To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

Anmerkungen:

• Mrs Ramsey in Chapter 2 --> "Odious Little Man" --> That's how she feels about Charles whereas he fell in love with her. Chapter 2 is so short because Mrs Ramsey has nothing else to say about him because his feelings are unrequited.

Anmerkungen:

• Mrs. Ramsay is about as close as Virginia Woolf ever got to Angelina Jolie: Mrs. Ramsay's beautiful, beloved, charitable, and the mother of many children. (Although, Mr. Ramsay is no Brad Pitt.) But that’s about as far as the similarities go.

1. Anchor

   Anmerkungen:

   • Mrs. Ramsay is the lovely star at the center of the Ramsay family, and at the heart of the novel. Her unexpected death leaves the Ramsay family (and especially Mr. Ramsay) without its anchor.

Anmerkungen:

• she is invested in the importance of marriage between a man and a woman (and all men and all women should definitely be married, according to her), but she clearly sees the flaws in her own marriage. It becomes Mrs. Ramsay's duty to soften her husband's bullying and to support him in public. Even so, she's embarrassed by his constant quoting of poetry in a loud voice, and by his need for praise from the people around him.

Anmerkungen:

• In the midst of all of Mr. Ramsay's posturing and performing, he's actually insecure. And it falls to Mrs. Ramsay to soothe those insecurities, because that's what she perceives to be the job of the wife.

Anmerkungen:

• At the end of Part One, we see a clear division of labor between Mrs. Ramsay and Mr. Ramsay: "He found talking much easier than she did," but "she felt herself very beautiful" He's the one who talks – he's the intellectual one. But she's the one who attracts people and who makes social interactions possible, at least in part because she's beautiful. These are the roles they're each relatively comfortable playing: Mr. Ramsay gets to be the brains if Mrs. Ramsay gets to be the beauty.

1. Ideal vs Real

   Anmerkungen:

   • A theme in the book is the gap between the ideal and the real. And there's definitely a gap here: Mrs. Ramsay works so hard to be a perfect wife that it freaks her out when Mr. Ramsay can't quite fill the role of perfect husband and father:
   1. Quote to illustrate point

      Anmerkungen:

      • She did not like, even for a second, to feel finer than her husband; and further, could not bear not being entirely sure, when she spoke to him, of the truth of what she said (that Mr. Ramsay is not a failure). Universities and people wanting him, lectures and books and their being of the highest importance—all that she did not doubt for a moment; but it was their relation, and his coming to her like that, openly, so that any one could see, that discomposed her; for then people said he depended on her, when they must know that of the two he was infinitely the more important, and what she gave the world, in comparison with what he gave, negligible. (1.7.7)
2. Her idea of Manhood

   Anmerkungen:

   • Mr Ramsey comes to her directly and announces that he's a failure.  --> He is exposing himself to her and showing weakness --> Not trying to hide it --> a very ostentatious manner
   1. How she feels about Mr Ramsey's actions

      Anmerkungen:

      • The point of manhood to Mrs Ramsey is that men hide their weaknesses She likes men "for their chivalry and valour, for the fact that they negotiated treaties, ruled India, controlled finance" (1.1.7).  She doubts a real man would be able to say what Mr Ramsey had just said. Mr Ramsey may know this but he is so insecure that he acts in this manner.

1. Money

   Anmerkungen:

   • She was the only one who notices the difference between rich and poor -->the only one who cared and payed attention 
2. Charitable work

   Anmerkungen:

   • What Mrs. Ramsay dedicates herself to is charitable work. She's so compassionate that she has energy to spare from raising eight children to think of the Lighthouse keeper and his sickly son. However, the problem with considering gender discrimination and class discrimination separately is that they're actually part of the same larger system. Mrs. Ramsay is good to the poor, but by supporting the status quo of the traditional family, she's actually maintaining the social structures of domination that keep some people poor and some people rich.

Anmerkungen:

• Go into pear orchardConcrete factual things that exist- What happens in this scene? --> They walk past the tree and... Jasper shoots (off scene)Mr Ramsey shows upprincipal Subject- Lilyprincipal Object- Pear Tree demonstrating - Nature of reality 

1. The Past

   Anmerkungen:

   • Everything "good" he has written is in the past  and everything now and after is just repitition