Mrs. Ramsay

Mrs. Ramsay

Mrs. Ramsay, a desirable, compelling picture of womanhood, urges the bonds of marriage upon the younger women in the novel. The artist figure, Lily Briscoe, questions the validity of marital intimacy in her world. Choosing her painting, Lily refuses the societal constraints of marriage in favor of a self-fulfilling vision of artistry and vision. At first substituting her art for intimate human relationships, Lily eventually reaches a true intimacy with Mrs. Ramsay through her final painting. In To the Lighthouse, Woolf exposes human intimacy through marriage as inadequate for Lily, who exists in a condition of modernity unknown to and resisted by the Ramsays. Lily’s maturity as a painter and completion of her final abstract painting calls for new, transcendent kinds of intimacy, unmarred by the Victorian idea of intimacy between men and women.

Ramsay is in traditional marriage though there is conflict between Mr and Mrs. Ramsay .This shows that in every marriage people can marry to become one unit but eventually may disagree as a result of a minor problem. She shows the traits of good woman she thinks how a happy marriage should be. “For how would you like to be shut up for a whole month at a time.?and to have no letters or newspapers, and to see nobody; if you were married, not to see your wife, not to know how your children were…” (Woolf TTL 5).

Lily is ignoring Mrs Ramsay as role of model of a good woman in the society because of she is having conflicts in her marriage and keeps sensitizing the young women in the society to get married. At the end of her worries about the poor married-but-alone Lighthouse keeper, she asks, “How would you like that?…addressing herself particularly to her daughters”.Mrs Ramsay reveals her entire motivational for marriage as the fear of isolation. She is skeptical about marriage’s ability to fill her own need for human connection.

In To the Lighthouse Mrs Ramsay, the mother dies .Here mother plays gender role of liberalization for the artist. Lily can complete her painting only after the death of Mrs. Ramsay. Ramsay, who symbolized external pressure to conform to traditional marriage, will change her viewpoint, aiding her in completing her picture (TTL 147). Her decision, strong and unwavering, marks an internal change no longer plagued by doubts about her purpose or the correctness of her decision, Lily knows she will complete her task.

Mrs Ramsay depicts some roles that can be copied by Lily Briscoe as a female artist.

The Ramsay’s nearly ideal marriage affects every character in the novel observes and longs for such an idyllic relationship. Despite her own nagging feelings of dissatisfaction, Mrs. Ramsay, a desirable, compelling picture of womanhood, urges the bonds of marriage upon the younger women in the novel. The artist figure, Lily Briscoe, questions the validity of marital intimacy in her world. Choosing her painting, Lily refuses the societal constraints of marriage in favor of a self-fulfilling vision of artistry and vision. At first substituting her art for intimate human relationships, Lily eventually reaches a true intimacy with Mrs. Ramsay through her final painting (Lee 123). In To the Lighthouse, Woolf exposes human intimacy through marriage as inadequate for Lily, who exists in a condition of modernity unknown to and resisted by the Ramsays. Lily’s maturity as a painter and completion of her final abstract painting calls for new, transcendent kinds of intimacy, unmarred by the Victorian idea of intimacy between men and women.Mrs Ramsay acts as role model to  Lily and this shapes her in life.

Lily depicts real definition of anti-mother.  She lacks Mrs. Ramsay’s nurturing, maternal instinct.  After Mrs. Ramsay’s death, Mr. Ramsay approaches Lily with his need of reassurance. These were one of those moments when an enormous need urged him, without being conscious what it was, to approach any woman, to force them, he did not care how, his need was so great, to give him what he wanted sympathy”. Lily knows what Mr. Ramsay expects of her, what Mrs. Ramsay would probably have expected of her, were she still alive. Lily thinks to herself that she could imitate from recollection she had seen on so many women’s faces like on Mrs. Ramsey.