The purpose of this research is to examine the character Lily Briscoe in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, comparing the self consciousness and aesthetic experimentation of the character to that of its creator. The plan of the research will be to set forth the outlines of the character in the context of the novel, and then to discuss connections between Lily's approach to painting as an expression and Woolf's approach to writing.
As the English novel moved from the romantic period and toward the modern period, there was a discernible shift in the methods of expression of feeling. Emotion for its own sake gave way to emotion or psychology of being expressed with reference to other elements of existence. In Woolf's work, emotional impact may be derived from the simple narrative frame, in the form of fleeting impressions that both convey the intensity (or lack of intensity) of expression and accumulate within the structure of the story so as to provide a sense of artistic whole. The narrative method may be described as impressionistic in To the Lighthouse, to the degree Woolf attaches what may seem to be random "daubs" of incident and feeling on the frame of the story. The accretion of these daubs now light, now dark results in a fully realized narrative. This is parallel to the method Woolf describes Lily Briscoe as using as she develops her conception of the painting of the lighthouse environment and the Ramsays, and there is evidence of Woolf's making a persistent and deliberate connection between the artistic sensibility of Lily Briscoe the character and Virginia Woolf the writer.
One element of Lily Briscoe's character as artist that can
be traced to Woolf's character as writer is the element of
insecurity, self criticism, self consciousness, self doubt that may be said to encase all artists but particularly women artists. That this element is fundamental to Lily's persona in the early part of the bo...