Faculty of philology department of english philology viktorija mi

CHAPTER 4. SHIFT OF TIME IN VIRGINIA WOOLF’S TO THE LIGHTHOUSE 
According to Lee (1977:12), the modernist novel To the Lighthouse follows and extends the 
literary tradition of modernist novelists like Proust and Joyce, where the plot is secondary to 
philosophical introspection and the typical characteristics of narrative is purposefully broken 
chronology and fragmentation of events. The novel includes short dialogues and long pages of inner 
monologues and reflections, there is much thinking and almost no action; most of it is written in the 
form of memories, thoughts, and observations. In my opinion, this piece of Woolf’s fiction recalls 
the power of feelings and emotions and highlights the multidimensionality of human relationships. 
Consequently, I would enlist the basic themes in the novel in the following way: complicated 
human interaction that results in the feeling of loss, subjectivity of the treatment of reality, and the 
problem of reasoning and perception. All those issues are united under one major theme that is the 
understanding and representation of time. 
How are those topics revealed in To the Lighthouse? Indeed, large parts of this Woolf’s novel 
do not concern themselves with the objects of vision, but rather investigate the means of reasoning 
and perception, attempting to understand people in the act of looking. I think that in this particular 
piece of fiction, the writer uses stream of consciousness narration that, unlike traditional linear 
narration, records thoughts in the order in which they arise without bringing them in a rational or 
chronological context. Besides, To the Lighthouse and its characters often display elements of the 
Modernist school of thought. As mentioned in the previous chapters, modern humans compete, 
search for their identity, and want to find their place in the world, while, certainly, some outer 
forces influence their lives every single moment. It seems obviously the inside of man is 
emphasized as a central theme alongside nature as an eternal and sometimes menacing force with 
the ubiquitous potential to devastate humanity. (Lee 1977) 
Why is it so important to speak about the role of time and temporality in this novel? The 
ordinary life of an ordinary family is described, thus, it may seem that no interesting or innovative 
aspects can be traced here. However, linguists do not support such a sceptic attitude and invite the 
reader to have a deeper insight into the semantic core of the book. According to Swinden (1973), To 
the Lighthouse is a deeply psychological novel that focuses on the study of human consciousness. 
The whole human life here is shown as a mosaic of moments and flashes of experience. How can 
these moments be characterized in the novel? In Sanders’ words, “Woolf insists that the twentieth – 
century novelist should evolve a new fictional form out of a representation of the ‘myriad 
expressions’ which daily impose themselves on the human consciousness”. (1994:515) Thus, in 
order to convincingly portray human consciousness, Woolf chooses three main methods of 

---

72 
describing moments of temporal experience, namely: the moment can occur within the event, it can 
be relational (it is time to change, to face new experience), and there can be a spiritual moment (it 
includes faith, belief, and understanding). Indefinite periodicities of time are used to reflect 
characters’ experience. For instance, the division of days into mornings, afternoons, evenings, and 
nights is related to changing atmosphere in the novel that is created on the basis of the characters’ 
inner state. 
Both Swinden and Lee point out that when reading and interpreting this book, we must not 
forget the importance of symbols and motifs in the writings of Virginia Woolf, because time here 
also has an interpretive shade of symbolic meaning. In To the Lighthouse, morning is the period of 
activity, while evening is the period that changes the whole day, and the majority of unhappy or 
tragic events occur then. The evening is the time for reflection and meditation, dreams and visions, 
memories and future hopes. By comparison, night is extraordinary, mystical, strange, and specific 
period of time that is suitable for spiritual openness, intensive search for lost self and 
reconsideration of values.
As can be seen from the overview of the structural delineation of the novel, this piece of 
writing does not simply describe a period in people’s life, but it also serves as a convincing and 
believable picture of the complexity of human mind. It seems certainly that the three structural parts 
of the novel represents temporal and spatial setting the characters are surrounded by and, 
interestingly enough, at the same time that setting affects and shapes people’s consciousnesses and 
understanding of the world. Thus, I believe that it is worth carrying a deeper analysis of the 
temporal and spatial perspective of the novel that the whole meaning of this book is based on.