Woolf’s To the Lighthouse

A ’strong masculine and misogynist current’ exists “inside the trajectory of modernity, a current that openly declares its scorn for women and the masses time and again” (Huyssen, 87). Huyssen sees high modernism as in opposition with mass culture, which tends to align with feminine segments of society. Some of the persuasive points Huyssen uses to support his claim include the fact that modern authors tend to try to separate modernist writing from the feminine. In addition, modernism asserts that modernist writing is fundamentally feminine. Huyssen as well claims that theorizing the modernist writing as female tend to result in ignorance of the seemingly great misogynist current and masculinity within the trajectory of modernisms. The misogynist current tends to play a crucial role in facilitating the open statement of contempt for both the women and masses. The paper, therefore, intends to discuss the various portrayal of gender in Virginia Woolf’s ‘To the Lighthouse’ and T.S. Eliot’s ’The Waste Land’ (1922).

Woolf’s To the Lighthouse

Woolf is considerably amongst the pioneers of feminism. In her literary works, she depicts with clarity how the society disregards the female members. The literature does not only portray her as a supporter of the female gender but rather as a source of influence on feminism. Woolf plays a crucial role in encouraging the women in the Victorian era to resort to revolt against some of the morals that include patriarchal dominance. Woolf focuses on depicting her rebellion in her writings through her revelation of the experiences that the women face, inner conflicts, feelings, and thoughts. Woolf exploits the opportunity that she has to reveal much regarding her society and the post-war changes. However, there is notable ignorance of the roles of the women at the time of her writing that prompts her advocacy for feminism. Feminism mainly aims at facilitating comprehension of the nature of the gender inequalities and power relations. As such, feminism ensures that the contributions of the women in the society obtain the necessary attention that they deserve. Furthermore, the economic, social, and political equality of the women in the society serves as the basis of feminism. The concern for the women is significantly evident in her novel, To the Lighthouse.

To the Lighthouse is narrated by the women as evident in the fact that the views of Lily and Mrs. Ramasay form fully developed narratives within the novel. As evident in the novel, Woolf asks the question regarding the sexuality of the female members of the society and their perceived roles within the families. The author portrays Mrs. Ramasay as rather the angel of the house. The perceived Victorian image that outlines some of the expectations regarding the women entails the fact that their devotion and submission to their husbands is a fundamental responsibility that the women need to ensure conformity. The novel further portrays the angel as rather pure, pious, self-sacrificing, sympathetic, graceful, powerless, and seemingly passive. The novel further depicts Mrs. Ramasay as upright, and confident. Her contribution to the creation of the kitchen and the drawing room portrays her focus on achievement of some of the responsibilities expected of the women during that time. Woolf further goes ahead to question some of the connotative meaning of the attitudes, value judgments, emotions, and words. She goes ahead to illustrate the extent to which the words from any man can contribute to the generation of internal conflict amongst the women. As such, there is the necessity for noting the extent to which it is challenging the women to ensure success in breaking free from some of the external stereotypes imposed upon them by the male writers over the centuries.

Gliserman, (141) asserts that there is the necessity for women to ensure that they come to terms with the images on the surfaces of the glass before their journeying through the looking glass towards the literary autonomy. Coming to terms with their perceived images on the glass plays a crucial role in facilitating their comprehension of the mythic masks that the male writers tend to impose upon their human face in their portrayal of the responsibilities associated with the female members of the society. Such conflict is evident in the internal and external descriptions of Mrs. Ramasay. The narrative portrays Mrs. Ramasay struggling with the concept of universal mother.

The idea of universal motherhood is evident in the statement presented by Woolf whereby she states that the responsibilities came to her (Mrs. Ramasay) naturally due to her female nature (Woolf, 32). Even as the children developed, she continually viewed herself as rather nothing but a sponge filled with human emotions. The novel therefore clearly depicts the extent of belittling of the female members of the society in the seemingly male-dominated society. The women have to ensure their endurance and coping with the diverse situations, especially those related to the position of men. Mrs. Ramasay, as evident in the entire novel, is depicted as the epitome of the feminine as a wife and mother. Mrs. Ramsay has been “drunk and quenched by . . . The arid scimitar of the male, which smote mercilessly, again and again” until she is left with“ scarcely a shell of herself for herself” (Woolf, 38). The internal conflicts evident in Mrs. Ramasay arise from her attempt towards ensuring their fulfillment.

Additionally, the attempt by Mrs. Ramasay towards unification of the guests and family plays a crucial role in illustrating the series of conscious approach that characterizes the plot of the novel. The seemingly variant internal focus tend to shift significantly from one character to another as evident in its foregrounding of Mrs. Ramasay’s domesticity and her role in facilitating the unification of the various factions. The author portrays Mr. Ramasay as a rather sterile and realistic philosopher who does not believe that his wife is well educated and bright. He further wonders whether she has a clear understanding of the things that she is reading. The ideas depicted by the author of Mr. Ramasay towards her wife illustrate the stereotypical male view of the women as rather objects of beauty. Mr. Ramasay is thus a perfect representation of the patriarchal dominance.

The author further plays a crucial role in her description of the extent to which the priority of the women regarding the domestic space has contributed to their repression and prevention from participating in the daily activities that include traveling, commerce, education and seeking employment. The extent of suppression is evident like oppression that Lily and Mrs. Ramasay encounters in the public realm that is connected to that received privately. The illustration further plays a crucial role in illustrating the extent to which Woolf is capable of dealing with the material, historical, and economic conditions that tend to affect the lives of both the men and women in the society and their perceived ways of viewing the world.

Woolf further portrays the fact that the imaginative repose and perceptions of the males and females tend to differ significantly. The variance in the attitudes is evident in the constant comparison by the author of Mr. and Mrs. Ramasay. The difference becomes apparent in the nature of the inner monologs of the characters and their inter-subjective nature. The novel, therefore, plays a crucial role in illustrating Woolf’s investigation of gender and power in both the women and men. Her exploration mainly entails the perceived ways in which the individuals are constructed as gendered beings and the role of culture and society in restricting their opportunities, speech, and actions. There are instances whereby Mrs. Ramasay lives up to her perceived standards as a rather idealized version of an angel of the house.

The inner monologs portray her questioning the roles of both the male and females hence showing her thoughts as a rather independent woman. The idea illustrates her attempt towards eradication of the presence of the Victorian female notion amongst the individuals. Despite the portrayal of Mrs. Ramasay as a perfect mother figure, the novel depicts her possession of high aspirations for her daughters. She attempts to ensure that her daughters’ sport with seemingly infidel ideas that they have developed independently regarding life that tend to vary significantly from her perceptions. The novel depicts the girls picturing life in different places that include Paris whereby they do not have to cope with the lives of other men in their lives through taking orders and caring for people. Woolf further laments the seemingly oppressive masculine society as evident in the portrayal of Mrs. Ramasay’s gender roles depicted in soft response to Mr. Ramasay. The novel shows Mr. Ramasay as a tyrant and a perfect representation of the typical males. The language that Mr. Ramasay uses on numerous instances seems opinionated patronizing. The language thus depicts philosophical prowess of Mr. Ramasay that reflects the nature of a majority of the male individuals in the society.

As evident in the novel, the beliefs of the feminist tend to show the extent of patriarchy that the society regards the women. The feminists further focus on showing the lives of the women guided by the patriarchal standards and their attempt towards ensuring the improvement of their social situations. The female characters adopted by Woolf tend to play a crucial role in expressing some level of inferiority and submissiveness attributable to the male dominance in their society. Woolf ensures severe revolt against the patriarchy during the Victorian era that resulted in consideration of the women as rather prisoners and objects of beauty meant to serve the needs of the men.

T.S. Eliot’s ’The Waste Land.’

T.S Eliot is considerably amongst the famous modernist poets. The contents of his poem and the poetic style that he adopted play a crucial role in the provision of some of the elements of the modern movement considered famous during the time. During the time of his writing, modernism was rather viewed as the rejection of the traditional norms of the 19th century characterized by the artists altering and abandoning the previous conventions in their attempt towards envisioning the society in flux. The orientation of the individuals towards free verse, free verse, and fragmentation represented modernism that depicted the presence of various points of view from those of both the Romantic and Victorian writing. The modern features of modernism therefore clearly manifest in the poem The Waste Land especially regarding the concept of gender.

The rise in popularity of the theory of feminism over the last decade is attributable to the provocation of reconsideration of the general focus on the interpretation of the literary texts. The literary criticism is substantially due to the engagement in the rereading of the canonical works of various authors regarding sexuality and gender. The modernist works serve as rewarding sources for interpretation of sexuality and gender due to their ambivalent nature, fragmentary and the absence of thematic clarity that they offer which results in the room for diverse interpretations by the readers. The implication of gender and sexuality in The Waste Land is extensive. In the modernist texts, sexuality appears to lose meaning and romance as evident in Eliot’s poem where there is a connection between such losses with the personal experience.

The first person encountered in, The Burial of the Dead is Marie. The name tends to provide the hint to her status as a seemingly pre-lapsarian female archetype and further represent the antithesis to the archetypal female prostitute evident in the poem. Despite the clear sled image that connotes sexuality, Marie exhibits the preference for reading ‘much of the night’ rather than being sexually active. Furthermore, there is the absence of pronoun that renders the speaker as either male or female. Despite the ubiquitous nature of such phenomenon throughout the poem, the readers are forced to assume that the speaker is male while characterizing the unambiguous characters in the poem as rather female. The author forces the readers to presume the male nature of the speaker due to their activities. Such phenomenon plays a crucial role in illustrating the performativity of gender in the poem limited to the present discourse between the text and reader gender that they ascribe the speaker to.

The hyacinth girl appears in the passage that follows one of the fragmented images of desolation. The framing of the passage indicates alignment to the quotations from Tristan und Isolde that deals with loss and adultery. The author depicts the image of the hyacinth in phallic shape that tends to symbolize fertility. The imagery arises from the Greek myth of Hyacinthus that represents Apollo who after the accidental killing of the boy Hyacinthus flowers grew from his blood. The author suggests that since the flowers emerged from the male body, the hyacinth girl is more of male hence illustrating the proposal of homoerotic reading of the text. There is, however, the necessity for noting that the book makes a minimal attempt towards supporting the reading. The author further portrays the attempt by the girl towards recalling and assumed encounter in the garden. ‘You gave me hyacinths first a year ago.’ (Bloom, 27). The speaker further coupled with the absence of male pronoun seems to attempt towards remembering the incident in the garden that resulted in his speechlessness and blindness.

The passage, therefore, as depicted by the author is characterized by high levels of sexual suggestiveness and sensual nature. The assertion by the author that “her arms full of flowers of fertility and her hair wet with life-giving rain” tend to leave the speaker in paralyzed nature both emotionally and sexually (Eliot, 121). The sexual failure that the author implies makes minimal efforts towards the creation of doubts regarding the gender of the speaker. There is a close association between impotence and the male sphere. The implication of the traditional roles by the author plays a crucial role in attributing the gender roles. Furthermore, the author plays a significant role in illustrating the perception of sex in the poem through his portrayal of initiation of the act of giving flowers by the male speaker. The action tends to render the female members of the society as rather subordinates through their reference as rather ‘girl.’

The following stanza mainly concerns Phoenician sailor Phlebas that, is a phase of character that he forms jointly with Mr. Euginides as evident in the annotations. The myth regarding Fisher King who is a castrated patriarch concerns the concepts of fertility. The myth states that the transformation of his land to wasteland is attributable to his impotence. His healing is thus expected to result in the rejuvenation and rebirth of the world. However, such is not the case with the poem. The poem illustrates the continual nature of impotence and tends to exhibit synonymy with the status that Eliot ascribes to the seemingly modern society (Bloom, 41). There is an evident denial of the concept of fertility and its resultant unification as evident in the emphasis in the absence of the tarot card of the Hanged Man who symbolizes self-sacrificing fertility god whose death is attributable to the need for fertility and rebirth of the land for the people.

In The Waste Land, there is evidence of the discovery of the notion of the homoerotic desire that exhibits distinction in the image of the pearls that were in his eyes. The apparent dilemma shows inclusiveness and simultaneous nature attributable to the existing interconnection between the homophobia and hemophilia in a similar gesture that attests to the productivity of the homosexual prohibition that relies on the needs that its constraints. The apparent dilemma is attributable to the accompanying nature and associative form of the poem. The tone of the poem tends to depict melancholy, morbidity, and tenderness. In representing the concern for the female victims, the mood of the poem appears guilty. The fact that the victim is male results in the tone being soft, which plays a crucial role in depicting homoerotic interpretation of the poem. Furthermore, the pervasive evident in the obscurity that characterizes the loss of sense tend to reverberate with lamentations for the westernized civilization.

Conclusion

In conclusion, The Waste Land and To the Lighthouse serve as important texts that represent the modern thought regarding gender and sexuality. The Waste Land serves as a perfect example of the modernist poetry. The style and content of the poem play a crucial role in reflecting the modern life especially regarding its perceived influence on individuals. Eliot ensures skillful portrayal of the impact of gender on the general perception of people using a stream of consciousness in illustrating the chaos evident in the thinking of men. On the other hand, the element of male chauvinism is evident in Woolf’s novel in her attempt to ensure depicting of the extent of discrimination of the women in the society.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. TS Eliot’s The Waste Land. Infobase Publishing, 2007.

Eliot, T. S. (2010). The waste land and other poems. Broadview Press.

Gliserman, Martin. ”Virginia Woolf’s“ To the Lighthouse”.“ American Imago 40.1 (1983): 51.

Huyssen, Andreas. After the great divide: Modernism, mass culture, postmodernism. Vol. 399. Indiana University Press, 1986.

Woolf, Virginia. ”To the lighthouse.“ Collected Novels of Virginia Woolf. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1992. 177-334.