Lily Briscoe In Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse

In the novel To The Lighthouse written by Virginia Woolf, the character development of Lily Briscoe is reflected in the progression of her painting. Ardent and independent, Lily takes time to contemplate differing opinions pressured on her about the idea of womanhood. This was a cultural abnormality in patriarchal Great Britain during Woolf’s time. Women were to be submissive to their husbands without question and that their place was bound in household affairs. But here is Lily, a young single budding artist who aspires to have her paintings remembered and valued. At first, Lily struggles with making sense of the shapes and colors in her portrait of Mrs Ramsay. In the final chapter, however, her art “grows and at the end, Lily attains fullness of vision. Life enlightens and enriches her art. What Woolf tries to say is that Lily’s art by itself is not everything. Her painting needs to be enriched by life and draw the raw

Mrs Ramsay’s position as the nurturing older woman will be threatened if she were to notice Lily’s ability to be observant and insightful. She is the only person who “clothes Mrs. Ramsay in the appropriate shapes of imagery and whose penetration divines Mrs. Ramsay’s thoughts.” (Lilienfeld, 348). By painting her, Lily portrays Mrs. Ramsay and her son James into a “purple triangle”, connoting Mrs Ramsay’s self-worth when she appears “invisible to others” as “a wedge-shaped core of darkness” (Part 1, Chapter 11). In my opinion, it is Lily who knows her inside out. For instance, she predicts correctly of Mrs. Ramsay’s expectations about her friendship with Mr. Bankes: “…oh, she’s thinking we 're going to get married…” (Part 1, Chapter 13). Additionally, Lily knows that Mrs. Ramsay is silently making a plea that she can change Charles Tansley’s social ineptitude. Indeed, “Lily Briscoe knew all that” (Part 1, Chapter