Lily Briscoe in To the Lighthouse - Essay Example

Lily Briscoe in To the Lighthouse One of the groundbreaking works in the Modern British Literature, To the Lighthouse (1927) by Virginia Woolf has been not only a landmark novel of high modernism, but also of the feminist writing in English. Significantly, the novel has been highly renowned for the use of several essential Modernist techniques and tools, and the philosophical introspection in the novel acquires prominence in comparison to its plot. However, To the Lighthouse is of special relevance to the feminist critics because it is one of the best examples of feminist writings which represent gender conflict and redefine gender roles. It is through the characterization in the novel that the novelist mainly depicts the major themes including the transience of life and work, gender conflict and changing gender roles. Lily Briscoe, a young, passionate artist and painter, is a major character in the novel that represents the gender conflict and the transience of work. All through the novel, this character is beleaguered by the uncertainties of her work which, she thinks, lacks an appeal to the patriarchal society, and she is also affected by the general attitude of men in the novel that women cannot paint or write. In a way, Lily represents some features of the novelist herself who must have faced similar issues in her writing. As Anja Benthin purports, “Lily Briscoe represents the gender conflict of the novel and provides the reader with a different choice of living… Lily might represent Virginia Woolf herself, as she as a woman writer probably had to face similar conflicts and difficulties.” (Benthin, 16) This paper makes a reflective exploration of the character of Lily Briscoe in order to find out the significance of her role in the novel To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. A careful analysis of the character of Lily Briscoe confirms that she is a passionate artist who wants to be engaged in a work which is worthwhile in the society, and she represents certain essential features of woman-artists in the patriarchal society. As a woman artist, Lily Briscoe she is engaged in capturing the various sights around her in her paintings and represents the larger issues of woman as an artist or writer. It is essential to maintain that Lily Briscoe, through her painting, represents the features of writing of the novelist, i.e. Virginia Woolf, and both of them have the analogous strategy in the art, i.e. painting and writing. Just like the novelist, who works implicitly and obliquely to represent the issues of the Ramsay family, Lily also attempts to depict the images in her painting obliquely. “She knew his objection — that no one could tell it for a human shape. But she had made no attempt at likeness, she said. For what reason had she introduced them then? he asked. Why indeed?—except that if there, in that corner, it was bright, here, in this, she felt the need of darkness. Simple, obvious, commonplace, as it was, Mr Bankes was interested.” (Woolf, 64) It is fundamental to comprehend that this woman-artist, just like the novelist, is not concerned about representing the things exactly, and does not make any ‘attempt at likeness’. Here too, the character represents the general strategy of the novelist who challenges the notions of the patriarchal society that does not encourage the writing by women. Unlike Mrs. Ramsay, Lily Briscoe wishes to live a life which offers her self-determination and liberty to live as a woman and she does not share the general notion that marriage is the ultimate fulfillment of one’s life. However, it is significant to recognize that Lily undergoes certain type of conflict all through her life, due to her love for independence and independent thoughts. Apart from this, she is also affected by the general nature of the patriarchal society she lives in, which does not take her love for independence as well her paintings seriously. “Lily’s picture! Mrs. Ramsay smiled. With her little Chinese eyes and her puckered-up face she would never marry; one could not take her painting very seriously; but she was an independent little creature…” (Woolf, 64) Here, a careful reader can find traces of the general attitude of the society towards the works of a woman-artist and Lily Briscoe, through her painting, represents conflicts, issues, and difficulties etc. faced by Virginia Woolf as a woman-writer. The societal attitude towards the work of a woman, represented by the remark: ‘one could not take her painting very seriously’, talks volumes about the issues of women as writers or artists. Anja Benthin maintains that “this is the idea shared by society in general, as during that time life as a woman artist was comparable to life as a woman writer. Thus, one could say that Lily might represent Virginia Woolf herself, as she as a woman writer probably had to face similar conflicts and difficulties.” (Benthin, 16) Therefore, it becomes evident that the character of Lily Briscoe is important to the representation of the major theme of the novelist and this character also represents general project of the writer herself, in writing this novel. In a profound investigation of the role of Lily Briscoe in the novel To the Lighthouse, it becomes lucid that she is the major icon representing the shift from Victorian gender roles towards a new female identity which Virginia Woolf creates in this novel. It is important to realize that the novelist presents Lily Briscoe as an exact contrast to Mrs. Ramsay who represents the Victorian patriarchal society and its traditional gender roles. Whereas Mrs. Ramsay believes in the gender roles of the traditional patriarchal society, according to which the role of a woman is merely to reassure the man who is troubled by the importance of his work, Lily firmly believes in the liberation of women and their absolute freedom in life and work. As Tobias Nahrwold maintains, “Lily Briscoe differs from Mrs. Ramsay as she is younger, unmarried and working as an artist, a profession reserved for men in her society. Lily is, in contrast to Mrs. Ramsay, a reserved individual and rejects traditional femininity embodied by Mrs. Ramsay.” (Nahrwold, 8) It is indubitable that Lily Briscoe’s role in the novel is mainly to represent the major themes and concerns of the novelist, i.e. to present the shift from Victorian gender roles towards a new female identity. One of the essential features of the work of Lily Briscoe, the English artist in the novel To the Lighthouse, is that it represents a new mode of perception and the dawn of Modernism which had been developing in England during the time of its writing. It is significant realize that Woolf employs this character to represent the shift in the general mood of the nation into a Modernist world. In fact, Woolf lacked familiar models to represent the state of mind and perception of an English artist foraging between cultures in remote regions of the world in the twentieth century. “She glancingly presents an artist enriched by the ‘foreign’ or more specifically, ‘Oriental’ discernment, for Lily’s eyes are ‘fine, Chinese, oriental.’” (Laurence, 326) Therefore, it is evident that the Lily Briscoe represents a new, ‘foreign’, discernment in painting and overall view of gender role which is not familiar to the English readers and it is a challenging task for the woman-artist to see things through her ‘Chinese’, or ‘foreign’, eyes. It is especially notable that the novelist, in spite of the difficulties and challenges, makes use this character in the representation of her Modernist outlook and techniques. In fact, Lily struggles with the issue of where to place a ‘line’ in a painting in the novel and takes much time to complete a painting which she begins in the first chapter. “Woolf’s unwitting vocabulary of ‘rhythm’, ‘line’, ‘stroke’, and ‘pause’ to describe Lily’s process and her own not only captures modernism…” but also her feminist concerns and themes. (Laurence, 387) A profound investigation of To the Lighthouse confirms that one of the underlying themes of the novel has been Lily Briscoe’s search for an artistic vision in the novel, which is closely related to the overall project of the novelist. Through this would-be-artist, the novelist presents the issues of female artists in a world of patriarchal society. The role of Lily Briscoe in the novel has been crucial to the critics of feminist theory in literature, as this character exhibits some of the major claims of the feminists. “That Lily Briscoe uses her painting to escape the marriage plot is, of course, a widely accepted feminist reading of To the Lighthouse’s breakthrough modernist ending. Less obvious is the reading that the encrypted foreignness of Lily Briscoe’s ‘little Chinese eyes’ first forces Lily’s sexual devaluation and subsequently enables her artistic freedom.” (Seshagiri, 164) Therefore, it is important to maintain that Lily Briscoe’s role is fundamental to a feminist reading of the novel and it reflects the overall strategy of the writer to represent the feminist themes in the novel. Significantly, Lily Briscoe represents the feminist dilemma in the novel and this makes this character particularly relevant in the large frame of the novelist’s project in the work. In a reflective review of the major themes of the novel To the Lighthouse, one realizes that Lily Briscoe, the young, unmarried and woman-artist in the novel, represents the gender conflicts, inequalities, and the need for new gender roles. Thus, this character achieves immense significance in the overall strategy of Virginia Woolf to present women’s issues using Modernist narrative and themes. In other words, critics place significant emphasis on this character as it represents the feminist aesthetics of Virginia Woolf in an effective way. As Jane Goldman maintains, “in To the Lighthouse Woolf breaks new ground not only in putting a woman artist at the center of a modernist kunstlerroman, but also in positioning her in a, previously male-dominated, elegiac tradition. In Lily’s painting, and Woolf’s novel, both the subject and object of the artist’s gaze is feminine.” (Goldman, 169) Therefore, there is close connection between Lily’s painting and Woolf’s novel, both of which try to depict the world of women in their own ways. In short, Lily Briscoe in To the Lighthouse plays an essential role in the overall strategy of Woolf which is closely related with her feminist aesthetics. Works Cited Benthin, Anja. Redefining Gender Roles: The Image of Women in Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse”. Norderstedt Germany: GRIN Verlag. 2009. P 16. Goldman, Jane. The feminist aesthetics of Virginia Woolf: modernism, post-impressionism and the politics of the visual. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2001. P 169. Laurence, Patricia Ondek. Lily Briscoe's Chinese eyes: Bloomsbury, modernism, and China. New York: University of South Carolina Press. 2003. P 326. Nahrwold, Tobias. From Victorian Gender Roles towards a New Female Identity: Feminism in Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse”. Norderstedt Germany: GRIN Verlag. 2007. P 8. Seshagiri, Urmila. Race and the Modernist Imagination. New York: Cornell University Press. 2010. P 164. Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. London: CRW Publishing Ltd. 2004. P 64. Read More