The Complementary Coexistence Of Individuality And Sociality

To the Lighthouse is widely regarded as Virginia Woolf s most accomplishedwork that fully exhibiting her mature modernism writing techniques and herphilosophy of life. Since its publication in1927, this novel has continued to attract thereaders and the critics. Woolf s writings focus more on the inner world of human kind,and in all her life Woolf never stops pondering the nature of human and the meaningof life.This thesis aims to explore Woolf s viewpoints on the dualities of man’ spersonality individuality and sociality manifested in To the Lighthouse. ChapterOne centers on the characters desire for seeking self-realization and safeguardingprivate space to prove that defending individuality to highlight his uniqueness andindependence is human s intrinsic need. Chapter Two discloses the characters’ eagerexpectation of being recognized by the society, spontaneous impulse of shoulderingsocial commitment and irresistible yearning for emotional connections with others,and comes to a conclusion that upholding sociality to merge into the socialsurroundings is also human being s internal demand. Chapter Three firstly points outthat though man s personality is determined by individuality and sociality, the twoattributes are like two opposing forces and lead one to the dilemma of strugglingbetween keeping independence and merging into the group. Then it makes a contrastbetween two different ways of dealing with the dilemma. Through the contrast, theauthor of this thesis discovers that in characterizng Mrs. Ramsay who reconcilesindividuality and sociality flexibly and obtains a clear view of life, Woolf conveys apositive indication to readers that the two attributes are complementarily coexisting inone s personality, so by self-adjustment one can make the innate individuality andsociality come to a fused and balanced state and then to build an integratedpersonality is achievable.