To The Lighthouse Blog

Chapters 11 through 16 of To The Lighthouse show a lot of Mrs. Ramsay’s negativity about life, her family, and the people around them. In Chapter 11, Mrs. Ramsay sits alone and thinks about her children and her husband. She feels “she could be herself, by herself” (62). When she is alone is when Mrs. Ramsay feels the most like herself because she does not have to think of others constantly, which she usually does since she is the hostess. Shortly after, she states she is “losing personality” (63), showing that she has become so caught up in the issues of other people that she is losing herself. Mrs. Ramsay also becomes easily irritated at herself. After making a comment about being in the Lord’s hand, she “was annoyed with herself for saying that. Who had said it? Not she” (63). Even though she does not want others to see her so negative, Mr. Ramsay notices and is saddened because she is being so remote and he can do nothing to help her. Mrs. Ramsay decides to join her husband for a walk because she knows that he wants to protect her, but the two talk about how their children are smarter and more beautiful than them: “Andrew would be a better man than he had been. Prue would be a beauty, her mother said” (69). The couple is downhearted by this because it makes them feel inferior, even though they try to be happy because they have given such wonderful children to the world. Regardless, Mr. Ramsay cannot feign happiness and says that the island is a “poor little place” (69) since he wants to express his sorrow but does not want to express his own feelings of inferiority or insult his children. Mrs. Ramsay is bothered by all the phrase-making and “if she had said half what he said, she would have blown her brains out by now” (69), which shows her discontent with her husband and her life because she is irritated by how much he speaks and regards her own life flippantly. Her aloofness, lack of self, self-deprecation, jealousy of her children, and annoyance at her husband during chapters 11 through 16 of To The Lighthouse, especially 11 and 12, show Mrs. Ramsay’s negativity about the various things she encounters, which is not seen often because she always tries to act like a good host.