English 253 Spring 2011

Virginia Woolf 
(25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941)

"How incongruous it seemed to be telephoning to a woman like that. The Graces assembling seemed to have joined hands in meadows of asphodel to compose that face." (To the Lighthouse, 21)	"...he could not help noting, as he passed, the sternness at the heart of her beauty." (To the Lighthouse, 46-7)

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Biographical

Family (Leslie Stephen)
Work
Bloomsbury group
London and Sussex; Writing studio at Monk's House, Sussex; Charleston House;
Marriage
Death

To the Lighthouse (1927)

Written when the author was 45, about experiences during her first ten yeats, 1882-1892, at the family summer house in St. Ives, Cornwall, but placed as 1910-1920, at the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Schmoop guide
Sparknotes introduction

Some connections to Blake:

"Yes, of course, if it's fine tomorrow...But you'll have to be up with the lark."(3)	Innocence:The mother and children
"But...it wont be fine."(3)	Experience:The father and children
"...It will end, it will end, she said. It will come, it will come, when suddenly she added: We are in the hands of the Lord. But instantly she was annoyed with herself for saying that. Who had said it? not she; she had been trapped into saying something she did not mean."(46)	The Contraries: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell "

Some connections to Wordsworth: ("Tintern Abbey")

"Losing personality, one lost the fret, the hurry, the stir...when things came together in this peace, this rest, this eternity...if one was alone, one leant to things, inanimate things; trees, streams, flowers; felt they expressed one; felt they knew one, in a sense were one; felt an irrational tenderness thus...There rose, and she looked and looked with her needles suspended, there curled up off the floor of the mind, rose from the lake of one's being, a mist, a bride to meet her lover." (46)

that blessed mood, In which the burthen of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, 40 Is lightened:--that serene and blessed mood, In which the affections gently lead us on,-- Until, the breath of this corporeal frame And even the motion of our human blood Almost suspended, we are laid asleep In body, and become a living soul: While with an eye made quiet by the power Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things….

"Everything seemed right. Just now...she had reached security; she hovered like a hawk suspended; like a flag floated in an element of joy which filled every nerve of her body fully and sweetly, not noisily solemnly rather... .Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that remains forever after. This would remain." (75-76)

And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought, With many recognitions dim and faint, And somewhat of a sad perplexity, 60 The picture of the mind revives again: While here I stand, not only with the sense Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts That in this moment there is life and food For future years.

Some connections to Thoreau ("Solitude")

... for an hour, I doubted if the near neighborhood of man was not essential to a serene and healthy life. To be alone was something unpleasant. But I was at the same time conscious of a slight insanity in my mood, and seemed to foresee my recovery. In the midst of a gentle rain while these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me,... Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me. I was so distinctly made aware of the presence of something kindred to me...