Wholeness Through Time

Virginia Woolf, an outstanding English novelist, has a special place in the history of western literature not only owing to her contribution to the feminism, but her prominent innovation in literary creation. She was fascinated in writing experiments with aesthetics and different literature forms in order to create works different from the previous ones marked with male tradition. Her originality has been the theme appealing to the critics for nearly a century and her contribution to coordinate the gender relations in writing has been another focus for criticism. But her concern about the human relations beyond gender has not been well discussed.This thesis claims that the view of wholeness in To the Lighthouse reflects Woolf’s universal feelings. As it is expressed through the process of making a painting by Lily Briscoe, the heroine and young painter, this thesis tries to explain how Woolf expresses the view of wholeness through "a line", the last stroke she draws to accomplish her painting. Firstly, the thesis clarifies the connotation and realization of the view of wholeness, and analyzes the development of the view. Then, drawing on Kandinsky’s painting theory, the symbol of the linear time and Bergson’s theory of duration, the thesis concludes that "a line" represents the development of the view of wholeness through duration in flux of time. The last point is to discuss how the view of wholeness demonstrates Woolf’s concern about human fate.The thesis consists of four main parts. Chapter One clarifies the view of wholeness through analyzing the relationship between Mrs. Ramsay and other characters. Wholeness is a happy and peaceful state of mind caused by the "community of feeling" resulted from the same opinion or the common vision. It is an ideal state in human relationship which can be symbolically illustrated as a point on the canvas, according to Kandinsky’s painting theory about "point". Meanwhile, it contains the trait of patriarchal society that women must be submitted to men. Chapter Two deals with the implication of destruction of wholeness in the middle part of the novel. It can also be concluded that the line in the painting is the symbol of linear time on the basis of the previous comments on the association between the line and the middle part. Chapter Three relates to the process of reconstruction of the view of wholeness. The reconstruction is accomplished through new connotation containing equality established by Lily and Mr. Ramsay after they rediscover the significance of Mrs. Ramsay’s existence which unites people together. After arguing the connection between the line and one of the images of Bergson’s duration, the thesis will explain the transformation from point to line representing wholeness in another way with Kandinsky’s painting theory. Hence, when the characters in the book reach the moment of wholeness, Lily accomplishes her painting with a line representing the development of the view of wholeness through duration in flux of time. Chapter Four further discusses the reflection of Woolf’s concern about human fate through the view of wholeness and emphasizes the significance of the view to realize the harmonious human relations.