"Beneath it is all dark, it is all spreading, it is unfathomably deep; but now and again we rise to the surface and that is what you see us by." (pg 53)
This quote defines Mrs. Ramsay's internal conflict. When first introduced to her, the reader sees this kind, compassionate woman who is almost saintly because she raises 8 children, houses guests, and deals with an impossible husband. However, when she finds time to sit by herself, the real Mrs. Ramsay surfaces. She loves her children yet she has her favorites. She tortures herself with thoughts of being left alone once her smallest children grow up. She doesn't want them to grow up, to leave their happy times and enter the world of adulthood. "For that reason, knowing what was before them--love and ambition and being wretched alone in dreary places--she had often the feeling, why must they grow up and lose it all? " ( pg 51) As she sits alone, Mrs. Ramsay spends her time trying to convince herself that her children will grow up to be happy instead of distant like herself. "And then she said to herself, brandishing her sword at life, nonsense. They will be perfectly happy." (pg 51) This stems from her own pessimism and her combat against it. She truely wants to be the person the reader her first saw her as, however her own happiness in life has led her to the place she is in now. It is almost as if she had switched places with her husband. He loved her, he admired her, yet she hated the fact that he couldn't appreciate the small things such as a flower. Just as he had become annoyed with the her over something as small as a white lie, she was annoyed with his inabilities to escape the intellectual world. The original Mrs. Ramsay the reader saw would've accepted his flaws rather than using it as fuel for her own.
(it's not completely done...will be edited later.)
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2 comments:
This post is very insightful in its discussion of Mrs Ramsay, and her public image vs. her private thoughts. However, I was a little confused about the ending, where Mrs Ramsay's reverence of Mr Ramsay plays into her personality. For she does revere him even if he can't appreciate the little things, like a flower. I think this reverence, a form of love, overshadows all other feelings Mrs Ramsay has for her husband. She often justifies this love in the face of Mr Ramsay's flaws by asserting that all great men are difficult; her husband is too busy being great to be involved in the family. This, in my opinion, is a far more important determiner of Mrs Ramsay's true personality than any pessimism or any ranting she does at one instant in time.
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