Literary theoretical analysis of Virginia Woolf’s To the Light House

Woolf’s novel was a ground breaking work at the time of its publication in 1927. It broke away from the literary tradition of narrative, plot based story-telling. Instead the work experimented with impressionistic and modernist methods of art, borrowing from their successful implementation in the visual arts. In his insightful essay, Jonathan Culler enlists five observations on the nature of literature. It makes for an interesting scholarly exercise to examine which of these points apply to Virginia Woolf’s novel. This essay will argue that the presence of both the properties and consequences of the language of Woolf make it a characteristically literary. Woolf’s novel was a ground breaking work at the time of its publication in 1927. It broke away from the literary tradition of narrative, plot based story-telling. Instead the work experimented with impressionistic and modernist methods of art, borrowing from their successful implementation in the visual arts. In his insightful essay, Jonathan Culler enlists five observations on the nature of literature. It makes for an interesting scholarly exercise to examine which of these points apply to Virginia Woolf’s novel. This essay will argue that the presence of both the properties and consequences of the language of Woolf make it a characteristically literary. Stream of consciousness is the technique used by Woolf to explore the thought processes of the characters. However, Woolf does not employ it in the fragmented prose form that is identified with James Joyce. Instead she brings order within the disorderly working of individual consciousness by making her prose lyrical. Through apt and vivid imagery, Woolf is able to knit together the disjointed thoughts of several of the novel’s characters into a unifying whole. What emerge through this exercise are themes of human loneliness, insecurity, loss, anguish and longing. But the overall experience of the novel is far from tragic. To the contrary, the reader is taken on an intimate journey into the most personal and most inaccessible reaches of the character’s inner churnings. A successful cathartic effect is experienced by the reader through the linguistic virtuosity of Woolf. According to Culler one of the features of the nature of literature is its use to ‘foreground’ language. In his own words, “Literariness is often said to lie above all in the organization of language that makes literature distinguishable from language used for other purposes. Literature is language that ‘foregrounds’ language itself: makes it strange, thrusts it at you – ‘Look I’m language!’ – so you can’t forget that you are dealing with language shaped in odd ways.” (p.28) Woolf’s prose style is exemplary in achieving this form of foregrounding. She accomplishes this through various stylistic and thematic features. Through lyrical exposition of inner monologues, Woolf deliberates on subjects as profound as ‘the meaning of life. The foregrounding of language in general and English in particular is evident from how it is made the only possible medium of communication. Moreover, one can see how the literary form of the novel itself is foreground even if not intended by the author. For example, the following is an illustration of a stream of consciousness which only works on the novel form, thereby making it distinguishably literary. “What is the meaning of life? That was all- a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.” (p.69) In terms of the equation between properties and consequences of the text we can identify both within the text. For example, the passage is made distinct as a philosophical monologue by its property of interrogative and ponderous constructions. On the other hand, the author’s intent of philosophical deliberation is the consequence. Moreover, in the novel at large we also see the ‘foregrounding’ of the author’s own personality as it were. For, beyond the acknowledged fact of biographical elements in the novel, Woolf is interpreting her own transient consciousness as she formulated sentences. Culler’s identifies the second characteristic of literature thus: “Literature is language in which the various elements and components of the text are brought into a complex relation. When I receive a letter requesting a contribution for some worthy cause, I am unlikely to find that the sound is echo to the sense, but in literature there are relations –of reinforcement or contrast and dissonance – between the structures of different linguistic levels: between sound and meaning, between grammatical organization and thematic patterns. A rhyme, by bringing two words together (‘suppose/knows’), brings their meanings into relation (is ‘knowing’ the opposite of ‘supposing’?) (p.29) In other words, for a text to be classified as Literature, it is not merely enough that certain arguments and points of views are conveyed. While coherence, logic and sense are essential qualities, they are by no means all. Form is as important as function when it comes to literature, for after all, it is primarily an art. A point of view, however lucidly explained, will not be effective without the accompaniments of rhyme, rhythm, tone and structure. Literature is distinguished from other written texts in its sustenance. It endures and continues to be relevant across generations and centuries. To be able to achieve this, the various elements and components of the text should be made to resonate. This explains the lasting relevance of To the Lighthouse. Culler also alludes to complex interrelations of the text. This is a key quality of literature, for often it is the most complex of compositions that are most profound and beautiful. This is true of the complex contrapuntal musical compositions of JS Bach or the multilayered personal musings by the characters of To the Lighthouse. In the music of JS Bach, iterations (also called developments) are brought out through the application of variation on themes and motifs. One could see similar manifestations in the novel in question as well. Herein, iterations of words and phrases are not detracting, but rather enhancing, the aural appeal of the text when read. For example, “To want and not to have, sent all up her body a hardness, a hollowness, a strain. And then to want and not to have- to want and want- how that wrung the heart, and wrung it again and again!” (p.75). Another good example from the text where literature is produced through the integration of various elements of language is this: “A sort of transaction went on between them, in which she was on one side, and life was on another, and she was always trying to get the better of it, as it was of her.” (p.44) The sentence deals with abstract concepts and is subject to broad interpretation. The third of Culler’s observations on Literature is its fictional quality. He writes, “The reason why readers attend to literature differently is that its utterances have a special relation to the world – a relation we call ‘fictional’. The literary work is a linguistic event which projects a fictional world… that takes shape through the work’s decisions about what must be explained and what the audience is presumed to know. Literary works refer to imaginary rather than historical individuals, but fictionality is not limited to characters and events. Deictics, as they are called, orientational features of language that relate to the situation of utterance, such as pronouns (I, you) or adverbians of place and time (here, there, now, then, yesterday, tomorrow), function in special ways in literature.” (p.31) The crux of Culler’s third point is that literary works are fictional and not real. What Culler’s fictionality stands for is the lack of factuality in the persons, events, situations and settings portrayed in the work. One must not take it to mean that literature is ‘unrealistic’. To the contrary, literature can be more real than reality itself. In other words, by capturing the essence of a dramatic human experience or event, literature serves to highlight or accentuate the same. Hence literature can be fictional while also managing to be realistic, surrealistic, impressionistic or modernist in its approach. When cursorily looked at this may appear paradoxical, but in effect there is none such. In terms of properties and consequences with respect to the fictionality of Woolf’s work, they both appear muted. It must be remembered that though a work of fiction, the ideas for the novel are largely derived from Woolf’s personal life. Mrs. Ramsay is taken after the author’s mother. For example, this observation of Mrs. Ramsay is equally true of Woolf’s mother: “They came to her, naturally, since she was a woman, all day long with this and that; one wanting this, another that; the children were growing up; she often felt she was nothing but a sponge sopped full of human emotions.” (p.140) Likewise, the character of Lily Briscoe is taken after Woolf’s sister who was also a painter. And the wish to go to the lighthouse is based on a similar plea made by her brother Adrian to their parents. There are numerous other details of the novel which are based on real people, real places and real events pertaining to the author’s life. But this understanding does not diminish the fictionality of the novel, for personal experiences are transposed onto a fictional plane, wherein the characters and settings are imagined. The fourth observation raised by Culler is Literature as aesthetic object. He says, “The features of literature discussed so far – the supplementary levels of linguistic organization, the separation from practical contexts of utterance, the fictional relation to the world – may be brought together under the general heading of the aesthetic function of language. Aesthetics is historically the name for the theory of art and has involved debates about whether beauty is an objective property of works of art or a subjective response of viewers, and about the relation of the beautiful to the true and the good” (p.32) While the psychological probing and thematic rigor of Woolf’s novel is obvious, its aesthetic is not easily visible. For all its psychological depth and detailed exploration of motifs, the novel would have failed if there was no “linguistic organization, as well as separation from practical contexts of utterance”. In other words, in order to engage the reader toward the somewhat dry and distressful themes the medium would have to be made appealing. At some places in the novel, even merely Woolf’s prose style can stand alone in merit. When we add to it a narrative context then the overall synergy is quite impressive. Here is an illustration: ““But what after all is one night? A short space, especially when the darkness dims so soon, and so soon a bird sings, a cock crows, or a faint green quickens, like a turning leaf, in the hollow of the wave.” (p.123) When evaluating the weight of subjective and objective elements in the novel’s aesthetic, we find a good balance. The objective properties of the text deserve recognition as art. Equally, the subjective consequences upon the reader’s comprehension and emotional response are of the highest order. In this passage, we evidence a satisfactory fulfilling of aesthetic criteria: ““Could loving, as people called it, make her and Mrs. Ramsay one? for it was not knowledge but unity that she desired, not inscriptions on tablets, nothing that could be written in any language known to men, but intimacy itself, which is knowledge, she had thought, leaning her head on Mrs. Ramsay's knee.” (p.78) Whether or not the content is ‘true and good’ is a value judgment to be made by the individual reader. References: Jonathan Culler. What is Literature and Does it matter? p.18-40.Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. First published by Hogarth Press in 1927.

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