To the Lighthouse

Shortly before eight a.m., ten years after the events of Part 1, Lily is alone at the breakfast table. She feels out of place amongst the Ramsay family, and she cannot bring herself to have any deep feelings about the deaths of Prue, Andrew, and Mrs. Ramsay. Mr. Ramsay, Cam, and James prepare to go to the lighthouse.

Delays frustrate Mr. Ramsay, and Lily hears him tearing around the house and the terrace in a rage. She remembers being at the house ten years ago, when she had a problem with a painting. She decides to paint the problematic picture as soon as she thinks of it, as if “she knew now what she wanted to do” (200).

As Mr. Ramsay’s erratic behavior continues, Lily finds she is unable to paint. She recalls meeting with the six remaining Ramsay children and Mr. Ramsay the night before, in the house “full of unregulated passions” (201). Before going to bed, Mr. Ramsay discussed the trip to the lighthouse with James and Cam, who agreed they would be ready at 7:30 the following morning. She feels sympathetic to the siblings, who are now 16 and 17 years old; they appear subdued. Lily soon falls asleep in her bed to the sound of the waves.

As Lily, who is now 44 years old, prepares her easel, she notices Mr. Ramsay’s back is turned toward her. She blames Mrs. Ramsay for her inability to paint and regrets coming to the house for that reason. She feels Mr. Ramsay wants something from her, and his need causes her to despair. When Mr. Ramsay appears by her side, she decides to give him what sympathy she can muster.

Mr. Ramsay looks at Lily, noticing the changes in her. She reassures him that she has everything she needs and tells him that she hopes their crossing to the lighthouse will be calm. The mention of the lighthouse “issued from him such a groan that any other woman in the world would have done something” (205). Lily, perceiving herself to be different from other women, does nothing.

After Mr. Ramsay waits for Lily to say something, he explains that the lighthouse was meaningful to his wife. Lily notices his need for sympathy and his burden of sorrow, but she still says nothing. In the midst of Mr. Ramsay’s impatience at not being soothed, he notices that his bootlaces are untied. Lily compliments his boots, expecting him to explode in rage, but he smiles at her, and his mood changes completely. He tells her all about his boots, and Lily feels they had moved to “a sunny island where peace dwelt” (208). Using Lily’s shoes, Mr. Ramsay demonstrates a special technique of tying the laces, and as he kneels at her feet, she feels a surge of tearful sympathy for him.

James and Cam appear on the terrace looking forlorn, and their sadness frustrates Lily. She wishes they could give their father what he needs. Mr. Ramsay leads James and his sister away, looking like a military leader. As they walk the edge of the lawn, Mr. Ramsay salutes Lily. Lily thinks about the kitchen table, Andrew, and the likelihood of Mr. Ramsay’s own doubts about whether the table can be said to exist when no one is sitting around it. Lily’s changed feelings towards Mr. Ramsay instill a sense of shame in her.

Lily and her blank canvas confront each other. She notes the difference between her imagined acts of creativity and her actual creative gestures. Lily is equipped with the wrong brush, and she has not angled her easel properly; as she corrects her mistakes, she feels euphoric, anticipating her ideas and placing her first stroke of paint on the canvas. She paints, feeling “drawn out of gossip, out of living” (214) and losing touch with the world outside of the painting. She then remembers when Tansley denied the ability of women to paint.

On the boat, Mr. Ramsay grows impatient at their slow progress. James and Cam fret over the likelihood that Macalister and his boy, friends who accompany them on the trip, will hear Mr. Ramsay talking to himself, feeling anger at their father for forcing them to sail to the lighthouse. The walk to the beach had been solemn and resentful, but now, as the boat gains speed, Mr. Ramsay calms. The men talk about storms at sea as the breeze lifts their spirits. James continues to steer the boat, and Cam focuses her attention on something vague, irritating her father and reminding him of Mrs. Ramsay. He determines to make his daughter smile at him, so he mentions the puppy they have left back at the house. She is determined to resist his efforts. Macalister’s boy catches two mackerel, and the violence of the catch reminds Cam of her resentment towards her father and his demands.

Back on shore, Lily sees the boat. Distracted and unable to paint, she thinks about her relationship with Mr. Ramsay which held no sexual tension, unlike his relationship with Minta Doyle. She goes back to her canvas, thinking about the Rayleys. Paul’s harsh treatment of Minta and her carelessness meant that their marriage “had turned out rather badly” (233). Memories of their arguments, Minta’s boredom, and Paul’s infidelity sweep through Lily’s mind, as she imagines triumphantly telling the story to Mrs. Ramsay. When she remembers her own feelings for Paul, however, Lily realizes that she had “escaped by the skin of her teeth” (237) and that she would never marry, though she loves William Bankes.

Mr. Carmichael’s book falls on the grass, and the house and garden suddenly feel empty to Lily. She finds Mr. Carmichael “inscrutable.” As Lily bursts into tears over the loss of Mrs. Ramsay, she wants to ask Mr. Carmichael questions about the meaning of life, death, and the heart. He does not notice her pain, and when Lily calms herself, she begins to paint the hedges, then the sea and the boat.

On the boat, Cam dips her hand into the sea. The sail falls as the wind dies down, miles from the lighthouse. Mr. Ramsay continues reading, and James imagines he will stab his father through the heart if Mr. Ramsay complains about the delay. This image comforts James, who has always imagined he would stab his father whenever confronted with his father’s oppressive, demanding behavior. James remembers his father’s prediction of ten years earlier: that bad weather will not allow a crossing to the lighthouse. James looks at the lighthouse, noting that “nothing was simply one thing” (251).

As the boat approaches, Cam watches her father reading his book, feeling love for him and imagining James’s disapproval of her appreciation for their father. Cam, feeling drowsy, thinks about sinking ships and “how we perished, each alone” (257).

As Mr. Ramsay sails across the bay, Lily stands on the lawn and notices that she feels differently towards him. A feeling of completeness descends on her, and she remembers feeling this way ten years earlier. Her contentedness is interrupted by an anxiety that she is wasting her time. Her creativity is stymied by her memories of Mrs. Ramsay, so she sits on the grass, looking at Mr. Carmichael and reflecting on how elderly he appears. A noise from the drawing room distracts her from her reverie, and she thinks that there must have been people who disliked Mrs. Ramsay for her weak manner with her husband. Lily thinks about Tansley, whom she heard speaking once, about brotherly love in a hall that was only half-full.

Still toying with blades of grass, Lily imagines a scene where Mrs. Ramsay agrees to marry Mr. Ramsay, forcing herself not to oversimplify their relationship in her own mind. Mr. Ramsay’s need to win over his wife in between his episodes of rage and overreaction is vivid in Lily’s memory, and Lily recalls a sense of dignity that characterized their relationship. Lily looks to the sea again, in search of Mr. Ramsay.

At sea, the boat draws closer to the island. The lighthouse is merely “a stark tower on a bare rock” (274). James and Cam look at their father, vowing never to let him tyrannize them. Macalister praises James’s steering of the boat, something James believes that Mr. Ramsay would never do. Yet Mr. Ramsay proves James wrong, saying to him, “Well done!” as the men from the lighthouse appear on shore to greet them. Mr. Ramsay springs from the boat “lightly, like a young man” (280), and his two children follow him on to the rock.

In the bright midday sun, looking at the lighthouse is an effort, and Lily feels exhausted. She believes that the sailing party will have landed on the island, and she turns back to her painting. She places one last line in the center of the painting, and she puts her brush down, thinking to herself, “I have had my vision” (281).