To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Published as late as 1927, the novel To the Lighthouse is Woolf’s masterpiece. The narrator of this stream of consciousness novel is anonymous. The storyline switches frequently from the perceptions of one character to those of the others. Set in the years immediately preceding and following World War I, the common struggle that each of the characters faces is to bring meaning and order to the pandemonium of life.
The tale centers on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920. The novel includes little dialogue and almost no action. With its characters based on her own parents and siblings, To the Lighthouse is the most autobiographical of all Woolf’s novels.
The novel is divided into three unequal sections: “The Window,” “Time Passes,” and “The Lighthouse.” Each section is split into stream-of-consciousness offerings from diverse narrators. “The Window” opens just before the start of World War I. Time passes more rapidly as the novel enters the “Time Passes” segment. War breaks out across Europe. In “The Lighthouse” section, time returns to the slow detail of shifting points of view, similar in style to “The Window.”
The important characters include Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, Lily Briscoe and James Ramsey and the Lighthouse is the metaphor that joins them all. It stands as a compelling symbol of this lack of attainability. To the Lighthouse exemplifies both Woolf’s style and many of her concerns as a novelist as she offers some of her most insightful explorations of the workings of the human perception as it observes, scrutinizes, feels and interacts.

Literary Theory

How was the literary field framed in Scrutiny and New Criticism?

The late 19^th and early 20^th centuries witness a transition period with respect to the faith of people. Due to inventions and scientific discoveries related to the evolution of the mankind, the faith in religion was being questioned. People were looking for new and better options which save their souls.

Industrialism was widening the spheres of ‘cultural degradation’ and making cities the hub of cultural change. With more people moving to these cities for new and more ‘attractive’ opportunities, cities of this era were decaying under a tremendous increase in population.

This was the time when Scrutiny entered into the arena of literature. Scrutiny believed in studying literature critically. Scrutiny insisted on deeper and more critical analysis of literature. This deeper analysis according to the journal was able to teach one about deeper meanings of life itself.

Since they held the top positions in the universities, they could not only choose the canon they wanted, but could also tamper with it depending upon their wishes. For the Scrutineers the ‘Organic’ agrarian past was of great importance. Due to this they gave more importance to the metaphysical poets and the Jacobean writers. Since these authors talked about a perfect agrarian world order, Scrutineers believed that closely looking at these texts would help one survive the mechanized world.

The ideology propagated by Scrutiny was that of surviving the mechanized world. No matter how inhuman and frightening the reality Scrutiny emphasized on withstanding the emaciated culture without ever attempting to modify it. The only change it suggested was education. The Scrutineers hoped to develop a rich organic sensibility in a selected few. They hoped that these few gifted individuals would then propagate it to others.

‘Close reading’ or ‘practical criticism’ are closely associated with F.R. Levis. Practical criticism according to Levis and the Scrutineers meant isolating the literary work from its cultural and historical contexts. They stressed on centrality of rigorous critical analysis, a disciplined attention to the ‘words on the page’. According to the Scrutiny, these words on the page had a close significance to the spiritual crises of the modern civilization. They framed the literary field as a savior of the civilization as it encapsulated the creative energies of language.

New Criticism was the literary movement in America corresponding to the Scrutiny in Britain. New Criticism or I. A. Richards also acknowledged the problem of the mechanized and industrialized society. However Richards chose a different path than the Scrutineers. He contemplated that poetry was an emotive language, which supplied pseudo- answers to the people. It organized the feelings of people to minimize their conflicts and save them from the ‘sinister potentialities of cinema’.

Dr. Faustus

The sub plot underscores the stupidity of Faustus’s bargain. Discuss.

As begun in Act 1. Scene 2, the story of Doctor Faustus reveals a livelier and quite comical dialogue. While the main plot focuses on Doctor Faustus's struggle and misuse of power, the more comical scenes seem to echo Faustus's actions. These interludes also offer the reader a more broadened perspective of who Faustus really is, and who his decisions are affecting.

As these comic interludes provide the reader with a break from the story, they also seem to mock and bicker at Faustus himself. During the second act of the play Wagner essentially mimics his master by using scholastic/logical language to explain why the two Scholars should not have asked a question. As seen in Act 1, Faustus misuses his knowledge to conjure up spirits and play with black magic. Accordingly, in the next scene, we cross Wagner who uses his logic for nothing more than to inform the Scholars of Faustus's location. Though this scene may be inherently poking fun at Faustus, it also leads the reader to notice the importance of Faustus's decision on his peers. The two scholars convey a message of fear and concern, as they are frightened by Faustus's determination to play with black magic.

The sub plot shows that even clowns and not highly educated men like Wagner can see through the devils and know that what Faustus is doing is nothing but stupid. Their small yet powerful and comic scenes actually mock fun not only at Faustus but to his education as well which can not teach him the basic difference between good and evil.

As a whole, when these men joke and yet fear for Faustus, it provides the reader with a bit of foreshadowing. As Wagner and others are concerned for Faustus, their knowledge of the situation amounts to what they fear the most, losing Faustus. As the jokes fly, Faustus is losing his life and falling into the devils hands. In the end, his sentence was eternal damnation, and a life in hell. Validating the concerns of the Scholars, Faustus finds himself caught up in a world beyond his wildest dream. Though the Scholars wanted to change Faustus's destiny, they never could. This simply lets the reader know in advance that there is no way out for Faustus.

However, others say that "...these scenes filled in the time element and provided a type of low comedy which appealed to the less intelligent..." (Fitzwater 34). However, the parallelism between the life of Faustus and the life of his servant are unmistakably similar. Another point brought up in both the comic and "real" scenes is the importance of a master/servant relationship. As Faustus is a servant to Mephistophilis, we find that the Clown becomes a servant to Wagner. These relationships exhibit a sense of a caste system, allowing one to truly understand the relationship of Faustus and those around him.

The different scenes of play and mockery help us see the play through the eyes of commoners thus making an action as big as selling of soul appear trivial. Therefore this acts as a form of mock heroism giving such a serious play a light note.