Faculty of philology department of english philology viktorija mi

JOURNEY 
Figure 7. Conceptual Metaphors of Time and Space in the Novel To the Lighthouse 
What is the essence of the figure? Indeed, as I have already stated in the previous chapters, the 
novel consists of three parts each of which centres around a particular semantic core, or idea that the 
whole novel can be treated like a symbolic metaphorical journey through human life and human 
mind. In general, it is possible to claim that in The Window, Woolf describes common daily family 
life; Time Passes convincingly deals with the passing time and its influence on human lives, 
whereas the last chapter, The Lighthouse seems to celebrate the power and meaning of art in life. 
Indeed, throughout the novel, we see the characters leading their lives that have a beginning and an 
end, as if travelling to their destination that is unique and specific for each person in the book. 
Therefore, I aimed to formulate the three conceptual metaphors characterizing the message of the 
novel on the basis of the aforementioned ideas, as seen in the figure. The metaphors can be worded 
as follows: life is a journey, time is a journey, and art is a journey. Adhering to several critics’ 
opinions, I would like to ground my choice of metaphors by analyzing them one by one. 
In my opinion, there is enough evidence to claim that the most important conceptual metaphor 
in the novel says that life is a journey. Indeed, it is possible to understand a journey as a search that 
has several temporal stages: the past period, or departure, the present situation, or passage of events, 
and the future perspective, or the idea of return. In the novel, these are the characters’ intentions, 
preparations, thoughts, and dreams to reach the lighthouse which in their wholeness create the 
whole novel as a contextual metaphor. I can adhere to Lakoff who believes (1987:308) that every 
journey is a dynamic process as it takes time, maybe even a whole life, and involves constant 

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moving from one position to another. I would complement this idea by adding that every journey is 
also a social event as travellers meet other people along the way; and this gives rise to new 
experiences, contacts, and relationships. Besides, a journey implies a transition to another world, 
facing tasks and trials, alone or with the help of others. Having survived various challenges and 
having acquired important knowledge, the person involved in a journey must then decide whether to 
go back with this experience to the ordinary world and to transfer it to others, which faces him 
again with new challenges and difficulties; although he knows for certain that this new knowledge 
will improve the world. To my mind, in the novel, all the characters can be treated as travellers who 
have their purposes, or destinations, and means of reaching them, or routes. Their journey covers 
both physical and metaphysical reality because they face obstacles both in their real lives (the 
cruelty of war, the complexity of human relationships) and in their mind (the disharmony between 
totally different human characters, their plans, and intentions, to mention but some of them). During 
their journey, the characters make important judgments, as it is necessary to choose friendship or 
alienation, love or hatred, hope or disillusionment. Indeed, these decisions can be described as 
certain symbolic crossroads in their journey, while their achievements and small victories serve as 
landmarks. For instance, it seems to me that Mrs. Ramsay is constantly searching for her lost self 
and thus travelling through her experiences that enable her to grow spiritually. The protagonist of 
the novel seeks to find the golden middle among her social roles (such as being a mother, a 
housewife, and a lady) and her inner wishes, as well as her seek for a better world where closer 
relationships among people filled with more warmth and sincerity would be possible. I believe that 
Mrs. Ramsay, who is the opposite of her practical and rational husband, reaches beyond the 
limitations of individual isolation in her efforts to care about other people: her children, her 
husband, friends and all the people she meets. Symbolically, we can call her the true lighthouse of 
the novel that provides warmth and light overall the family. Interestingly, this spiritual power and 
light continues to illuminate and connect the family members even after the protagonist’s death 
because all the memories related to Mrs. Ramsay’s personality enable other characters grow in their 
minds and become stronger. 
In my opinion, the second conceptual metaphor that unites the three chapters of the novel 
could be worded like this: time is a journey. Indeed, it seems to me that although physically the 
characters stay fixed in a limited scope of time and space, their consciousness moves freely in time: 
in the characters’ mind, everything happens in the present, which can extend to infinity or contract 
to a moment. This concept of inner time, which is irregular and disrupted with respect to the 
conventional conception of time, is preferred to the real physical external time, since it shows the 
relativism of a subjective experience. Indeed, I admire the way Woolf discloses the private thoughts 

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of her characters in her novels and would like to claim that her innovative narrative and stream of 
consciousness technique both enables her to move easily from one character to the next and allows 
her reader to have a curious insight into each character’s mind. In addition, Woolf’s narrative leaves 
one mind and enters another, travelling between the interior worlds of the characters. Thus, if we 
support the belief that human consciousness transcends the limitations of individual minds, it will 
be natural and reasonable to treat the whole temporal surroundings as a metaphorical journey from 
the past to the future. As mentioned in the subchapter The Temporal Perspective of Themes and