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Mankind has an innate fear of death which initiates an overwhelming desire to evade the natural occurrence through any means possible. This determination to overcome the permanence of death is one of the main thematic points of To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, where characters find resolution to this conflict of trying to outlast death by measuring the effects that their lifetime achievements will have on the future. It is imperative to the older characters that they find a means of leaving a legacy of greatness so as to transcend their deaths and last for eternity; these attempts are unsuccessful, however, and thus the characters focus their lives on an unobtainable goal. Mr. Ramsay is compelled by his nature to achieve accomplishments that will make him remembered posthumously by society. In relating levels of accomplishments to the alphabet, he reasons that, the alphabet ranged in twenty-six letters all in order, and his splendid mind had no sort of difficulty in running over those letters, but he only reached Q (33).
He evaluates that he is above average in his aptitude since very few in the whole of England ever reach Q (34). Despite all of this self reassurance, Ramsay still feels that his accomplishments are insufficient and common, and again assuages his fears because even though he would die standing and never reach R in the alphabet of achievement, his fading fame is not an uncommon occurrence (35). Consequently, Mr. Ramsay s need to transcend death by means of his accomplishments consumes him, until his entire life revolves around this goal and yet despite his efforts, he is unsuccessful. Mr.
Ramsay is afraid he will be forgotten, that time will destroy his work and he is never able to realize that in his incessant worrying and searching for reassurance, he spends his life agonizing over the future and is therefore unable to focus on the present and achieve his goal (Hafley 137). Although Ramsay sees himself as failed, he cannot accept this fate of being forgotten and instead engages in efforts that will only prove to be futile; his goal consumes too much of him, and is not obtainable for a man who can only reach Q. Mrs. Ramsay also makes an attempt, throughout her life, to have her actions and accomplishments be remembered after she has passed.
Her approach, however, is a more well rounded course of action than Mr. Ramsay s, because she attempts to obtain near perfection in a myriad of different aspects of life. She works extremely diligently at being a loving and nurturing mother and is most happy while her children are of age where they need to be taken care of (59). Her efforts fail, however, because she passes away before her children are fully grown, so she is eternally unable to achieve her task of raising her children perfectly. Arranging marriages is another of her endeavors, because creating a permanent and lasting relationship would ensure that she be remembered for generations as the woman responsible for the couple. When she spies William and Lily returning from a walk together she wonders, did that not mean that they should marry?
and comes to the immediate conclusion that the two must marry, and she then works at arranging for them to spend time together, without ever asking either for their opinions on the matter. After proposing to Minta, Paul Hafley somehow feels that [Mrs. Ramsay] was the person who had made him do it He wanted to run to her and say I ve done it, Mrs. Ramsay; thanks to you (78). Mrs.
Ramsay insists that Minta should marry Paul, and Lily Briscoe should marry William BankesThis mania for marriages as Lily calls it, symbolizes her instinctive desire to create unity (Thakur 80). In this creation of unity Mrs. Ramsay is simply attempting to make people have permanent acquaintances thanks to her undying efforts. Aside from being a matchmaker, Mrs. Ramsay also works eagerly at charity work, making, a reddish brown stocking[for] the Lighthouse keeper for his little boy who has contracted tuberculosis.
Every month, she donates, a pile of ol magazines, and some tobacco, indeed, whatever she could find laying about, to help them (5). Although charitable in nature, her efforts are also tinged with hints of selfishness because it is made certain that all in the town are aware of her noble efforts, proving that she also wants to be rewarded and remembered for her efforts. What Mrs. Ramsay attempted during her days of action (even though she did not succeed) is the final truth. (Roberts 67). This final truth is the realization that death is inescapable no matter what bold efforts are taken, or how abstract the attempt is. Despite her best efforts at transcending death by her undying efforts in many aspects of life, Mrs.
Ramsay s attempts prove to be futile, and like her husband, her life is consumed by this unsuccessful goal which prevents her from really living. Lily Briscoe proves to be the contrast of the preceding characters in that she makes the realization that it is necessary to focus on the present, as opposed to worrying about a legacy for the future. Although this character does not transcend death, she does not wish or strive to. In her painting, Lily symbolizes the other characters extreme views on transcending death. She is forced, however, to rearrange the painted objects and move the tree further towards the middle, so as to reach an equilibrium between the two ideologies (110).
In her quest to find a neutral philosophy of life, she realizes her limitations as a painter, because, in that moment of flight between the picture and her canvas the demons set on her who often brought her to the verge of tears and made this passage from conception to work as dreadful as any down a dark passage for a child (19). Knowing that her final painting, would be hung in attics it would be destroyed she replies but what did it matter? which proves that it is then that Lily fully understands how she should live her life (208). More than any of the other personae, she expresses her inadequacy as a human being and as artist so she fully accepts her limitations (Least 513).
Then content with her convictions, she does not regret any aspects of her life, even the fact that she did not marry William, and instead lives her life a spinster. Lily, the artist, sees how life, from being made up of little separate incidents which one lives one by one, became curled and whole like a wave (Hafley). Proving to be content with her mediocrity, Lily is the only one who is able to focus on the present instead of agonizing over the future, and is therefore able to achieve more throughout her life and be truly fulfilled. The attempts to surpass the limitations imposed by death by means of extreme accomplishments proves to be an abstract theory that cannot rationally exist in the real world; hence the reason that images cannot fit clearly into Lily s painting without her rearranging them.
It is evident through many of the incidents in the novel that the characters cannot accept the fact that their lives will end, but the extremist theories about avoiding death prevent the characters from really living. Such actions reflect feeble efforts made by man that stem from an innate fear of death. If society did not anguish over the realization that they will eventually pass on, they would focus more on the present and become more complacent. Until this is realized, however, the people who can only reach Q will continue to strive for an unobtainable goal.
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Research essay sample on Fear Of Death Aspects Of Life
