“Life and Death in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse”

Sarah Benefiel

Prof. Michael Raposa Rel 188

12 December 2003

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“I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual” (Diary, 17 February 1922).1

I. Introduction

As human beings, we are unique in our awareness of death. “We know that we

will die, and that knowledge invades our consciousness…it will not let us rest until we

have found ways, through rituals and stories, theologies and philosophies, either to make

sense of death, or, failing that, to make sense of ourselves in the face of death.”2

Attaching significance to life events is a human reaction to the sense of

“meaninglessness” in the world. Fearing our ultimate annihilation, we form belief

systems to reassure us in the face of death.

Religion provides us with elaborate rituals at times of death and faith assists

believers in mourning and coping with the loss of loved ones. So without a religious

foundation, where does one find solace in the face of so much pain? This is the struggle

for Virginia Woolf, a self-proclaimed atheist whose life was shadowed by death from an

early age. In the years between 18953 (when she was thirteen) and 1904 she lost her

mother, her sister, and her father. Less than a decade later, Europe was consumed by

war, and public mourning became a part of her life. “Grieving started very early in

1 Quoted in Lee, Hermoine, Virginia Woolf (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997). 2 Zaleski, Carol, Otherworld Journeys (New York: Oxford UP, 1987), 12. 3Woolf was thirteen when her mother passed away.

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Virginia’s life, which might be one reason why her writing offers us such a forceful

riposte that it should, or could, be brought to an end.”4

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories profoundly changed the way we think

about the mind and its subconscious workings. His work greatly influenced the way

people understood mental illness and other social deviations. This is especially true

during the time that Virginia Woolf was writing these novels, when his books were

widely read. In Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud presents the struggle between

Eros (the drive for erotic love) and Thanatos (the appetite for death) as the forces that

dominate human decision-making and action.5 He feared that without healthy outlets for

our own sexual appetites, humanity would fall to war and violence, as Thanatos wins the

battle.

Virginia Woolf is a perfect example of how this struggle exists in the human

psyche. Her early sexual invasions damaged her sexual drive later in life. She was often

cold towards her husband, unable to feel any passion for him. Her desire for death, then,

may have been stronger, which would explain her preoccupation with it. Attempting

suicide twice, and finally succeeding in 1941, Woolf was acutely aware of the shadow in

her life. She, like Septimus the poet in Mrs. Dalloway, condemned herself to death.

Responses to death are an important theme in Woolf’s literature. Mourning is a

natural and necessary reaction to loss. In our minds, we must put the dead to rest, even if

they still exist in our memories. Freud had much to say about this subject in Mourning

4 Rose, Jacqueline, “Virginia Woolf and the Death of Modernism”Raritan 18, no. 2 (1998 Fall):8.

5 Freud, Sigmund, Civilization and its Discontents. Trans and edit Strachey, James (New York: WW Norton & Company, Inc., 1961).

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and Melancholia.6 He wrote that it might be a response to losing a loved one, as

experienced by the characters in these novels. It may also be a response to a threatened

ideal (country, freedom, family) that may be experienced in time of war.

We must, therefore, take into account that Woolf, at the time of writing these two

novels, had lived through one World War. After World War I there was much sorrow in

Europe. Public mourning, as mentioned, is done on a larger scale, and includes despair,

overall uncertainty, and confusion. The Great War had shaken the world, leaving the

survivors confused and uncertain as to how to heal the wounds and mourn for so many

losses. Writing in the 1920s, Woolf was keenly aware of the mood in Europe, time for

public mourning had now passed, and life continued, though radically and forever

altered. The war had great impact on her writing, and on her vision of the world. “The

war had taught him [Smith]. It was sublime. He had gone through the whole show,

friendship, European War, death…”7

Death was an ever present shadow in Woolf’s life, but insight could illuminate

aspects of life that would have otherwise been overlooked. Without religious security,

the author (like the rest of us) struggled to deal with loss. How does one continue life in

the face of death? My analysis of two novels, Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, will

focus on this preoccupation with death and mourning, in addition to the ways Woolf and

her characters found/created meaning in life.

6 See Rose, for connections between Freud and Woolf.. 7 Mrs. Dalloway,, 86.

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II. Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf’s fiction is a wonderful example of modernist literature, and her

works sit next to Proust, Joyce, and T.S. Eliot in compilations of important 20th century

classics. She experimented with the English language and poetic imagery in beautiful

and novel ways. While writing Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf described her “discovery” in

writing style as digging out “beautiful caves” behind her characters.8 This form gives us

a closer, candid look into the personalities and idiosyncrasies of each person. Her

stream-of-consciousness narrative allowed Woolf to recreate the flow of thoughts as they

grow, layer upon layer, creating rich, full, poetry-like prose.

As an established writer, Woolf published her novel Mrs. Dalloway in 1925. It

was a time of relative mental stability for Woolf, who had previously been wrecked with

fits of “madness” that no amount of prescribed rest could cure. These bouts would

usually come after she experienced a traumatic event. Her early experiences with incest

and parental deaths likely provoked depression.9 I have come to believe that writing was

Woolf’s only escape from personal pain and loss. Mrs. Dalloway was a crowning

achievement for the author, as she began to find her own voice and work through her past

by creating new life on paper.

Originally entitled ‘The Hours,’ the novel takes a Ulysses-like look at a single

day under a microscope. Devoid of much action, the narrative focuses on the inner

thoughts of the characters as they flow from one idea to another. Using powerful prose,

Woolf describes the characters as they experience illuminating epiphanies into the

8 Webb, Ruth, Virginia Woolf (New York: Oxford UP, 2000), 69. 9 DeSalvo, Louise, Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work (Boston: Beacon Press 1989).

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“meaning” of life and death. The personal insight comes only when they are forced to

deal with death, be it their own, or someone else’s.

Clarissa Dalloway, a socialite who is hosting a party of great importance on this

particular day, is going through what might be described as a “mid-life crisis.” Horrified

of death, but in some inner sense, seeking it, she hopes that something fundamental will

remain of her, something that will live on forever. From the first line, the reader is

plunged into the murky waters of Mrs. Dalloway’s thoughts. Concerned about her own

aging, she wrestles with the meaning of life and death. “Did it matter that she must

inevitably cease completely; all this must go on without her: did she resent it; or did it not

become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely?” (9) Secretly, Mrs. Dalloway

wants to live on forever, and fears that when she passes away, no one will know how

much she truly loved life.

The desire for death is strong in Septimus Warren Smith, the “madman” and the

artist of this story.10 His delusional episodes mirror those that Virginia herself

experienced; he often speaks to no one, rambling on about his visions. This poet is not

satisfied with his life, which appears to be meaningless. He searches for significance,

asking the doctor, “Why live?” only to receive the inadequate answer that, “life was

good” (101).

This novel forces the reader to think about the realities of death, and how people

must deal with this knowledge on their own. Having fought in World War I, Septimus

Smith’s mental illness is invariably a result of the casualties he witnessed and the death

10 This is not a coincidence.

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which he narrowly escaped. Unable to deal with these powerful and painful memories,

he eventually defies life by ending it, jumping out a window hours before the party. 11

So there was no excuse; nothing whatever the matter, except the sin for which human nature had condemned him to death; that he did not feel. He had not cared when Evans was killed; that was the worst; but all the other crimes raised their heads and shook their fingers…The verdict of human nature on such a wreck was death (91, italics mine).

Smith’s inability (or refusal) to mourn the loss of his beloved friend resembles Woolf’s

own reactions to her mother’s death. In her memoirs, she recollected that she laughed at

the grieving of others, and recoiled at her mother’s coldness, “it was like kissing cold

iron.”12 This “quarrel with grieving”13 is prominent in her writing. Septimus Smith is

plagued by hallucinations (like the author) of his dead friend returning from the

battlefield. He cannot bear the presence of death, even if it is imagined. In the end, it is

this struggle and his unwillingness to mourn that leads him to suicide. He feels the pain

too intensely; death is too real. Unable to share his inner torment with others in a

coherent fashion, Smith sees no other way out.

Clarissa Dalloway also illustrates Woolf’s inner desire for death. At the party,

everything seems to be going as planned, until the unwelcome news of Smith’s suicide

arrives. Mrs. Dalloway is furious that anyone would dare bring such bad tidings to her

gathering. As the night goes on and the hours pass, she continues to think of this man

and feels a strange connection to him. “She felt somehow very like him—the young man

who had killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away,” (186) and then

the clock strikes, reminding her of the moment. “[B]ut she did not pity him; with the

11 As Virginia Woolf attempted in 1904. For more, see Hermoine Lee’s biography. 12 Webb, 14.

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clock striking the hour, one, two, three, she did not pity him, with all this going on”

(186). Time, like death, rears its head again.

Although Mrs. Dalloway does not feel any remorse for this man she never met

(why should she?), she cannot get him out of her mind because of her own preoccupation

with mortality. According to Clarissa Dalloway, “Death was defiance. Death was an

attempt to communicate; people feeling the impossibility of reaching the centre which,

mystically, evaded them. There was an embrace in death.”14 Mrs. Dalloway’s own

suicidal thoughts reveal a deep longing to defy life. Unable to grasp the meaning of

existence (which always slips away right before we understand), in death one may refuse

to play the game anymore.

For Virginia Woolf, death created meaning in life, and without death there would

be nothing to cherish and nothing to live for. The author had intended for Mrs. Dalloway

to commit suicide at her own party, but later decided that the main character’s double

(Smith) would be sacrificed instead. In Michael Cunningham’s movie The Hours,

Leonard Woolf questions Virginia as to why she insists that someone must die in her

upcoming novel (Mrs. Dalloway), to which she replies, “Someone has to die in order for

the rest of us to value life more.”15 This relationship between life and death is a central

theme in her writing. It is important to note that Smith, while delusional, has

extraordinary insights into the world, universal love, and the nature of God. The poet

must die because he/she sees too clearly. Life is so illuminated and intense that at times

it becomes unbearable.

13 Spilka 14 Mrs. Dalloway, 184. 15 The Hours. Dir. Stephen Daldry. Perf. Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep. VHS. Paramount Home Video, 2003.

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Only in someone else’s death can Mrs. Dalloway catch a glimpse at the beauty

and wonder that surround her. “He made her feel the beauty; made her feel the fun.”

Finally, Mrs. Dalloway realizes the preciousness of her own life. Hopefully it is not too

late for her; she can acknowledge the death impulse, but appreciate life at the same time.

Perhaps it is because of the shadow of death that the illumination is necessary. In Mrs.

Dalloway, Woolf turns death into something secretly desired, which allowed her to

accept her own morbid feelings. Without the consolation of religion, she, like her

characters, struggled with the need to find significance and beauty in life and death.

II. To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse, the next novel Woolf published, is a long meditation on time,

death, and the “work” of mourning. The relationship between the three is clear; in

dealing with death, time must pass and mourning must be done. Life comes “breaking

in” like a wave, for even in death there are sudden flashes of understanding and clarity.

This novel was a part of Woolf’s own process of understanding her own preoccupation

with death and trouble with mourning.

Whereas Mrs. Dalloway avoids real grieving and is often stuck in the past, To the

Lighthouse depicts mourning as a process to be worked through, which Woolf had

experienced herself. As fictionalized representations of Woolf’s own family, the

characters act out this process. While working on the novel, Woolf wrote in her diary

that it would have “father’s character done complete in it; and mother’s; and St. Ives; and

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childhood; and all the usual things I try to put in—life, death, etc.”16 Like the

Stephen’s,17 the Ramsays are a family of ten (two parents, eight children), which hints at

Woolf’s need to dig out the skeletons of the past and therapeutically release them,

mourning years after the fact. Drawing inspiration for Mrs. Ramsay from her mother,

and Mr. Ramsay from her father, Woolf set out to work through her own pain by

transferring it to the characters, and subsequently allowing them to mourn in her place.

This novel is, in many ways, an “elegy” 18 for her parents.

Once again employing the stream-of-consciousness style, Woolf digs into the

minds and emotions of the characters, the moments of great raptures and painful

grievances. “The whole progression in To the Lighthouse is a more and more explicit

statement of a way of looking at life, achieving its greatest glories and its best insights”19.

We witness the epiphanies of Mrs. Ramsay, and then the lonely darkness as time passes,

and finally the process of mourning as the characters struggle to come to grips with their

losses. Life continues as the characters grieve and finally detach themselves from the lost

loved ones.20 This is the “life-in-death” that Woolf herself experienced, and wrote about

nearly all of her life.

The characters in To the Lighthouse struggle to find significance in life and

counsel in death. Part One, entitled “The Window,” may be accurately described as a

“deep cave” dug behind Mrs. Ramsay’s personality and inner workings. She is a

16 Quoted in Corsa, Helen Storm, “To the Lighthouse: Death, Mourning, and Transfiguration,” Literature & Psychology 21 (1971): 115, emphasis mine. 17 Virginia’s maiden name was Stephen. Her father and mother both had children from previous marriages. 18 Woolf suggested calling the work an elegy rather than a novel because of its theme. See Rose or Corsa.

19 Derbyshire, S.H., “An Analysis of Mrs. Woolf’s To the Lighthouse,” College English 3, no. 4 (1942 Jan): 353-360

20 Corsa, 116.

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beautiful, strong, woman, whose “hovering presence” (much like Mrs. Dalloway’s) fills a

moment and dominates the scene. Her personality is many-faceted; as Lily explains,

“fifty pairs of eyes were not enough to get around that one woman.” 21 Reserved,

pensive, and astonishingly beautiful, Mrs. Ramsay goes off into another world,

contemplating life, her purpose, and her relationship with the family. Although she

seems to be a positive character, her inner thoughts point to a more melancholy outlook

on life. “How could any Lord have made this world? she asked…there is no reason,

order, justice: but suffering, death, the poor…[n]o happiness lasted”(98).

Conflicts between the characters mirror Woolf’s own family quarrels. James, the

youngest and most sensitive child, is jealous of his mother, wanting her only for himself,

and intolerant of the demands the rest of the family places on her. His profound

connection to Mrs. Ramsay dominates the beginning narrative, as his inner thoughts

come out in moments of deep attraction for his mother and hatred for his father. The

young boy wishes his father were dead. “Had there been an axe handy, or a poker, any

weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father’s breast and killed him, there and

then, James would have seized it” (10). Later in the novel, we see this conflict work

itself out, as death forces the family to deal with their troubled relationships.

“Time Passes,” the second part of the novel, is a literary experiment of Woolf’s

conception that takes us through ten dark years. This section is a metaphor for those

things in life that are not affected by death, that continue unrelenting and sometimes

comforting. The family departs for the summer and certain circumstances prevent them

from returning. Their house is left to the forces of time; darkness envelopes the house

and temporarily seals in the fond memories and ghosts of the past. Dust settles, books

21 Woolf, Virginia, To the Lighthouse (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. 1927), 294.

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yellow, and silence ascends, ‘filling’ the rooms with emptiness. The stillness is only

occasionally interrupted by tinkling glass, or a gust of wind. While the house remains

dormant, the light never falters, shining its beam across the forgotten odds and ends. The

light is all that remains.

During this respite Mrs. Ramsay passes away (the cause is unknown), as do Prue

Ramsay (in childbirth) and Andrew Ramsay (blown away in the war). In a similar

method, Woolf tells of their deaths in parentheses22 (much like I have done), as though

these losses may not be spoken of. In her diary Woolf described this interesting passage

as “the flight of time and the consequent break of unity in my design.”23 Helen Storm

Corsa observes that the deserted house embodies the typical “phenomena” of mourning,

“despondency, depression, detachment from the world, withdraw of interest from

reality.”24 The empty, silent house is a symbol for what is happening to the characters

during this time. Although we are not directly given the information, it can be

ascertained that they are experiencing the same despondency and depression.

Part III, “The Lighthouse”, begins with the line, “What does it mean then, what

can it all mean?” (217) as Lily Briscoe sits up in bed and asks herself how she should

react to the passing of Mrs. Dalloway. “What did she feel…? Nothing, nothing—

nothing that she could express at all.” Returning to a place that holds so many memories

(good and bad), she is overwhelmed by her own feelings of sorrow and confusion. Her

22 Perhaps suggesting that Woolf had not fully come to grips with death, and could only mention it

as a side note. See DeSalvo.

23 Spilka, 76.

24 Corsa, 119.

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inner monologue describes the turmoil she experiences in attempting to lay Mrs. Ramsay

to rest in her own mind.

Much of this final section is devoted to Lily’s difficult acceptance of the death

and her subsequent mourning for a woman whom she admired and loved. In some of the

most profound passages in the novel, Lily reveals this deep love. She cries out “Mrs.

Ramsay!” in agony, not capable of sorting out her grievous sentiments. “[O]h, the dead!

she murmured, one pitied them, one brushed them aside, one had even a little contempt

for them. They are at our mercy” (260). Before the survivors of death may continue

living, they must first mourn and distance themselves from the events.

People often grieve together, providing support in times of suffering, but no one

in the house openly discusses the deaths, as if they had never occurred. Each character

must learn to deal with death alone, but Lily, painting in the yard, cannot simply forget.

She searches for a way to put upon the canvas “the shape” which is blurry in her mind.

Directly related to her own blocked emotions, she experiences an artist’s block and is

unable to complete the painting until her feelings are worked through. “Her story is a

search for a way of finding form to contain and embody her deeply felt devotion to Mrs.

Ramsay.”25 Once again, a character struggles with the reality of death, and this time

learns to accept it (through art) without religious console. Lily’s recollections begin to

fade as the grieving process works to put those memories in the past.

James Ramsay reacts to his mother’s passing with aggression towards his father,

Mr. Ramsay. This oedipal antagonism remains even after Mrs. Ramsay dies, an event

which should have brought the family together. He, like his father, is lonely and

25 Corsa, 122.

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grieving, but cannot verbalize these feelings, so father and son continue to fight a

wordless battle. On the much anticipated journey to the Lighthouse,26 James eventually

sorts out his feelings. As their final destination, the Lighthouse may be a representation

of Mrs. Ramsay27 as many scholars have suggested. James, the devoted son, finally

reaches the Lighthouse, symbolizing his “attainment of his mother.”28 Reaffirming his

own life and his relationship to his father, James, like Lily, may now move on and

continue living.

Just as the Lighthouse has been interpreted as a symbol for Mrs. Ramsay, in her

strength, stability, and steadfastness, it is also a larger metaphor for those things that

endure in the face of death. The light never falters, shining as a constant reminder of

time passing. Through time, the family is able to mourn their losses. The Lighthouse

remains, cold, impersonal, “pitiless” and “remorseful,”29 unmoved by the events on

shore, the pain lived through. It is a consolation; never disappearing, the lighthouse is

there through the good times and the bad, just as religion is a beacon of light for

believers.

26 James’ desire to go to the Lighthouse begins the novel, and his father’s decision not to go

angered him greatly at the time (as a small child).

27 “[S]he (Mrs. Ramsay) looked out to meet that stroke of the Lighthouse, the long steady stroke, the last of three, which was her stroke…often she found herself sitting and looking, sitting and looking, with her work in her hands until she became the thing she looked at—that light for example” (97).

28 Corsa, 118. 29 As described by Mrs. Ramsay, p. 98.

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III. Connecting Life and Death- Conclusions “She felt rather inclined just for a moment to stand still after all that chatter, and pick out one particular thing; the thing that mattered; to detach it; separate it off; clean it of all its emotions and odds and ends of things. And so hold it before her, and bring it to the tribunal where, ranged about in conclave, sat the judges she had set up to decide these things. Is it good, is it bad, is it right or wrong? Where are we all going to?”30

Life and death. The beginning and the end. Death is a part of life, a scary but

strangely comforting reality. In Mrs. Dalloway, Big Ben tolls without feeling, reminding

Clarissa that she is one hour closer to the party, and ultimately one hour closer to death.

We are always aware of our own temporal existence. It is this relentless reminder that

shakes her in the midst of life, and brings her back to the present. Similarly, the

lighthouse has the same uninterrupted nature, shining its light in the face of life, death,

and everything in between. It is a “remorseless” beacon of continuity. In death and

darkness the light never wavers, and like religion, consoles us in times of desperation.

Putting herself into her characters, Woolf dealt with death through art. Writing

became another consolation. In To the Lighthouse, Lily Briscoe, the artist, has similar

moments of clarity when she sees things through a different light, as though a prism had

skewed her view. Her painting reflects this change in perspective. “With a sudden

intensity, as if she saw it clear for a second, she drew a line there, in the centre. It was

done; it was finished. Yes, she thought…I have had my vision” (310, italics mine).

Dealing with death in her own life, Lily has an enlightening epiphany that allows her to

complete the work of mourning, and physically complete the painting.

Woolf, in her poetic metaphors, illuminates moments of time, expanding them

until we can see clearly the preciousness of life. This is one way she worked through the

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fact of death, focusing on a particular moment and its beauty. “What is the meaning of

life? That was all—a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The

great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead

there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the

dark…”(240). We may spend our entire lives looking for the meaning, only to realize

that the real meaning was in the details, the “daily miracles” that are easily overlooked.

These two novels suggest that the only time humans truly appreciate life is in the face of

death. Death presents a future of uncertainty. Face to face with the unknown, we search

for purpose and meaning in life.

Religion is based on explaining life and death and embedding them with

significance. Without a specific faith, Virginia Woolf managed to make some sense out

of life through writing. She never took for granted her right to exist, understanding the

transparency and fragility of existence. Mental illness and personal tragedy ultimately

led her to give up on life, but however strong her death impulses may have been, we can

sense her ecstasy in life through her characters. We, the readers, can take away a sense of

hope; even in total darkness, a light always shines through.

30 To the Lighthouse, 169.