1. Architectural Precedents
I am sympathetic towards young James who wishes for "an axe or a poker, any weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father's breast and killed him- (p.4). Why can't this guy just shut up, allow for a little hope, and not come out with this wave of negativity? .
A.D. Moody, in his book Virginia Woolf, sheds some light on the different, and opposing roles of the parents:.
Mr. Ramsay stands for the world of physical nature which is the element of human life, and for the science by which it is understood "for the stark tower on its bare rock above the chaos of the sea. But Mrs. Ramsay represents the spirit of life itself, the inward light which shines out, and is the essential energy creating and suspending a distinctively human order. She seems to imply a kind of Platonic ideal behind the world of appearances. (p.42).
Mr. Moody has identified Mr.Ramsay with imposing, physical form and bearing of the lighthouse; and Mrs. Ramsay with the guiding beam of light, that which comes from within. While Mr. Ramsay is overly analytical, Mrs. Ramsay relies on intuition. The male and the female embody different views of life, and each is necessary to the other, while at the same time serving as a counterweight. Mr. Ramsay is cold and unsympathetic. I see him as the voice of doom, being echoed in support by his protégé, Charles Tansley. Mr. Ramsay is like the dog in the manger that couldn't eat the hay but wouldn't let the cow have it either. In her book, The Three-Fold Nature of Reality in the Novels of Virginia Woolf, Josephine Schaefer sheds further light on the nature and function of Mr. And Mrs. Ramsay:.
The little matter of the trip to the lighthouse throws clearly into focus the vagaries and pomposities of the masculine and feminine ways of looking at the world. The buts and ifs of husband and wife distinguish the peculiar nature of their differences. Mr. Ramsay's but resounds with authority, [and] is always followed by a statement of absolute fact.