Symbolism is used extensively in Virginia Woolf's novel The Lighthouse. Several objects and elements in the novel represent abstract concepts. The lighthouse represents strength, guidance, and a safe harbor. Mrs. Ramsay is a guiding influence who offers emotional stability to the characters. Lily Briscoe's painting symbolizes a woman's struggle in a patriarchal society. The summer house and its condition reflect the inner states of the characters and the passage of time. The sea, storms, rocks and reefs represent the dangers and hardships of life. The boar's skull is a reminder of death and transience. Rose's fruit basket draws the characters together briefly through its beauty before its absence signifies the fleeting nature

2. What is Symbolism?
•Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or
colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.
•In the symbol, the relation between the signifying
item and what it signifies is not a natural one, but
entirely a matter of social convention.
•In the broadest sense a symbol is anything else;
in this sense all words are symbol.

3. Symbolism& Literature
•In discussing Literature, the ‘TERM’ – ‘SYMBOL’ is applied
only to a word or phrase that signifies an Object or event
which in its turn signifies something, or suggest a range of
reference.
•The artistic method of revealing ideas or truths through
the use of symbols
•Many novels have two layers of meaning. The first is in
the literal plot, the second in a symbolic layer in which
images and objects represent abstract ideas and feelings.
Using symbols allows authors to express themselves
indirectly on delicate or controversial matters.

4. Symbolism& Literature
•Poets, like all of us, use such conventional symbols;
many poets, however, also use "private" or "personal
symbols."
•Often they do so by exploiting widely shared associations
between an object or event or action and a particular
concept; for example, the general association of a
peacock with pride and of an eagle with heroic endeavor,
or the rising sun with birth and the setting sun with death,
or climbing with effort or progress and descent with
surrender or failure.
•Some poets, however, repeatedly use symbols whose
significance they largely generate themselves, and these
pose a more difficult problem in interpretation.
(M.H.Abrahm ‘A Glossary of Literary Terms)

5. Symbolist Movement: Modern Age
•The Modern Period, in the decades after World War-1,
was a notable era of Symbolism in Literature.
• Many of the major writers of the period exploit symbols
which are in part drawn from religious and esoteric
traditions and in part invented.
•Some of the works of the age are symbolist in their setting,
their agents, and their actions, as well as in the objects
they refer to.

6. The Lighthouse
Lily Briscoe’s
Painting

7. Ramsay’s
Summer House
The Sea, the Storms,
the rock, reefs and
shallow water

8. The Boar’s
Skull
Rose’s
arrangement of
Fruit Basket

9. The Lighthouse
•It stands alone and tall in both light and darkness and it, along
with its beacon, is a focal point which Symbolizes strength,
guidance and safe harbor; it is Spiritual hermit guiding all those
who are traveling by sea.
•Metaphorically, as the element of Water represents the emotions,
the Lighthouse is a Symbol for the Spiritual Strength and
Emotional
Guidance which is available to us during the times we feel we are
being helplessly tossed around in a sea of inner turmoil.

10. The Lighthouse
•Mrs. Caroline Ramsay stands as guiding star and harbours
emotional safety to other family/guest members visiting
summer House. She is the Spiritual bridge between other
humans in the novel.
•Mrs. Ramsay stands strong like the lighthouse amidst
emotionally shattered beings; viz., Michael Ramsay, James,
Lily, Carmichael, etc.

11. Lily’s Painting
•Symbolizes woman’s struggle in patriarchal society.
•Against gender convention: “Women can’t paint or write”.
•Desire to express (repressed) critique of Mrs. Ramsay’s essence (as
an ideal wife and mother) in the painting.
•her vision depends on balance and synthesis: how to bring together
disparate things in harmony; this mirrors Woolf’s writing creed –
“ the novel is a both a critique and a tribute to the enduring power of
Mrs. Ramsay.
•Feminine Artistic Vision.

12. Ramsay’s Summer
House
During her dinner party, Mrs. Ramsay
sees her house display her own inner
notions of shabbiness and her inability
to preserve beauty.
Symbolizes
collective
conscious
ness
psychological
condition of the
characters.
In the “Time
Passes” section, the
ravages of war and
destruction and the
passage of time are
reflected in the
condition of the
house.

13. The Sea, the Storms, the rock,
reefs and shallow water
The
Sea
•It represent forward Movement of life.
•Violence and Destruction.
•The Sea is a Powerful reminder of the
impermanence and delicacy of Human life and
accomplishment.

14. The
Storms
•Storms consist of both wind (air) and
rain (water). And as air is the element
representing the mind, and water is the element
representing the emotions, storms symbolize
agitated thoughts and emotions. Metaphorically,
storms are our Inner Demons which torment both
our mind and our Subconscious.

15. The
Rocks
•The rocks, reefs and shallow waters symbolize
the final
dangers and miseries which seem to accompany
the end of any turbulent voyage. Just as the
saying, "its always darkest before the dawn",
things always seem the most dangerous and
hopeless as we reach the end of an emotional
turmoil. This is the point when we feel like
tossing up our hands and giving up.

16. The Boar’s
Skull
•Symbolizes transient nature of art and life.
•Mrs. Ramsay’s covering it with her shawl
represents her desire to preserve life, or that
of Mr. Ramsay & Lily to be immortal through
work/art.
•The presence of the skull acts as a disturbing
reminder that death is always at hand, even (or
perhaps especially) during life’s most blissful
moments.
•It symbolically presents Mrs. Ramsay’s
understanding nature and enduring power to
suffer for others – as she wraps it with her
shawl.

17. The Fruit Basket
•Rose arranges a fruit basket for her mother’s dinner party that serves
to draw the partygoers out of their private suffering and unite them.
•Although Augustus Carmichael and Mrs. Ramsay appreciate the
arrangement differently—he rips a bloom from it; she refuses to
disturb it—the pair is brought harmoniously, if briefly, together.
•The basket testifies both to the “frozen” quality of beauty that Lily
describes and to beauty’s seductive and soothing quality.
•The absence of fruit basket in 3rd part, signifies the transitery nature
of beauty, art and truth.