An Analysis Of To The Lighthouse With Narratological Approaches

Virginia Woolf is an eminent modernist writer in English literature. Her innovative experimentation in narrative techniques marks her originality in the world literary circle.To the lighthouse is one of Virginia Woolf's most mature and best-known works. It represents Woolf's mastery of narrative techniques, her creativity and boldness in her artistic experimentation in the novel writing. In To the Lighthouse, Woolf's originality in narrative techniques is mainly manifested in the following three aspects: the narrative point of view, the narrative time and the narrative structure. This paper aims to do a narratological analysis of Virginia Woolf's novel, To the Lighthouse from three aspects to illustrate her originality in narrative techniques. The paper will deal with the following perspectives: 1) Virginia Woolf's choice of the shifting limited point of view of the characters; 2) her artistic treatment of physical and psychological time; and 3) her design of an open ending.