Exploration of Women's Potentials in ToThe Lighthouse

Abstract

Woolf’sTo the Lighthouseembodies the encouraging and enticing ideas for the promotion of women exploited and their desires repressed in patriarchy through the historical span of time. The characters portrayed in the novel are symbolic and speak the voice of both the ruled and the ruler, in other words, females and males respectively. The female characters carry on the Woolf’s views and attitudes towards men and the rest of the male-dominated society. Mrs. Ramsay is contrasted to her husband Mr. Ramsay who represents the men of the time. He is the authoritative figure who holds the power in the familybut his customary role is handled by his wife Mrs. Ramsay which indeed proves a great challenge to patriarchy and its ideologies. Woolf through another female character, Lily Briscoe has attempted to make it crystal clear that there is nothing that women cannot do. On this ground women are as valiant and courageous as men and everything is possible on the part of the entire sex, female. To the customary trend women are confined to a certain domain of duties and responsibilities and most of them are concerned with emotional and delicate notion of jobs butTo the Lighthousebreaks this boundary extant in patriarchy by forwarding Lily Briscoe as a painter and Mrs. Ramsay as a commendable and reliable director in her family affair.