This document provides an analysis of symbols in Virginia Woolf's 1927 novel "To the Lighthouse". It summarizes that the sea symbolizes the flow of time and life. The lighthouse symbolizes the uncertain yet enduring nature of human values and traditions. The window represents the separation between reality and consciousness. The document also notes that colors like purple, blue, and green carry symbolic meanings related to personality in the novel.

1. Prepared by : Avni Dave

2. Name : Dave Avni J
Roll no : 03
Enrollment no : 2069108420190011
Clas : M.A. Sem 3
Year : 2018-19
Submitted to : Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of
English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University.

3. To the Lighthouse is a 1927 novel by Virginia
Woolf. She was an English writer, considered
one of the most important modernist 20th
century authors and also a pioneer in the use
of stream of consciousness as a narrative
device.
The novel centres on the Ramsay family and
their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland
between 1910 and 1920.

4. Symbols are essentially words which suggest
much more than is conveyed by their literal
meaning.
Ordinary words and images when repeated
acquire a symbolic significance.
Mrs. Woolf has made extensive use of
Symbols in To The Lighthouse for her
purpose was to render the Psyche or spirit of
her characters.

5. The Sea
The Lighthouse
The Window
Artist and their Art
Colour Symbolism

6. The Sea with its waves is to be heard
throughout the novel. It symbolises the eternal
flux of time & life, in the midst of which we all
exist.
The Sea surrounds the island on which the
action takes place, which suggest both the
human race in general & the individual
personality.
The waves have been employed as the symbol
of the movement of life carrying us towards the
shore, irresistible but on the whole beneficient.
They have a dual aspect while identifying
themselves more closely with existence in it's
alternating serenity and anguish.

7. The title of the book is To The Lighthouse. It s
the quest for the values the Lighthouse
suggests. The tower is frequently shadowed in
mist, its beams are intermittent in the
darkness, the moments of assurance they bring
are momentary, but upon these assurance
'reality' rests.
The Lighthouse is a mystery, but it also
concerns day-to-day living. It is at once distant
and close at hand. From this aspect it seems
related to the human tradition and its values,
which last from generation to generation & tell
of both the unity and the continuity of man.

8. The frequent use of the window in the novel
shows that it has a symbolic value.
It is from the window that we have the title of
the first part of To The Lighthouse. It is not a
transparent but a separating sheet of glass
between reality and Mrs. Ramsay's mind.
There are moments of both revelation &
integration and Mrs. Ramsay experiences such
moments.
The window is a screen between reality &
consciousness

9. Lily sees that Mrs. Ramsay's gift of
harmonising human relationship into
memorable moments is 'almost like a work of
art', and in the book art is the ultimate
symbol for the enduring "reality."
In life, as Mrs.Ramsay herself well knows,
relationships are doomed to imperfection,
and are the sport of time and change; but in
art the temporal & the eternal unite in an in
unchanging form- though as in Lily's picture,
the form may be very inadequate.

10. Says David Daiches, "There is a colour
symbolism running right through the book.
Mrs.Ramsay, who is indicated on Lily's
canvass as 'a triangle purple shape'.
Red & brown appear to be the colour of
individuality and egotism, while blue and
green are colour of impersonality.
Lily is the impersonal artist and her colour is
blue.
The journey to the lighthouse is the journey
from egotism to impersonality.