COURSE- M.A.
SEMESTER- III
ENROLMENT NO.- 14101009
PAPER NO.- 9
PAPER NAME- THE MODERNIST LITERATURE
BATCH YEAR- 2014-16
email ID- dave.urvi71@gmail.com
TOPIC- ART AS A MEANS OF PRESERVATION THROUGH LILY'S
PAINTING IN TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
SUBMITTED TO- SMT. S.B. GARDI DEPARTMENT OF
ENGLISH
MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
Art as a means of preservation through Lily's
painting in To The Lighthouse.
Adeline Virginia
Woolf (25 Jan 1882-28 Mar 1941) was an English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth
century. During her interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London
Literary Society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury group of
intellectuals. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To The
Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928).
She is considered a major innovator in the English language. In her works, she
experimented with stream of consciousness and the underlying psychological as
well as emotional motives of characters. To The Lighthouse (1927) is set on two
days and ten year apart. The plot centres on the Ramsay family's anticipation
of and reflection upon a visit to a lighthouse and the connected familiar
tensions. One of the primary themes of the novel is the struggle in the
creative process that best painter Lily Briscoe while she struggles to paint in
the midst of the family drama. The novel is also a meditation upon the lives on
a nation's' inhabitants in the midst of war and of the people left behind. It
also explores the passage of time and how of women are forced by society to
allow men to take emotional strength from them. The book is divided into 3
parts- The Window, Time Passes and To The Lighthouse. Lily Briscoe is a young
unmarried friend of the Ramsay's. Lily be friends the Ramsays on the Isle of
Skye. She fears that her work lacks worth. Lily's mission of life is painting.
She prefers to remain single and she is totally dedicated to art. Lily believes
"A brush is the only ally in this life full of fret and hurry and rough
and tumble of our daily existence. Lily's painting symbolises woman's struggle
in patriarchal society. Her vision depends on balance and synthesis that how to
bring together disparate things in harmony; this mirrors Woolf's writing creed-
"The novel is both a critique and a
tribute to the enduring power of Mrs. Ramsay."
LILY'S PAINTING
Lily's painting represents dedication
to a feminine artistic vision, expressed through Lily's anxiety over showing it
to William Banks. Lily challenges the status by picking up a paintbrush and
experiences a pervasive sense of guilt as if committing a heinous crime.
William Banks says "Woman cannot
Paint or write." This sentence shows male hegemony. Lily is not
confident enough in her abilities to showcase this controversial work to a
judgemental public. Her personal independence from the negative influences of
male hegemony is directly linked to the aesthetic development as an artist.
Lily suffers from a moral crisis over her desire to pursue art as a vocation
because of gender inequality & male prejudices imposed upon women. Lily's
status as middle aged woman, who values artistic achievement over the prospects
of marriage becomes increasingly difficult to maintain against the
circumscribed expectations of society. Gender crash can also be seen as the
ideology permits a submersion of traditional female gender roles through the
character of Lily. Lily is represented as an ideal artist of Woolf who mingles
masculine rationality with feminine sympathy. Lily Briscoe defines art as
something which is able to unify disparate elements into a cohesive whole.
"Nothing stays, all changes; but
not words, not paint." This is
the reality that everything changes but not art (paint). Art is the means of
preservation as everything can change but some things remain forever like
painting, words, memories, thoughts etc. For example John Keats' poem Ode on a Grecian Urn is a poem where we
can see a urn in which there is a painting of lovers sitting under a tree,
bride, foster- child, historian. All these images will be there forever
(eternity). These are the preserved things which cannot die. All this is art
which is preserved in the museum. Art is perhaps the only hope of surety in a
world destined & determined to change: for a while mourning Mrs. Ramsay's
death and painting, there was a empty space on the canvas which she was not
able to fill. She lacked concentration. She was getting a whole host of hazy
notions, she was unable to grasp and tame on her canvas. But when she paints,
she lost consciousness of the world around, she loses herself completely in her
picture. She fully gets involved in her painting and tries to give her best.
Art is immortal as whenever we visit any museum, we see many ancient things
like utensils, coins, urn etc. The art on this remains forever. For example,
there is a painting of animals or humans, it becomes immortal as they are on it
and they will not die. Once any living thing dies, people forget about it after
some time, but if anything like picture or painting is kept of it, it remains
immortal. If we give example of Rama or Krishna, we have not seen them yet we
remember them always pictures, paintings and idols of them. Epics like
Ramayana, Mahabharata are written on them and so they are remembered otherwise
no one would even remember them. Writing is also an art form but paintings keep
people alive in it. Art live forever and frozen in a positive sense. When we
talk about Lily's painting, it is so much effective that after death of Mrs.
Ramsay, she is remembered by everyone and lily too drams her painting only. Mr.
Ramsay is more philosophical in his life but his philosophy is nothing in front
of Lily's painting as the painting is of Mrs. Ran say and it is a lively image.
Though Mrs. Ramsay is dead but she will be alive forever in Lily's painting. In
her painting, firstly she sees mother and children among hedged and house.
Afterwards, she saw her picture in flash and put the tree further, to avoid
awkward space. Then she called memories
of last ten years, a little spring or leaf pattern on the table cloth. At last
she drew a line three in the centre and finished her painting and said " I
have had my vision." In the face of an existence that is inherently
without order or meaning, Mr and Mrs, Ramsay employ different strategies for
making their lives significant. Mr. Ramsay employ different strategies for
making their lives significant. Mr.
Ramsay devotes himself to his progression through the course of human thought,
while Mrs. Ramsay cultivates memorable experiences from social interactions. Neither of these
strategies, however proves an adequate means of preserving one's experiment.
After all, Mr. Ramsay fails to obtain the philosophical understanding he so
desperately desires, and Mrs. Ramsay's life, though filled with moments that
have the shine and resilience of rubies, ends. Only Lily Briscoe finds a way to
presence her experience, and that way is through her art. As Lily begins her
portrait of Mrs. Ramsay at the beginning of the novel, Woolf notes the scope of
the project; Lily means to order and connect elements that have no necessary relation in the world-
"hedges and houses and mothers and children." By the end of the
novel, ten years later, Lily finishes the painting she started, which stands as
a moment of clarity wrested from confusion. Her painting represents a struggle
against gender connection, represented by Charles Tinsley's statement. Lily's
desire to express Mrs. Ramsay's essence as a wife and mother in the painting
mimics the impulse among modern women to know and understand intimately the
gendered experiences of the women who came before them. Lily's composition
attempts to discover and comprehend Mrs. Ramsay's beauty just as Woolf's
constitution of Mrs. Ramsay's character reflects her attempts to access and
portray her own mother. The painting also represents her dedication to a
feminine artistic vision, expressed through Lily's anxiety over showing it to
William Bankes. In deciding that completing the painting regardless of what
happens to it is the most important thing, Lily makes the choice to establish
her own artistic voice. her project mirrors Woolf's writing, which synthesizes
the perceptions of her many characters to come a balanced and truthful portrait
of the world.
CONCLUSION: Through these points, we
can say that art is immortal and it is a means of preservation. Art lives in
one or another way and a person becomes immortal through art. Lily proved Charles
Tansley wrong through her painting.
Works Cited
Woolf, Virginia. “To The Lighthouse.” September 2015.
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