To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf Transcending Death
Transcending Death in To the Lighthouse The greatest obstacle to identifying a purpose for human life is the inevitability ofdeath. Why should a human being strive for any goal when death will always be the finalresult of his striving, and after death he will be oblivious to any positive or negative effectsof his lifetime actions? Virginia Woolf tackles this dilemma in her novel To the Lighthouseby presenting characters who attempt to transcend death either through accomplishmentsin art and science, or by nurturing other human beings. Mr. Ramsay and Charles Tansleytake the path of intellectual accomplishment; Mrs. Ramsay represents the path of humannurturing. Although the characters derive some comfort from their efforts to transcenddeath, they are also tormented by the fear that they will not succeed in their strivings, andcome to doubt that successful transcendence is even possible. Woolf never resolves thisconflict in the novel. Instead, she maintains an ambivalence, illustrating both the benefitsand the pitfalls of the two transcendence strategies. The dilemma of transcending death has traditionally been answered through beliefin a God who can grant salvation. Chri
It may be thatWoolf was simply writing about those endeavors which she knew best, but intended herpoints to be much more widely applicable. His next thought is full of doubt about his ability to succeed: A shutter, like the leathern eyelid of a lizard, flickered over the intensity of his gaze andobscured the letter R. Ramsay expresses his desire to transcend death through intellectual accomplishmentmost clearly in his lengthy mental soliloquy on levels of achievement. She knows that "[her painting] would be hungin the attics. Ramsay gives a very low estimate (one in one billion) of the fraction of peoplewho achieve lasting fame, and then discounts the value of even the most long-lastinghuman fame by considering its transience on a geological time scale. Obsessed withachieving recognition for his work, Tansley rambles about his progress to Mrs. The predominance of intellectuals in Virginia Woolf's novel could beexplained by her own life in the British intelligentsia. Ramsay developsinto a more complex character. Ramsay hears people saying he is a failure: the opinions of otherpeople are vitally important to him. He uses the analogyof an alphabet, in which people advance from A toward Z as they achieve greaterintellectual feats.
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