrative and she referred to him as being her “Dear Peter”.
I believe that Clarissa is a repressed character whose life was extremely unfulfilled in
her role as a woman and a wife in this patriarchal society. She was an intelligent
woman who lived in an oppressive society which prevented her from achieving her
potential. In a sense she does develop into a “perfect hostess” but this inevitable
vocation leaves her with a great feeling of unworthiness, “she had cried over it in her
bedroom”. Clarissa Dalloway is an intelligent character that unfortunately had no
formal education. “How she had got through life on the few twigs of knowledge
Fraulein Caniels gave her she could not think, she knew nothing; no language; no
history; she scarcely read a book now”. She, like many other upper-class girls in this
society were sent to special schools for girls or were taught by a governess, where
feminine accomplishments were acquired but little solid knowledge.
In late October 1928 Woolf delivered a lecture on “Women and Fiction” at Newham
and Girton, two women’s colleges at Cambridge. She had written the lecture in May
and expanded it into what is now “A Room of Ones Own”. Much of this book is
dedicated to an analysis of the patriarchal society that has limited women’s
opportunities. Even if Clarissa had had the opportunity to go to university at
Cambridge she would not have had the same recognition as men in this era as women
were not awarded full degrees until after the Second World War, in 1948. Woolf’s
work illustrates differences between the way women and men were treated in England
at this time and in highlighting Clarissa’s dilemma therefore Woolf is highlighting the
problems of all intelligent women in this society. Clarissa, Mrs Ramsay and even
Lily have to endure the problems for women that Woolf writes of in “A Room of
Ones Own”.
In a “Room of Ones Own” Woolf is reminded of a bishop’s comment that “no woman
could equal the genius of Shakespeare”. She imagines what would have happened if
Shakespeare had an equally gifted sister named Judith. Woolf uses her fictional
powers when describing the plight of Shakespeare’s imaginary sister Judith, she
argued that if she had existed and she had been equally as talented as her brother she
would never have made it because of her poverty, her biology and her lack of
freedom. Woolf allows the reader to recognize the factors that helped Shakespeare’s
natural intellect, his education, his freedom to go to London alone, his employment in
the theatre, his ability to earn money for himself and his lack of family responsibility.
I believe that Clarissa parallels an imaginary sister of Shakespeare. She too like
Judith, as a woman, had many external obstacles to tolerate in her society; she was not
educated, she did not have a prestigious profession like the male counterparts in the
novel, who were Doctors and Politicians, she could not earn money of her own, like
her husband, she could not venture away from the home because of family
constraints, and sadly because of all these restrictions she has nothing to do except
organise parties. I believe that Clarissa was unhappy in her role as the “perfect
hostess” because she was a victim of this patriarchal society that limited her
opportunities, controlled her freedom and denied her the same privileges as the men in
this novel.
The experience of Clarissa is presented to us through the thoughts that run through her
mind when she often reflects back to the past where she was much happier in her
carefree, unrestricted and single role. Now that Clarissa is middle aged she struggles
to find her role in a society that places great importance on fulfilling stereotypes. She
feels invisible and is still trying to find her purpose in life, since women of her class
and generation did not have careers. We learn about Clarissa's physical appearance as
she compares herself with a woman in the narrative whom she considers ideal. “She
would have been dark like Lady Bexborough, with a skin of crumpled leather, she
would have been like Lady Bexborough, slow and stately, rather large, interested in
politics like a man, and very dignified”. I believe that Clarissa is extremely unhappy
with herself both physically and emotionally and these wishes of hers illustrate to the
reader that she would have liked to have been less feminine and more masculine.
Clarissa is clearly unhappy with her external appearance and I think that she had the
desire to become more manly because this would have enabled her to understand life
from a different and more advantaged perspective. As a woman in this parriarchal
society she was missing the experiences and possibilities that life as an intelligent
woman would have enjoyed. As a man she could have went to university, as a man
she could have earned and kept her own money; as a man she could have been
economically and legally superior to the woman; as a man she could have had a
million more oppertunities. If Clarissa were content in her role as a wife and a mother
she would not have a desire to change her physical appearance so drastically.
A lack of intimacy in Clarissa marriage is symbolic throughout the novel as a
metaphor of a virginal nun. Clarissa would often retire alone to the attic room “like a
nun withdrawing” to the “narrow bed”. It is clear that Woolf is describing a weakness
in their sexual relationship and that Clarissa was sleeping alone away from her
husband. ………more writing here
The character of Mrs Ramsay in To The Lighthouse is a symbol of an eternal mother
figure, caring and protective and apparently happy with her life. She plays a selfsacrificing woman who adheres to the views of her patriarchal society. Mrs Ramsay
symbolises the traditional female during this era. Her chief role in life is as a
matchmaker and housekeeper for her husband and family. She defines what it is like
to be a woman, wife and mother in this society. She is competent individual who
supports her husband and family, and is submissive and dutiful as a wife. Her reason
for existing seems to be to complete the man, but Woolf allows the reader to see that
although externally Mrs Ramsay portrays the perfect example of a mother and wife in
this era, she privately desires freedom from this role. Like Mrs Dalloway Mrs Ramsay
thinks of possible alternatives that takes her away from her oppressed role in this
society. She consciously questions her position “but what have I done with my life”
Her thoughts and desires are disconnected from the ideal feminine figure and from the
outside she sees that her life is crumbling. Mrs Ramsay imagines herself in places she
has never been, “Her horizon seemed to her limitless, there were all the places she had
not seen, the Indian plains; a church in Rome”. Mrs Ramsay uses her imagination to
escape her responsibilities of daily life and her imaginary world becomes limitless.
She is aware that she is controlled by this patriarchal society but is able to detach
herself from her problems by using her imagination a valuable tool. However not
only did Mrs Ramsay long for an escape from her role in life but she wanted to go to
the most distant places in the world. It seems that Mrs Ramsay was so unhappy in her
“Ideal role” that she wished to be so far away that no one could reach her.
Both novels are set in a society, which the upper class would identify with. The
Ramsay’s have a holiday home off the Scottish mainland, where they entertain guests;
the Dalloway’s live in Westminster, an affluent neighbourhood of London where they
throw lavish dinner parties where the Prime minister is invited. Both novels are seen
through the eyes of a privileged society in which the opportunities for men are
limitless and the prospects for women are limited, and although they are wealthy
families their riches could not fulfil the aspirations of the two central female figures.
And while the female characters lead advantaged lives Woolf reminds us of the
dependent roles they play, where wealth does not bring independence for the female
characters.
Woolf allowa the characters to live in a similar society as her own and she was born
into an aristocratic family. “To The Lighthouse” is based upon Woolf’s recollections
of childhood and the relationship between her parents. Woolf was known for using
some of the characters in her novels to express the different aspects of herself. Lily
was used as a way for her to exp
Patriarchal society of the nineteenth and early twentieth century tried to discourage
mixing of gender within self by creating distinctive roles for woman and men. To
The Lighthouse illustrates the destructive nature of a belief in strong fixed gender
identities as represented by Mr and Mrs Ramsay, whereas Lily Briscoe an artist
represents the subject who deconstructs this opposition. Woolf gave us the character
of Lily who illustrates that there were women in that particular society who were not
bound by the ideological feminine roles. Lily Briscoe is an independent female who,
unlike Mrs Ramsay, felt that she did not need to marry to achieve fulfilment. Lily is a
balanced figure who finds harmony with her painting and refuses to be controlled by
the obligations of marriage and parent hood.
Unlike the other two female characters Lily lives outside gender conventions, and she
represents a different view of womanhood compared to that of Mrs Ramsay and Mrs
Dalloway, who were dependent on their male counterparts. Lily’s single status
allows her to be free of the many limitations that prevented Mrs Ramsay and Clarissa
from fulfilling their potential. She had the solitude to paint, she had the privacy that
being single brought, she was financially dependent, and did not have the restrictions
that a husband and children would bring, Lily embodies all the attributes that Woolf
says a woman must meet to be successful in “A Room Of Ones Own”. However
Lily’s independent role did not prevent her from realising the pressures that the
patriarchal society placed on her as an artist.
Lily is sensitive to the judgemental comments that Mr Tinsley places on her painting
when he constantly degrades her work, “Women cant write, women cant paint”, he
says. Woolf claimed that men historically belittle woman as a means of asserting
their own superiority. In her metaphor of a looking glass relationship Woolf believed
that men threatened by the thought of losing their power reduced women so as to
enlarge themselves. I believe that this is what Mr Tansley is doing in this situation.
He clearly feels threatened by Lily because she is creative and bright and so much
different from the dependent Mrs Ramsay. He is typical of the patriarchal system and
tries to oppress Lily by undervaluing her work and making her seem insignificant.
Lilly struggles against Tansley's statement and this affects the way she paints, clearly
fulfilling the secret desires of Mr Tansley. “Then why did she mind what he saidwhat did that matter coming from him, since clearly it was not true to him but
somehow helpful to him”. It is quite obvious in which way this was helpful to him,
by criticising her work Mr Tansley was trying to make Lily feel inferior so as he
could feel superior to her thus enabling him to have more power over her so as not to
loose his status of superiority on which he was dependent on.
Lily feels the effects this patriarchal system has on her as an artist and struggles
against a society where women are expected only to be wives and mothers like Mrs
Ramsay and Clarissa Dalloway. The older women act within a domestic context, but
Lily’s creativity allows her to move outside the domestic confines, which have
constrained the other two female characters. Woolf centres her novels around the
distortions, which a strict division of roles produces on family life. A device that
Woolf used in her approach to characterisation was a division of gender roles and
there is a clear boundary in both novels of masculine and feminine domains. The
characters of Mrs Ramsay and Mrs Dalloway reinforce the traditional female roles of
passivity and submission and
In the novel “To The Lighthouse” Wool explores the nature of gender roles of various
characters in stream of consciousness narrative style by revealing the inner workings
of their minds. In a single passage such as the opening page of “Mrs Dalloway” and
the scene in which the dinner party takes place in “To The Lighthouse”, the narrator
quickly shifts from one characters perspective to another’s. Woolf uses free indirect
discourse to describe the interior thoughts of their minds using third person narrative.
What unites the incident of the dinner party is the continual activity of the characters
minds, and the constant stream of thoughts and emotions remain hidden from the
world. In a few short minutes many things unfold at the dinner table. Woolf weaves
a characters thoughts into the narrative in such a way that it is hard to tell whether
they are the characters thoughts, someone else’s thoughts about the character, or the
narrators comments.
This process can tell us more about the characters way of perceiving the world than
conventional methods. Mrs Ramsay is at the heart of the group gathered around the
dinner table; it is here that the narrator delivers the thoughts of the guests as they fall
in random upon their minds. While ordering all to their seats Mrs Ramsay is
constantly thinking of other things “But what have I done with my life? Thought Mrs
Ramsay, taking her place at the head of the table”. In her thoughts she feels tired but
she does not transfer these feelings to the other guests at the table. She thought about
her husband and how he looked physically, how she felt about him, “At the far end
was her husband, sitting down, all in a heap, frowning”, but she could not see into his
thoughts and could only imagine what it was that was worrying him. At this moment
in time her senses were strong and she was aware of the slightest sounds around her
she could feel her “heart beating” and hear her watch ticking “one two three”. She
would flit from character to character analysing each of them “Mr Banks poor man,
he had no wife and no children”, then the narrative voice slips into Lily’s as she
describes Mrs Ramsay's appearance, “How old she looks, how worn she looks, and
how remote”. The narrative voice then explores Mr Tansley's inner feelings and it is
here where we learn how he feels about the female characters sitting at the table. “He
was not going to be condescended by these silly women, women made civilisation
impossible with all their charm, all their silliness”.
It is during this scene that we learn what the characters truly think of one another
through their thought patterns. Mrs Ramsay feels sorry for Mr Tinsley because he is
not married and because of these thoughts she offers him a good portion of food. Lily
patronised Mr Tinsley because he upset her earlier, “Oh, Mr Tansley “ she said “do
take me to the Lighthouse with you, I should so love it”. We were aware through the
thoughts of Mr Tansley that Lily was telling lies, “He knew that she was trying to
tease him for some reason; she didn’t want to go to the Lighthouse with him; she
despised him” he said. What the characters actually say and do is less mentioned here
than what is going on in their minds as they think about doing something. We are
inside their minds rather than outside with their actions.
Through the narrative point of view the reader is shown quite a different perception of
the characters than the characters know of each other in the novel. The narrator is
moving around the feelings, thoughts and emotions and points of view of the
characters capturing the different responses people have to each other. Characters are
shown to us through their thoughts and the thoughts others have of them. It was
crucial to Woolf's purpose that the thought processes of several characters should be
shown as this enabled her to demonstrate the importance of point of view.
Another literary device Woolf uses in “To The Lighthouse” and “Mrs Dalloway” in
her approach to characterisation is a division of gender characteristics and roles, and
there is a clear boundary in both novels of masculine and feminine domains. The
traditional female roles of passivity and submission are reinforced by Mrs Ramsay
and Clarissa Dalloway where their roles are embodied in domestic virtues. Mr
Ramsay and Richard Dalloway are the embodiment of the patriarchy where men
belong to the public world which privileged masculine values. The feminine realm is
the home where the two female characters act a wife’s and mothers. Woolf believed
that gender differences divided the world into oppositions and hierarchy and lead to
conflict and this is revealed in some of the characters in the two novels.
Woolf’s novels also aligns gender with stereotypical patterns of imagery and symbols.
Men are seen in terms of hard sharp objects. Mr Ramsay is described as being “As
lean as a knife and as narrow as a blade of one” and when we first encounter his son
James he is wielding scissors and cutting out pictures, and in anger towards his father
he says “Had there been an axe handy or a poker James would have seized it”. In Mrs
Dalloway Peter Walsh is always playing with a penknife. In opposition to these hard
objects Mrs Ramsay and Clarissa Dalloway are seen in creative warm symbols. In the
opening scene in “To The Lighthouse” Mrs Ramsay is knitting stockings, a gift for a
sick child an indication that she cares for others. She is often seen in terms of nature,
as a flower or a tree, “Mrs Ramsay seemed to fold herself together, one petal closed in
another”. Clarissa enjoys flowers deeply “There were roses; there were iris’s, sweet
peas, bunches of lilac, - so she breathed in the earthy garden sweet smell”. Both
women organise dinner parties and Mrs Ramsay is often seen in terms of nature. The
sharp objects symbolise a masculine type of intelligence and sharp analytical minds
are shown, they are associated with knowledge linked to maths and science, they
understand square roots, polotics and philosophy whereas the women are associated
with images of fertility, gentle caring roles and the arts like painting. I believe that
Woolf used this choice of imagery and symbolism to reveal the gender attitudes
operating in this particular society.
It is certain that Mrs Ramsay and Clarissa Dalloway are unhappy in their gendered
identity are they consciously and constantly question their roles. They are both in the
subordinate situation of their relationships a position of limited choices, while Mr
Ramsay and Richard Dalloway are in the superior position with limitless choices.
Patriarchal society has tried to discourage the mixing of gender by creating these
distinctive roles for men and women and Woolf understood that the goal of the
feminist struggle must be to deconstruct the oppositions of masculinity and
femininity.
A main theme in the novel “To The Lighthouse” is the effects of patriarchy on the
creative lives of women. Lily struggles to be an artist in a society where women are
expected only to be wives and mothers like Mrs Ramsay and Clarissa Dalloway. Mrs
Ramsay is the perfect model of the old generations value of a woman’s place in the
patriarchal society. Men through history have always had the power over women