Mr. Ramsay

Mr Ramsay is a very complex and interesting character who contemplates everything about everyday life. Throughout what we have read so far however, he seems to have this incredible inward conflict with himself over whether his philosophies should override reality. As a philosopher, his job is to analyze everything about life, however it feels as though this takes away from his actual experience in the actual life of which he is constantly critiquing. A common misconception, i feel, is that Mr Ramsay is a raging pestimist and described by Lily as "petty, selfish, vain, egotistical, spoilt, a tyrant, and wears mrs. Ramsay to death."(pg 23) In reality i believe that he only appears to be those things due to an overwhelming amount of knowledge. When he tell his son that it is not probable they will visit the lighthouse the next day, he is only telling the direct truth. His knowledge tells him that it will still be raining the next day, however until reaching the "R" of philosophical greatness he will not know what is the correct way to take in such problems of life. I find it very interesting how he is a philosopher by nature and contains so much knowledge about the world, however the more knowledge he obtains the further and further away he gets from normality. Mrs. Ramsay, his wife, is not a philosopher and looks up to him incredibly, however in the text she possesses a sense of worldly knowledge just from mere experience.