by Lily Seabrooke

Created on: March 19, 2008   Last Updated: October 02, 2011

The method of communicating the information about characters and events within a novel is fundamental in comprehending its central ideas, themes and issues. 'To the Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf employs a number of untraditional techniques (including those poetic) to suggest its core concerns. These themes include: gender stereotypes, marriage, versions of reality, and time, and are displayed by multiple (mostly subjective) narrators, symbolism, imagery and an unconventional plotline.

The novel is written in three parts, which provides some structure for both the plot and narrators, and its plot is set over the course of one day with ten years in between. The shifting perspective provides ground for the construction of the characters, and within them the set ideas of masculinity and femininity, as well as the core concept in the novel, 'that nothing is simply one thing'. The application of both novelistic and poetic techniques within To the Lighthouse is essential to giving the reader a unique viewpoint and understanding of its main concerns.

The concepts of masculinity and femininity are portrayed distinctly within 'To the Lighthouse,' particularly in the presentation of logic and thought. Woolf uses a number of symbols and images to illustrate the differences between the sexes, most evident in Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay. Mr. Ramsay's journey of self discovery in his pursuance of a greater level of knowledge, his journey from A to R, is compared to a "desolate expedition across the icy solitudes of the polar region..".

The philosophical search for knowledge is made masculine by the frequent comparisons to a dangerous expedition, being included in such qualities as "endurance and justice, foresight, devotion, skill". It is portrayed more explicitly in the references to man, in that "Z is only reached by one man in a generation" , and even "between the two classes of men", which gives a narrow insight into the theories behind Mr. Ramsay's logic.

The difference between the representation of the male and the female is shown in the description of Mrs. Ramsay in the terms of nature, as opposed to the cold, hard logic of science and math. The symbolism of "a rosy-flowered fruit tree laid with leaves and dancing boughs" of the female as opposed to "the beak of brass, the arid scimitar" of the male shows this. "His understanding often astonished her. But did he notice the flowers? No.".

The way gender is portrayed in the novel reflects it contextual setting. It is revealed

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