Feminist Thoughts in Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse”

Abstract

The emergence of feminism has fought against the existing patriarchal practices and visions. Feminists included individuals from different backgrounds and with different expertise in many domains. Novelists have contributed to the description of their patriarchal societies through their literary works. The present dissertation aims at analyzing Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse for the purpose of unveiling the portrayals of both main female characters, Mrs. Ramsay and Ms. Lily Briscoe. The study reflects on how patriarchal was the Victorian community and how the author represented her own feminist visions in the narrative. In addition, this work highlights the binary opposition of both characters as to show the old-thinking controlled woman, and the new free independent woman.