From "House" To The "Lighthouse"--The Feminist Interpretation To Viginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse

The famous English female writer, critic, and prominent harbinger of feminism -Virginia Woolf not only shows her role as a feminist pioneer mA Room of One'sOwn and Women and Fiction and her other works, but puts her feminist theories into the literary writings rather successfully. Her feminist ideas are profoundly reflected inher extraordinary novel--To the Lighthouse. The dissertation tries to reinterpret thethree stages of the author's feminist thought by rereading, reanalyzing and rethinking the literary text. These stages are the binary opposition, fusion and transsexualism.Firstly, the analysis of the main character--the Ramsays' marital life and theirdifferent personalities indicate that the binary opposition hidden behind the traditional marriage damages their marriage and leads to the early death of "the angel in thehouse"--Mrs. Ramsay, which makes it clear that the great necessity to abandon the"masculine-centered theory". Secondly, the description of the modernwoman---Lily's refusal and acceptance of male demonstrate the fusion procession.Thirdly, only after the two genders reached the real mutual understanding, could Mr. Ramsay arrive the lighthouse, could Lily finish her painting smoothly at last, which reflected the author's thinking about the transsexualism. That is, when male andfemale are unified in the only conception--human beings, which is neither "thefirst sex" nor "the second sex", but "the third sex" which transcended both, a new mode of human love and partnership can be built, the female can free themselves from the domestic "house" and get to the ideal "lighthouse" and enjoy the true freedom. In spite of this, feminist criticism has its own limitations since it attaches too much importance to individual, class and racial aspects. If it is put into grander social and historical situation, feminism will tend to be more mature and perfect.