The Role Of New Women In Lily Woolf's To The Lighthouse

Lily Briscoe, one of the main characters in To The Lighthouse, embodies the New Woman that was revolutionized during the twenty first century. Lily personifies freedom from gender roles and is the epitome for a New Women. First of all, New Women wanted control of their own lives and escape from the constrictions of gender roles (New). Lily exhibits the control in her own life that New Women strived for. She gains this control through her career which acts as her main focus in Woolf’s novel. Lily’s career allows her the independence the New Women yearned for. Secondly, the progressive women of this time period rejected the notion that appearance and beauty were the only thing that mattered. They wanted to be regarded by more than just their …show more content…
Woolf creates the character of Mrs.Ramsay to act as a foil character to Lily and to represent the opposing ideals of the New Women. Mrs.Ramsay is a representation of the traditional Victorian Woman. Mrs.Ramsay’s role in her household mirrors that of a Victorian Women. The job of taking care of the household and maintaining harmony fell completely on the shoulders of the women (Price). Woolf makes the weight of these obligations apparent in her character who is constantly worrying about the state of her household. This point is further exaggerated by Mrs.Ramsay care for her family. Women were appointed the duty of caring for her family (Brivic). Mrs.Ramsay constantly thinks about the safety and happiness of her family. In fact, they take up an excessive amount of her storyline. The constant thought of her family and household is done to show how women’s whole life centered around domestic …show more content…
This reflects the mindset of Victorian Women who ultimately depended on their appearance and reputation. Appearance was extremely important to Victorian Women concerning their own physical beauty and how society perceives them. There were many expectations for women out in society and appearance played a significant role in that (Uzundemir). It seems as though the appearance of women was value over their intelligence. Woolf uses the focus on Mrs.Ramsay’s beauty to emphasize this point. Other characters are constantly commented on Mrs.Ramsay’s beauty and it seems to be the only aspect of her they pay attention to. The beauty of Mrs.Ramsay is more important than what she is feeling or thinking. Woolf does this to show the complete disregard society had for women on any matter except beauty and reputation. Finally, Woolf writes the relationship Mrs.Ramsay has with her husband to correspond with a typical marriage during this time period. In traditional marriages, wives were placed in submissive roles and often restrained from voicing their opinions in fear of judgement (Allison). Woolf displays this through the character of Mrs.Ramsay. Not only does Mrs.Ramsay stay silent about her concerns in her marriage but feels a distinct inequality between her and Mr. Ramsay. She feels less than her husband which is similar to what society believed women to be. All in all, Mrs.Ramsay acts as the