VIRGINIA WOOLF AND STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

INTRODUCTION

"stream of consciousness"(CC BY-SA 2.0) by planeta

To the Lighthouse is not an easy novel to read. Its style of writing is quite critical. Readers can get confused because there are none of the standard novelistic signposts telling the readers what is the location, where the action is being done. who is speaking, when this takes place. For example the novel begins with the answer to a question that has not been asked, and that question is answered by the person who has not been described, and addressed to a child who seems to be sitting on the floor in an unspecified location. Every single thing is ambiguous. Nor is there much respect for the standard novelistic conventions of clock time or consecutive action. Woolf seems to delight in confusing the readers by using and inserting a recollection or anticipating a reaction, consequently past and present and future seem to flow into one another in an unbroken stream of consciousness.


STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

Before discussing the psychoanalytical aspects of the novel its worth stopping for a moment to remind the readers that in a very real sense Virginia Woolf is a child of late Victorian period who grew with the times into modernism, in fact the readers can feel this essence of transition in the present novel called To the Lighthouse itself. This is the novel which can be said that having an autobiographical element. The first part of the novel is based on Virginia's  childhood memories of summers spent at St. Ives in Cornwall in the 1880's and 90's whereas, last part reflects her awareness that the essence of that time is now dead and can only be recaptured through art.

"But I wrote the book [To the Lighthouse] very quickly; and when it was written, I ceased to be obsessed by my mother. I no longer hear her voice; I do not see her…Certainly there she was in the very centre of that great cathedral space which was childhood; there she was from the very first."

(Abel 45)

         There is an elusive quality in Mrs. Woolf's work which is so far different from anything else in literature as to be quite indefinable. If she must be labeled, it should be rather a lyrical poet than as a novelist. Her new novel has no plot, and its free, rambling style, with none of the firmness and conclusion of prose, yet has a rhythm which makes it more akin to poetry, and particularly in modern poetry. She enters completely into her character one by one, and traces their thoughts and actions with free lyrical expression. Noticing the most trivial detail she invests it with significance. But it is always her significance which it assumes in the mind of the character. Mrs. Woolf never for a moment becomes the detached pleasure of the world which she is creating; therefore her people are entirely real without ever being tangible. 

(Hamlet, Leigh)

Woolf's novels are the great examples of stream-of-consciousness; in fact it’s the common and general theme of Woolf's works. She conveys her feelings that if somebody wants an adequate portrayal of life, one should go with the techniques of stream-of-consciousness. Although James Joyce who has written Ulysses and Woolf who has written various streams of consciousness based novels have similar genre but still there is a vast difference because Virginia does not put the readers directly into the minds of her people all the time. She does depict character thoughts through the inner consciousness of the person or character. For example in the dinner party sequence, for instance Woolf changes the point of view frequently, with transitions often marked by the sparse or scattered dialogues. While shifting her point from person to person Woolf develops her characters through their thoughts, memories and reactions to each other.

"But what have I done with my life? Thought, Mrs. Ramsay taking her place at the head of the table and looking at all the plates making…

…What at? She did not know. She did not mind. She could not understand how she had ever felt any emotion or affection for him."

(Woolf 90)

The above lines have been taken from chapter XVII of 'The Window' of To the Lighthouse with the stream of consciousness of Mrs. Ramsay in which she is asking herself that what she has done with her life.

It was a scene when they all were sitting on the dining table, as she was directing the guests to their seats and ladies out soup. She sees her husband at the far end of the table frowning. As she thinks about her displeasure and disconnectedness with her husband Mr. Ramsay, she notes that she would not speak out loud her inner feelings there is a vast and can be said strict difference between her actions and her thoughts.

“She had a sense of being past everything, through everything, out of everything…Raising her eyebrows at the discrepancy that was what she was thinking, this was what she was doing leading out soup – she felt, more and more strongly, outside that eddy." 

 (Woolf 91)

At that time she was completely out of touch with Mr. Ramsay and everyone else at the table. She instead focuses on how shabby the room is, how sterile the men are, and how she pities William Bankes, finding meaning and strength again in her pity, she gets past her mental weariness enough to ask him an innocuous or harmless question about his letters.

Suddenly the thought process shifts abruptly to Lilly Briscoe’s stream-of-consciousness, who was seeing Mrs. Ramsay intently and imagining her thoughts. Lily can very easily assume what is going on in Mrs. Ramsay's mind.

"How old she look, how worn she looks, and how remote".She thinks why Mrs. Ramsay pities William Bankes and she also realizes that "The life in her, her resolve to live again, had been stirred by pity." 

(Woolf 92)

Lily not at all finds Bankes pitiable but she recognizes that Mrs. Ramsay is fulfilling some need of her own. Lily was wondering how Bankes has his work, then her thoughts switch to her own work, and she starts imagining about her painting and the adjustments which she will make. Just to remind the readers the setting of the novel. After Lily Briscoe’s thoughts, Mr. Bankes finally responds to Mrs. Ramsay's inquiry as to whether he has found his letters. Suddenly Woolf takes readers to the 'Stream-of-consciousness' of Mr. Tansley's where he was in his thoughts and said.

"What damn rot they talk," thinks Charles Tansley, as the point of view shifts to him very briefly." 

(Painted Seahorse)

All of a sudden a switch of Lily's thought where she was observing how he lays his spoon.

"Precisely in the middle of his plate, which he had swept clean, as if, Lily thought… he was determined to make sure of his meals."

 (Woolf 93)

As if she can read people's thoughts, Lily's attention turns to Charles Tansley, as she makes observations about him. She was noticing that his appearance is inferior and unlovely, but she still drawn to his blue, deep set eyes. Mrs. Ramsay pities him as well, as she also asks him about his letters.

Tansley's respond is incorporated into the text, not as direct quotation, as if he does not wish to join in the banal conversation but instead wallow in thoughts.

"For he was not going to talk the sort of rot these people wanted him to talk. He was not going to be condescended to by these silly women."

 (Woolf 93)

Tansley holds the women and their ways is disdain; he considers that these things are silly and superficies he thinks that why do they get dressed up for such occasions? He is wearing his ordinary clothes.

“They did nothing but talk, talk, talk, eat, eat, eat… women made civilization impossible with all their 'charm', all their silliness.” 

(Woolf 93)

Here actually Woolf tries to make readers understand about the mind set of males for females. She shows his inner frustrations, she lets the readers know exactly how Charles Tansley feels about dinner parties, woman, and civilization as a whole. Woolf in the novel To the Lighthouse does not show the stream-of-consciousness of the particular person himself or herself, but also through the consciousness of other persons. Interior monologue is also used by various characters in the novel, and it is largely through the twin devices of stream of consciousness and interior monologue that is seen in various characters so readers can see the consciousness not only through the character of Mrs. Ramsay but also through the consciousness of Mr. Ramsay, the child James, Lily Briscoe, Mr. Tansley and Mr. Bankes, Similarly, Mr. Ramsay not only through his own consciousness but also through the consciousness of Mrs. Ramsay, the young James, Lily Briscoe and Mr. Bankes. In fact every character in a novel is presented through his consciousness and also through the consciousness of the other character, at the same time; the characters are occasionally presented to the readers directly by all knowing authors of the novel and also sometimes bits of conversation or dialogue between the characters.