Papar No. 10 - The Tell - Tale Heart - Critical analysis from the Perspective of Psychology

The Tell - Tale Heart - Critical analysis from the Perspective of Psychology

Introduction of Story

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in January 1843. It is a gothic story which involved the psychology of man that how psychology operates and it draws man to become devil. It is told by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of his sense (sanity), while describing a murder he committed.

“TRUE! --Nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” – This is the starting of the story.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

A nameless person explains that he is and was extremely nervous, but is not and was not insane. Rather, the narrator has a "disease" which makes all his senses, especially his hearing, very sensitive. To prove that he isn't insane, the narrator shares an event from his past. Let's jump into his tale: The narrator has an idea that he can't shake. He loves the old man and has nothing against him. Except…his horrible eye, which is "pale blue with a film over it". The narrator hates the eye and decides to kill the old man to be free of it. To that end, the narrator goes to the old man's room every night at 12am, for seven days. Each night the narrator opens the man's door and puts in a lantern. After the lantern, the narrator puts his head through the doorway, extremely slowly, and then opens the lantern so a tiny beam of light shines on the old man's eye. Each night the old man doesn't open his eye, so the narrator feels that he can't kill him. On the eighth night, the old man hears the narrator at the door and wakes up. On this particular night, unlike the preceding seven nights, the narrator's hand slipped on the clasp of the lantern, and the old man immediately "sprang up in bed, crying out — 'Who's there?'" He can see nothing because the shutters are all closed. Here, as in most of Poe's stories, the action proper of the story takes place within a closed surrounding — that is, the murder of the old man is within the confines of his small bedroom with the shutters closed and in complete darkness The narrator hangs out there in the dark for a long time, then, with a scream, plunges into the totally dark room, opening the lantern, and shining light on the old man's eye. The narrator drags the old man, who has only screamed once, off the bed, and then pulls the bed on top of the man. When the narrator hears the man's heart stop beating, he removes the bed and checks to make sure the old man is really dead, which he is. So the narrator cuts him up and hides his remains under the floor. Then three policemen come. A neighbor had heard a scream and called them. The narrator says he screamed while sleeping, and claims that the old man is out of town. After convincing the cops nothing bad is going down, the narrator brings them into the old man's  bedroom, and they all sit down to chat.  While they are all shooting the breeze, the narrator starts hearing a terrible ticking noise, which gets louder and louder until the narrator freaks out, confesses, and points the police to the old man's body, state that the sound is coming from the old man's heart. Then narrator confesses his deeds and accepts that he had killed the old man. He showed the pieces of body of old man.

To begin to understand the motive of the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” it is necessary to first analyze Poe’s life. Throughout his life, he lost nearly everyone that he loved, whether it be by leaving (his father), their deaths (his mother and wife/first cousin), or simply growing apart (his foster family). Due to all of these incidents, it is very possible that Poe developed abandonment issues; Poe was most likely very afraid of losing any more people that he cared about unexpectedly.

Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell -Tale Heart is a horror story, psychological thriller and confession written from a first person perspective. It covers issues on psychotic behaviour, paranoia, guilt and murder through the language, structure and narrative form. Poe believed that all good literature must create a united effect on the reader and reveal truth or evoke emotions.

Throughout the reading of story, reader can understand that there is a factor of Psychology, that how its operate and how it inspires human to do some deed. Here reader can apply psychology of that servant that the Vulture eye of Old man, leads him to do murder of an old man.  Let’s discuss some psychology aspect of narrator.

v Vulture Eye

v Id, Ego, Superego,

v Mental Conflict

v Guilt and Innocence

v Sanity and Insanity

v Fear and Terror

v Attempt of Crime

v Acceptance of Crime

********

v Vulture Eye

The narrator gives the background of the story by telling the reader he plans to kill this old man because he is guilty for having a vulture eye, and that the old man himself is not guilty for his death. The narrator hated the old man’s eye because it reminded him of a vulture; vultures are known for devouring dead things, so they generally remind people of death. The narrator did not like to think about people dying, so he had to murder the man to rid himself of that; this was another motive. It is related to Poe’s life because of all of the people Poe lost that he cared about.

“I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.”

Here, narrator explains that he had great respect and love for the old man. But there is something intolerable in his mind, that the Eye of old man was something strange for servant/narrator. When he saw that "hideous veiled eye," he became furious. Here, narrator could not understand that why the eye of old man inspires for the murder of old man. That vulture eye disturbed the narrator and then he made decision to kill that old man. He chose to murder the man instead of growing closer to him and having to later mourn his loss. The narrator hated the old man’s eye because it reminded him of a vulture; vultures are known for devouring dead things, so they generally remind people of death. The narrator did not like to think about people dying, so he had to murder the man to rid himself of that; this was another motive. It is related to Poe’s life because of all of the people Poe lost that he cared about. So reflection of psychology of writer may found here.  

v Id, Ego, Superego

Id, ego, and super-ego are the three parts of the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche; they are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and interaction our mental life is described. According to this model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the superego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego. The super-ego can stop one from doing certain things that one's id may want to do.

·       The id

The id is the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human's basic, instinctual drives. Id is the only component of personality that is present from birth. It is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives.

The id acts according to the "pleasure principle"— the psychic force that motivates the tendency to seek immediate gratification of any impulse —defined as, seeking to avoid pain or unpleasure aroused by increases in instinctual tension.  If the mind was solely guided by the id, individuals would find it difficult to wait patiently at a restaurant, while feeling hungry, and would most likely grab food from neighboring tables. The id demands immediate satisfaction and when this happens we experience pleasure, when it is denied we experience ‘unpleasure’ or pain. The id is not affected by reality, logic or the everyday world.

·       The Ego

Initially the ego is 'that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world. (Freud 1923).

The ego acts according to the reality principle; i.e. it seeks to please the id's drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bring grief. At the same time, Freud concedes that as the ego "attempts to mediate between id and reality, it is often obliged to cloak the Unconscious commands of the id with its own Preconscious rationalizations, to conceal the id's conflicts with reality, to profess ... to be taking notice of reality even when the id has remained rigid and unyielding."

The reality principle that operates the ego is a regulating mechanism that enables the individual to delay gratifying immediate needs and function effectively in the real world. An example would be to resist the urge to grab other people's belongings, but instead to purchase those items. It helps us to organize our thoughts and make sense.

·       The Superego

The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one's parents and others. It develops around the age of 3 – 5 during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. The superego's function is to control the id's impulses, especially those which society forbids, such as sex and aggression. It also has the function of persuading the ego to turn to moralistic goals rather than simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection.

Edger Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” shows a narrator being driven mainly by his ego.

The narrator starts out by claiming that he is not mad and continues to make this claim throughout the story using a logical approach. As his story continues though it clearly shows opposite of it what he claims, but the narrator seems to refuse that he is insane and uses many arguments to prove it. The narrator is fixed on doing his crime with extreme caution, but in the end, his ego causes him to confess his deed. When one first reads “The Tell-Tale Heart” they are inclined to feel that it his id not his ego controlling him, but when you look closer more evidence seems to point to the fact the his ego is more in control.

This not to say that his id and superego do not play apart in his action, for clearly they do, but the id and the superego only play a small part in the narrator’s thoughts. From the beginning of the story it clear that the narrator’s ego is in control. The last few sentences in the first paragraph clearly show this “The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” (Poe, 40)The end of the first paragraph really shows.

Logically speaking a mad man would not be able recount murder. One critic refers the narrator as being “an egocentric who derives pleasure from cruelty.” (Pritchard, 144) This idea of the narrator being egocentric (or self-centered) is supported by another critic who says he show the stages of “Ego-Evil.”

v Mental Conflict

Narrator of this story has a conflict of mental ability. Characterization of the servant is displeasing.

“TRUE! --Nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” This line shows the condition of narrator, that he is facing problem regarding his decision to murder the old man. The word ‘Nervous’ explain that he is nervous. The repeated word ‘Very, Very’ is shows the unpleasant time of narrator. Here, the metal condition of narrator is unpleasing.

For seven nights, the narrator opens the door of the old man's room, in order to shine a sliver of light onto the "evil eye". However, the old man's vulture-eye is always closed, making it impossible to "do the work”. On this particular night, unlike the preceding seven nights, the narrator's hand slipped on the clasp of the lantern, and the old man immediately "sprang up in bed, crying out — 'Who's there?'" He can see nothing because the shutters are all closed. Here, as in most of Poe's stories, the action proper of the story takes place within a closed surrounding — that is, the murder of the old man is within the confines of his small bedroom with the shutters closed and in complete darkness The narrator hangs out there in the dark for a long time, then, with a scream, plunges into the totally dark room, opening the lantern, and shining light on the old man's eye. The narrator drags the old man, who has only screamed once, off the bed, and then pulls the bed on top of the man. . When the narrator hears the man's heart stop beating, he removes the bed and checks to make sure the old man is really dead, which he is. Here, narrator is also facing problem that how he can kill an innocent old man. Narrator can see an old man as a innocent only when he cannot see the eye of old man, because that is an Pale blue eye which motivates to kill him. So here delay of deed shows the conflict of narrator. 

In the end of the story, the narrator starts hearing a terrible ticking noise, which gets louder and louder until the narrator freaks out, confesses, and points the police to the old man's body, state that the sound is coming from the old man's heart. Then narrator confesses his deeds and accepts that he had killed the old man. He showed the pieces of body of old man. Here reader can see that how terror of his did cover the servant. Finally, he has accepted his crime. So it is reflected that the mental condition of narrator/servant was depressed.

v Guilt and Innocence

“Guilt and Innocence”, after completing his deed, he calmly make pieces of body of old man and hide under the floor. He did it very effectively. Then he clean the floor, and arranged thing in the bed room of old man. Then police man came to inspect that is there any foul play happened in the home, because the neighbor had listen the scream. Servant kindly shows that all house to police man, then offering them to drink. Murdering the old-man for no apparent reason, he hears his interminable heartbeat and his sense of guilt is released through the confession from the police, by shouting at them. Thus narrator felt guilty and accept that he had murdered the old man.

However, the narrator feels that he is innocent in the story. He is just like an innocent boy, who takes care of his master–an old man. He takes care of an old man. So it can reflect that the narrator is innocence. But The Vulture Eye of Old Man made him mad.  He actually proud of his calmness. He plans of murdering the old man. Also, the most key point that can recognize is the narrator admitted that there are uncontrollable forces that drive him to commit violence act. SO it can said that there was a calmness in the servant, but something was intolerable for that he loses his innocence.

v Sanity and Insanity

“I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire.”

In the story, narrator uttered this word that how it affect, this line shows the understanding of the narrator, that he had no desire to harm the old man. He has a good sense. But there is some forces which he couldn’t discover that why he planned to murder the old man.

From the first line of the story, ‘True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will you say that I am mad?’ The readers can already discover that there is something strange had occurred. Although he tries to convey the readers that he is sane, through conveying, it had already amplified that he is lack of sanity. The narrator argued that sane is being methodical, calculating, however, the confusing language reveals that he is disordered.

After seeing the eye of the old man, narrator loses his patient and sanity. Then he planned to murder an old man. So here the outer force, that motivate narrator to kill that old man.

v Fear and Terror

Edgar Allan Poe use is directly linked with the narrator’s psychological state. The story is told through the unreliable narrator’s point of view, enhancing the sense of cold detachment while the crimes were committed. The unreliable narrator’s fear is illustrated with descriptive language, which was often used for describing the old man’s vulture’-like eye. This eye is a symbol of the narrator’s fear, the trigger to his insanity, and also the narrator’s reason for why the old man should be killed. Expressed with Poe’s ingenious use of words and sentences, the narrator’s twisted logic reveals his insanity, although he claims otherwise. At the beginning of the story he intended to show his sanity by “how calmly I can tell you the whole story”. (Poe, 1) The narrator’s tone was nervous and changes rapidly between calm, logical statements to irrational and frantic outbursts. These outbursts were often spoken in short sentences. Poe’s frequent use of exclamations also reveals the narrator’s nervousness. The short sentences and exclamations heightens tension and fear, supporting the story’ suspense, then finally breaking at the climax of the story when the narrator’s fear drove him to insanity.

“TRUE! --Nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” This line shows the condition of narrator, that he is feeling fear, regarding his decision to murder the old man. The word ‘Nervous’ explain that he is nervous. The repeated word ‘Very, Very’ is shows the fear and terror of narrator. Here, the metal condition of narrator is fearful.

v Attempt of Crime

The narrator hates the eye and decides to kill the old man to be free of it. According to story, reader can understand that how did happen. Because narrator came seven nights at 12 a.m. for the murdering of an old man, but unfortunately he couldn’t see the Vulture Eye of an old man. On eight nights, the narrator goes to the old man's room the old man hears the narrator at the door and wakes up. On this particular night, unlike the preceding seven nights, the narrator's hand slipped on the clasp of the lantern, and the old man immediately "sprang up in bed, crying out — 'Who's there?'" He can see nothing because the shutters are all closed. Here, as in most of Poe's stories, the action proper of the story takes place within a closed surrounding — that is, the murder of the old man is within the confines of his small bedroom with the shutters closed and in complete darkness The narrator hangs out there in the dark for a long time, then, with a scream, plunges into the totally dark room, opening the lantern, and shining light on the old man's eye. The narrator drags the old man, who has only screamed once, off the bed, and then pulls the bed on top of the man. When the narrator hears the man's heart stop beating, he removes the bed and checks to make sure the old man is really dead, which he is. So the narrator cuts him up and hides his remains under the floor. As, the narrator murdered the old man.

v Acceptance of Crime

After murdering an old man, suddenly narrator listen a low heartbeat, then he said that suddenly there came to his ears "a low, dull, quick sound": It was the beating of the old man's heart. It is at this point in the story that we have our first ambiguity based upon the narrator's over-sensitivity and madness. The question is, obviously, whose heart does he hear? We all know that in moments of stress and fright our own heartbeat increases so rapidly that we feel every beat. Consequently, from the psychological point of view, the narrator thinks that he is hearing his own increased heartbeat. It is established at the beginning of the story that he is over-sensitive — that he can hear and feel things that others cannot.

Thus, as the beating of the heart becomes intolerable, he screams out to the police: "I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!"

The sound of “heartbeats” is metaphorically the sound of the inner guilt in the narrator, and this guilt made the narrator admit his crimes.

Many repetitions of single words, but when the narrator hears the heartbeat in the presence of the policemen, his nervousness increases and so does the repetition of his words. “It grew louder—louder— louder!...no, no...this I thought, and this I think…louder! Louder! Louder! Louder!...here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!” This line shows the mental condition of narrator, that whenever we are in fear we used to repeat word, so this repeated words shows the conflict of narrator.

Conclusion

So, after reading the story, reader can say that there are psychological factor, which motivates to murder tan old man. After completing did, the factor of psychology of narrator forced to accept his did. Thus the psychology working in both the sector first to murder an old man then accept that did.

Paper - 9 - Symbolism in 'To the Lighthouse'

Symbolism in To ‘The Lighthouse’

Introduction of Novel

To The Lighthouse is 20^th century novel which is written by Adline Virginia Woolf. She was an English Author, writer, publisher, essayist and short story writer. She is regarded as a famous figure of that era.

1)     Mrs. Dalloway (1925)

2)     To The Lighthouse (1927)

3)     Orlando (1928)

These are a famous novel of Virginia Woolf.

To The Lighthouse

This novel is published on 5^th May – 1927. The novel is landmark of high modernism. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf used the language of psychoanalysis. Reader can find stream of consciousness during reading the novel. The novel set on duration of 10 years (it deals with the year - 1910 to 1920). The centre of the novel is Mr. and Mrs. Ramsays and their visit to the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

Virginia Woolf wrote about this novel that – “I suppose that I did this work for myself.”

The novel captures its readers with its characterization of Ramsay family and their guest who meet at their holiday home on Isle of Skye, an island near the Scottish mainland. As know that novel is set on a ten years period of time,

1)     The novel’s first section taking place on a day before the First World War,

2)     A Middle period in which all the action happens “off stage” during the war

3)     Last section taking place on a day after the First World War.

Symbolism in To the Lighthouse

As a being Modernist writer, Virginia Woolf used may symbol in her work. If we look from normal eye site, we cannot find any image for the use of that symbol, but if we see it from different perspective, reader can understand the use of that symbol. Woolf did not follow the tradition of writing style in To the Lighthouses, the reader can tell that an image or object that appears in the novel is significant, it shows something but it may be hard to understand that what exactly it means – shows.

What is Symbolism?

•        In the broadest sense a symbol is anything which signifies something; in this sense all words are symbols.

•        In discussing literature, however, the term "symbol" is applied only to a word or phrase that signifies an object or event which in its turn signifies something, or has a range of reference, beyond itself.

Some symbols are "conventional" or "public": thus "the Cross,” "the Red, White, and Blue," and "the Good Shepherd" are terms that refer to symbolic objects of which the further significance is determinate within a particular culture.

(M.H.Abram ‘A Glossary of Literary Terms)

            In simple way, can say that symbol is something which can show some idea, thought, image, in one word or design. If only symbol can show, reader can understand whole idea of that concept.

For, Example: - Red Cross. This is one kind of symbol, if reader can see this kind of symbol.

This is one kind of symbol, if reader can see this kind of symbol that can understand that Hospital is nearby.

For, Example: - Traffic Lights

From above discussion we can see that in our day to day life we can see many symbols and interoperate as our knowledge.  If we see from the vision of Literature we can find that in the works of writer we can also find some image of symbol which can see normally, but it has a deep meaning.

What is Symbolism?

•        the artistic method of revealing ideas or truths through the use of symbols

Above definition may lead us towards that it a method, which draws our idea, thought in particular way with the use of some image or symbol.

•        Many novels have two layers of meaning. The first is in the literal plot, the second in a symbolic layer in which images and objects represent abstract ideas and feelings. Using symbols allows authors to express themselves indirectly on delicate or controversial matters.

(Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved)

What is Symbolism?  (In literature)

•        Poets, like all of us, use such conventional symbols; many poets, however, also use "private" or "personal symbols."

•        Often they do so by exploiting widely shared associations between an object or event or action and a particular concept;

For example,

ü  the general association of a Peacock with pride and of an Eagle with heroic endeavor,

ü   The Rising sun with birth of something good.

ü  The Setting sun with death, or surrender or failure.

•        Some poets, however, repeatedly use symbols whose significance they largely generate themselves, and these pose a more difficult problem in interpretation.

-        M.H.Abram ‘A Glossary of Literary Terms

If we look at Our Gujarati Literature there are many used many symbols –

We can find some UPNAM – TAKHALLUS of the name of writer, sometime they don’t write their full name, and they just used their UPNAM,

Sometime name of writer can be found in their work, that name is symbol of writer

પર્વત ને નામે પથ્થર, દરિયાને ને નામે પાણી,

ઈર્શાદ આપણે તો, ઈશ્વરને નામે વાણી.

This name ઈર્શાદ is shows the name of writer. That writer is Chinu Modi.

 Modernist Literature and Symbolism

•        The Modern Period, in the decades after World War I, was a notable era of symbolism in literature.

•        Many of the major writers of the period exploit symbols which are in part drawn from religious and esoteric traditions and in part invented.

•        Some of the works of the age are symbolist in their settings, their agents, and their actions, as well as in the objects they refer to.

•        Instances of a persistently symbolic procedure occur in lyrics (Yeats' "Byzantium" poems, Dylan Thomas' series of sonnets Altarwise by Owl-light),

In longer poems (Hart Crane's The Bridge, T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Wallace Stevens' "The Comedian as the Letter C"),

In novels (James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury

Era of Modern Literature deals with many symbols. During those days it was very dangerous and harmful to raise against the voice of authority, if you have raised voice against them then the writer and their life may be in danger. So they used the symbols and through those symbols they used to show reality.

Sometime writer use particular things to show something. For example if writer wanted to show

If we take an example of work of any writer, then we can find that one or another way they have used some symbols or images to show, something different. If from first reading reader can understand the normal reading, they cannot find deeper meaning of that symbol. They have to use their inner sense and they have to try to find out the meaning of those image.

  

Example from literary work:-

Gulliver’s Travel by Jonathan Swift is widely appreciated novel by critic and reader. The novel has four parts. Each part of that novel has symbol. The part of each novel is a symbol. The hegemony of the people of those days can be reflected in the novel.

If reader is not able to understand symbols of the novel, they can read as a child story, but the novel is just like a satire on society and people of that time, entire novel is full of symbol. Let’s find out how symbols used and worked in the novel.  

1)     A Voyage to Lilliput - The first part of that novel deals with the power position of White people on the entire society.

2)     A Voyage to Brobdingnag -The second part of that novel deals with ideology of white people and their ambitious.

3)     A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan -The third part of the novel is satire on science and blindly followed people, who make effortless, try which never convert into good result.

4)     A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms -The forth part of the novel deals with the human. It shows that animal is more rational and civilized in the novel. They live batter life than mankind. The animal portrayed more civilized then mankind. So it is one kind of symbol which used to show degradation of human.

To the lighthouse, this novel is full with the use of symbol; the symbol which is used in the novel can be interpreted in different way or perspective from various critics. The symbols in novel is used properly, one or another way it reflects the idea of writer. In the novel there are many symbols, they all are giving glimpses of some another idea. It draws towards the showing something else.

Let’s see variety of the symbols are used in the novel. Symbols used are in which context and let’s interpreted it. The all symbols are woven with each other. Let them study closely under the following heads.

v Lighthouse: Titular Significance

v Lily’s Painting

v Ramsay’s Summer House

v The Boar’s Skull

v Rose’s arrangement of the grapes and pears

v The Sea, the Storms, the rock, reefs and shallow water

v The Window

v Lighthouse: Titular Significance

This is the most important symbol in the novel. As it is also included in the title, the Lighthouse is also a symbol. This symbol is interpreted by different critic by different ways. It reflects the life of mankind. Building of The Lighthouse is showing something. As we see the building of Lighthouse is tall, huge and big stand alone on rock or island. It has light and darkness. During the night time it gives Light to ships and sea fares. The

It stands alone and tall in both light and darkness and it, along with its beacon, is a focal point which Symbolizes strength, guidance and safe harbor; it is Spiritual hermit guiding all those who are traveling by sea.

If we apply to character of the novel, each character has different meaning of the lighthouse.

If we see the lighthouse from the perspective of Mr. Ramsay, he sees the lighthouse as source of stability and comfort. It stands as strong feelings of ownership.

To Mrs. Ramsay, the predictability of the lighthouse is most important, implying that truth lies in the cycles that govern life.

For Lily Briscoe, the lighthouse becomes a sort of fixation during her final artistic vision – she is watching Mr. Ramsay’s boat reached at the lighthouse as she approaches the solution of how to finish her painting. As the lighthouse is difficult to understand just like that  Lily Briscoe finding problem to complete the picture of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay. Finally

 "the Lighthouse had become almost invisible, had melted away into a blue haze" (308)

And with this she is finally relieved, and her painting is finished. As the lighthouse disappear and Lily got some Idea to finish her picture. Thus, this suggest that the lighthouse is also inspirable to her and she got her vision.

For, James the lighthouse is also symbolized strongest feelings. At the beginning of the novel, it was ambition of James to go the lighthouse, at the end of the novel they reached at the lighthouse. Sees that:

 "The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye…." (276)

James arrives only to realize that it is not at all the mist-shrouded destination of his childhood. Instead, he is made to recon cite two competing and contradictory images of the tower-how it

appeared to him when he was a boy and how it appears to him when he is a man. He decided that both of these images contribute to the essence of the lighthouse.

And at the end of novel, Mr. Ramsay admires the effort of James. And their relation becomes stronger. Thus the lighthouse is symbol of goodness. The lighthouse surrounded by sea always describes and clarifies the human condition in some way. If we see from the perspective of general way that the lighthouse is symbols for something goodness.

The lighthouse is stand alone on a rock with the huge construction. At night it stands alone and the tip of lighthouse there is a ray of light. That light symbolized the ray of goodness, that light gives direction of sea voyages. So at this debate we can say that the lighthouse is symbolized and it gives glimpses of that it is source of snspiration.it is symbolized like truth triumph over darkness.

Let’s see that how different critic has explained this symbol in a different ways…

For example

Russel declares that the lighthouse is the feminine creative principle.

Jon Bennett calls the alternate light and shadows of the lighthouse the rhythm of joy and sorrow, understanding and misunderstanding.

F.L. Overcarsh, finds the novel as a whole an allegory of the old and New Testements:             Mrs. Ramsay is Eve, the Blessed virgin and Chirst; Mr. Ramsay is among other things God the Father; the lighthouse is Eden and Heaven.

The strokes of the lighthouse are the persons of the Trinity, the  third of them, long and steady representing the Holy Ghost.

The lighthouse as symbol has not one meaning, that it is a vital synthesis of time and eternity: an objective correlative for Mrs. Ramsay’s vision, after whose death it is her meaning.

It has been said to represent a religious symbol by some critics, a phallic symbol by some others. Metaphorically, as the element of Water represents the emotions, the Lighthouse is a Symbol for the Spiritual Strength and Emotional Guidance which is available to us during the times we feel we are being helplessly tossed around in a sea of inner turmoil. Mrs. Ramsay stands strong like the lighthouse amidst emotionally shattered beings; viz., Michael Ramsay, James, Lily, Carmichael, etc.

v Lily’s Painting

Lily’s painting is another and important symbol of this novel. Lily’s painting represents a struggle against gender convention, represented by Charles Tinsley’s statement that: “women can’t paint or write.” This symbol of picture is symbolizes the condition of woman during those days. It shows woman’s struggle of woman in the patriarchal society. She desire to express Mrs. Ramsay’s essence as an individual wife and mother in her painting. Lily’s vision depends on balanced and synthesis: how to bring together disparate thing in harmony; this mirror Woolf’s writing creed – “the novel is a both a critique and a tribute to the enduring power of Mrs. Ramsay.

This symbol is started in the starting of the novel and completed in the end of the novel when James and Mr. Ramsays reached at the lighthouse.  Perhaps the meaning of Lily’s Painting is unclear and the process of making that painting is difficult. The reflection of her Woolf’s character can be finding in Lily’s character. It is often suggested that Lily Briscoe is a semi-autobiographical character representing Woolf herself and her artistic process. The process of Lily’s painting throughout the novel can be seen as not only a symbol of the artistic dilemma faced by the modern artist, but especially o a female artist.

At the beginning of the novel, Lily is clearly self-conscious about her art - when looking at her painting, she sees only what could be different about it, constantly comparing it to how other painters would have depicted it, not wanting others to look at it

Lily’s Picture: Lily sees that Mrs. Ramsay’s gift of harmonizing human relationship into memorable moments is “almost like a work of art” and in the book art is the ultimate symbol for the enduring ‘reality’.

In life, as Mrs. Ramsay herself well knows relationships are doomed to imperfection, and are the spot of time and change; but in art the temporal and the eternal unity in an unchanging form- through, as in Lily’s picture, the form may be very inadequate. We cannot doubt that Lily’s struggles with the composition and texture of her painting are a counter part of Virginia

Woolf’s tussles and triumphs in her own medium, but she chooses poetry as the image that reminds mankind that the ever changing can yet become immortal. Lily is a Postimpressionist painter, descendant of a poor family, and has spent most of her life taking care of her father. In many ways, Lily is the chorus figure of the book—providing the histories of the characters and commenting on their actions. The beginning and completion of her painting form the frame of To the Lighthouse, and her final line, “I have had my vision,” is the final line of the novel, acting as Woolf's own comment on her book.

The painting also represents dedication to a feminine artistic vision, expressed through Lily’s anxiety over showing it to William Bankes. In deciding that completing the painting regardless of what happens to it is the most important thing, Lily makes the choice to establish her own artistic voice. In the end, she decides that her vision depends on balance.

Her desire is to express Mrs. Ramsay’s essence as a wife and mother in the painting. The painting also represents dedication to a feminine artistic vision, expressed through lily’s anxiety over showing it to William Bankes. Lily decides that her vision depends on balance and synthesis, How to bring disparate things together in harmony.

v Ramsay’s Summer House

Ramsay’s summer house is also one of the important symbols of the novel. This is a crucial symbol to understand. This is the place where all deed happens. Ramsay’s House is a place where Woolf and her characters explain their belief and observation. During her dinner party, Mrs. Ramsay’s sees her house display her own inner notions of shabbiness and her inability to preserve beauty. The house stands for the collective consciousness of those who stay in it. From the dinner party to the journey to The Lighthouse, Woolf shows the house from every angle.

The section of the novel that this symbol is especially important is in "Time Passes". Here the house takes over the plot development, all references to the main characters are brief and made parenthetically, literally. Ten years pass during this section, and with the Ramsay’s gone, the passage of time is conveyed through the house's gradual decay. There is huge use of personification in this section, with light, dark, wind, air, and other forces of nature portrayed almost as spirits taking over the house. These forces are given action verbs usually reserved for more human beings - "creeping", "toying", "musing", "nosing, "rubbing" – finally these airs "all together gave off an aimless gust of lamentation to which some door in the kitchen replied; swung wide; admitted nothing; and slammed to" (190-91).

During the dinner party, Mrs. Ramsay sees her house display her own inner notions of shabbiness and her inability to preserve the beauty.

     

The way nature is portrayed as an intruder, invading the house, causing its eventual decay, symbolizes the impermanence of man and his constructions - the question is explicitly posed in this section: "Did Nature [with a capital "N"] supplement what man advanced?" (201). The fact that the house is the primary image through which the effects of time are conveyed, even though time has profound effect on the Ramsay's - Mrs. Ramsay, Prue, and Andrew all die - represents the irrelevance of humanity on the grand scale of time and how nature alone ultimately persists, which is yet another common modernist theme.

There are several other images throughout the novel that serve as symbols for death, colonialisation, sex, but these three are the most predominate throughout the novel, so hopefully this explanation can help give a general overview of Woolf's use of symbolism and the ideas being portrayed through her symbols.

In the “Time Passes” section, the ravages of war and destruction and the passage of time are reflected in the condition of the house rather than in the emotional development or observable aging of the characters. The house stands in for the collective consciousness of those who stay in it. At times the characters long to escape it, while at other times it serves as refuge. From the dinner party to the journey to the lighthouse, Woolf shows the house from every angle, and its structure and contents mirror the interior of the characters that inhabit it.

v The Boar’s Skull

This is one of the important and mysterious symbols of the novel. It shows the reality and universal truth. It leads toward right way of life. That death is ultimate reality.  

            After the completing of dinner party, Children went upstairs for plating some games. Then Mrs. Ramsay went upstairs to find the children wide-awake, bothered by the boar’s skull that hangs on the nursery wall. The presence of that skull is something unpleasant and disturbing. This skull reminder us that death is always at hand. Even during life’s blissful moments. It explains that if we are so happy in any time, we should keep in mind that we have to die at some moment of life. We have to leave all things here. This symbol shows ultimate reality of this cruel life that we can die any time.

If we see in the play ‘Hamlet’ we can find that there is also a scene of Grave Digging Scene. We can see that there is also a symbol of ultimate reality of life that A great person were dead and their body convert into ashes. Thus we can say that Death is ultimate truth, no one can avoid it. Thus the symbol of boar’s skull is symbolized with death. Boar’s skull points out about the futility of life and death.

 v Rose’s arrangement of the grapes and pears (The Fruit Basket)

The arrangement of fruits in the basket by Rose, it symbolized some truth of life and death. Metaphorically it gives message. This is very important symbol of the novel. Rose arranges a fruit basket for her mother’s dinner party that serves to draw the partygoers out of their private suffering and unite them. Although Augustus Carmichael and Mrs. Ramsay appreciate the arrangement differently—he rips a bloom from it; she refuses to disturb it—the pair is brought harmoniously, if briefly, together. The basket testifies both to the “frozen” quality of beauty that Lily describes and to beauty’s seductive and soothing quality. The absence of fruit basket in 3^rd part signifies the transitory nature of beauty, art and truth.

v The Sea, the Storms, the rock, reefs and shallow water

•       The Sea

The symbol of Sea appears throughout the novel. The Sea shows the instability of time and life. The water of sea is symbolic one. The sound of waves of sea can be heard throughout the novel.  It symbolizes the eternal flux of time and life, in the midst of which we all exist; it constantly changes its character.

To Mrs. Ramsay at one moment it sounds soothing and consoling like a cradlesong,

at others, “like a ghostly roll of drums remorselessly beating a warning of death it brings terror. Sometimes its power “sweeping savagely in, “seems to reduce the individual to nothingness, at others it sends up ‘a fountain of bright water” – which seems to match the sudden springs of vitality in the human spirit.

Woolf describes the sea lovingly and beautifully, but her most evocative depictions of it point to its violence. As a force that brings destruction, has the power to decimate islands, and, as Mr. Ramsay reflects, “Eats away the ground we stand on,” the

sea is a powerful reminder of the impermanence and delicacy of human life and accomplishments.

Sometime Sea is beautiful but it may also be dangerous and also can become violent to destroy everything.

•       The Storm

The Storm is symbolized something horrible thing of life and death. As can see that in the storm there is a element of Air and Wind. It contains both the thing in it. Both are the constructive element of life. Air is representing the mind, and water is representing the emotion of life. The Storm symbolized agitated thoughts and emotions. Metaphorically, storms are our inner Demons which torment both our mind and subconscious.

·       The rock, Reefs and Shallow water

These symbols are showing certainty of life. The rock show the life is too hard to life. It gives suffer, as Mrs. Ramsays survived her life. The rocks, reefs and shallow water symbolized the final danger and miseries which seem to accompany the end of any turbulent voyage. Just as the saying. “its always seems always darkest before the dawn”, things always seem the most dangerous and hopeless as we reach the end of emotional turmoil. This is the point when we feel like tossing up our hands and giving up.

v The Window

The Window, a view to oneself: It is from the window that we have the little of the part-I of To the Lighthouse. It is not a transparent but a separating sheet of glass between reality and Mrs. Ramsay’s mind. Mrs. Ramsay experiences such moments of revelation and integration at watching the window.

Conclusion

At the near of our destiny you may be near to death or danger, because in Christianity it shows that there is a way to hell near the gate of haven. If u have done good deed throughout the life it may be possible that you may be in hell perhaps you may have done good deeds in your life, your life may be in misery or in good condition.

While finding symbols in the novel, it is still a subject of debates. Still critics are interpreting the symbols in different ways. Hopefully this brief overview of some of the major images throughout the novel can help give an idea of their basic symbolism while reading this novel. . To The Lighthouse is a masterpiece of construction through symbolism. It is an organic whole.