| Virginia Woolf is now recognized by many readers and critics as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. With a keen sense of life and Nature, she is now and then obsessed with the limitation of human life: how ephemeral and minute human life is in the universe. She restlessly searches in her lifetime for the meaning of life in her daily experience as well as in her works.This thesis focuses on Virginia Woolf's semiautobiographical novel To the Lighthouse (1927) which is normally regarded as one of her best novels. In To the Lighthouse she proposes explicitly the vast and general question"What is the meaning of life". And her view is clearly presented in the novel. Underpinned by her diaries, letters, autobiographical writings, essays and other writings, this thesis tries to illustrate her view of life as a voyage from moment to eternity by scrutinizing the different moments experienced by the characters in To the Lighthouse, their memories, the artistic creation of the painter Lily Briscoe, and the voyage of the Ramsays to the lighthouse. In her view, though life is shaped by moments of being which illuminate in the dark, and it is in a constantly changing flux, it can reach the shore of eternity through memory, art, and its unification with Nature.This thesis is divided into five parts:Chapter one is the introduction which includes a presentation of Virginia Woolf and To the Lighthouse, a brief literature review of Woolf studies abroad and in China, and the theme and organization of this thesis.Chapter two is about Virginia Woolf's concern with the limitation of life: the transience of life and minuteness of human beings. This constant anxiety about the limitation of life evokes in Virginia Woolf quest for the meaning of life.The third chapter focuses on the moments of life. It first presents Virginia Woolf's definition of the key term"moments of being". And then it approaches To the Lighthouse and takes a particular look at some intense moments of being experienced by the characters. It aims to illustrate her view of life—life consists in the significant moments of being from which illuminations are perceived to better understand the meaning of life. Life, however, is in a constantly fleeting flux, because the moments of being are always passing and flowing quickly.Then in chapter four, it shifts to the eternity of life which is a greater concern of Virginia Woolf. In her view, death can not cut the stream of life, but is rather a step to the world of eternity. Life can in one sense achieve eternity in the ways such as through people's memory, in the work of art, and finally in its unification with Nature.Based on the analysis of To the Lighthouse, the thesis draws a conclusion that in Virginia Woolf's view, life is both evanescent and permanent; it is a voyage from moment to eternity. She discovers among the chaotic world the meaning of life in experiencing the moments of life, transcending the limitation of life and reaching the eternity of life. Her view of life sheds positive light and illuminates in the dark.
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