To the Lighthouse

Throughout the novel, the lighthouse is always capitalized. Its status in the novel as a proper noun suggests that to the author herself, the lighthouse carries significant meaning. As a structure that provides relief from darkness, any lighthouse can carry symbolic value; in the novel, the lighthouse on the island off the coast of the Isle of Skye illuminates the emotional darkness of the characters, all of whom suffer a loss or disappointment in their lives.

Six-year-old James’s desire to go to the lighthouse is the driving image of Part 1, and his disappointment at his father’s pessimism regarding the weather sets the tone for most of the novel. Later in Part 1, Mrs. Ramsay reflects on the light from the lighthouse after the dinner party, remembering that “[n]o happiness [can last]” (87) and that suffering and death will always afflict the living. In Parts 2 and 3, the deaths of Mrs. Ramsay, Prue, and Andrew cast a long shadow over the house and its occupants; only the light from the lighthouse in the distance illuminates the rooms as they sit empty in Part 2, its owners and their friends unable to travel thanks to the war.