Main themes in to the lighthouse?

Answer 1

Main themes of the novel include time and the subversion of gender roles. After the dinner party scene, Mrs. Ramsay reflects that the present moment has already subsided into the past. Woolf writes, "With her foot on the threshold she waited a moment longer in a scene which was vanishing even as she looked, and then, as she moved and took Minta's arm and left the room, it changed, it shaped itself differently; it had become, she knew, giving one last look at it over her shoulder, already the past." Mrs. Ramsay also fears that time will rob her children of their happiness. "Why, she asked, pressing her chin on James's head, should they grow up so fast? Why should they go to school?...They were happier now than they would ever be again." In addition, Mr. Ramsay often worries about the legacy he will leave behind and expresses anxiety about his works being forgotten and fading into obscurity. "How many men in a thousand million, he asked himself, reach Z after all? Surely the leader of a forlorn hope may ask himself that, and answer, without treachery to the expedition behind him, 'One perhaps.' One in a generation. Is he to be blamed then if he is not that one? provided he has toiled honestly, given to the best of his power, and till he has no more left to give? And his game lasts how long? Is it permissible even for a dying hero to think before he dies how men will speak of him hereafter. His fame lasts perhaps two thousand years. And what are two thousand years...the very stone one kicks with one's boot will outlast Shakespeare. His own little light would shine, not very brightly, for a year or two, and would then be merged in some bigger light, and that in a bigger still." The subversion of gender roles is clearly seen in the scene between Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay in which Mr. Ramsay desires for his wife to expressly convey her love for him. Woolf writes that Mr. Ramsay "found talking so much easier than she did. He could say things---she never could. So naturally it was always he that said the things, and then for some reason he would mind this suddenly, and would reproach her." Woolf reverses gender roles in this scene, for taciturnity is usually associated with males and loquacity is generally linked with females. In addition, subversion of female gender roles is evident in the desires of Nancy, Prue, and Rose to live a wild, adventurous life in contrast to their mother's life of domesticity. "Prue, Nancy, Rose---could sport with infidel ideas which they had brewed for themselves of a life different from hers; in Paris, perhaps; a wilder life; not always taking care of some man or other; for there was in all their minds a mute questioning of deference and chivalry..." Furthermore, Lily Briscoe has no desire to marry but instead wants to devote herself entirely to her work. "With her little Chinese eyes and her puckered-up face, she would never marry; one could not take her painting very seriously; she was an independent little creature..."

Answer 2

Some of the main themes in "To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf include the passage of time and its impacts on individuals and relationships, the nature of art and creativity, the complexity of human consciousness, the role of memory, and the changing perceptions of gender and power dynamics. Woolf also explores themes of loss, mourning, and the search for meaning in a rapidly changing world.