Beyond Binary Opposition вЂ"вЂ"

This paper includes four parts,with the first and the fourth parts as introduction and conclusion,and the second and third as the main body.The first part intends to introduce the background of the novel. The idea of the binary opposition is an inherently structurally based concept based on the Western tendency to group into hierarchy. This notion derived from Saussure’s work in structuralism is a tangible point of departure into the post-structural criticism that is deconstruction.To The Lighthouse is Virginia Woolf’s most widely acclaimed novel.It stands,firmly and centrally,in her work and her life,shedding light on both her past and her future.

The body of this paper will be divided into two chaptersвЂ"part two and part three.In part two , the unification of art and life will be discussed from two approachesвЂ"Woolf’s life and her works;Lily and her painting. Virginia Woolf was born on January 25, 1882, a descendant of one of Victorian England’s most prestigious literary families. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, was the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and was married to the daughter of the writer William Thackeray. Woolf grew up among the most important and influential British intellectuals of her time, and received free rein to explore her father’s library. Woolf’s writing bears the mark of her literary pedigree as well as her struggle to find meaning in her own unsteady existence. After the novel’s publication, Woolf wrote of her depiction of her parents’ marriage in To the Lighthouse, “I was obsessed by them both, unhealthily; and writing of them was a necessary act.” Her own mother had died suddenly when Woolf was thirteen. Considered a model wife and mother, Julia Stephen was known to exhaust herself regularly to please her demanding husband, the writer and intellectual figure Leslie Stephen.

Like many of Virginia Woolf's main characters, Lily Briscoe is not a traditional protagonist for a novel. She is quiet, reserved, unassuming. She is not famous or highly regarded by a community. She is unattached to family, merely a friend of the family. She is not a great artist in the sense that she has not achieved success or been recognized by other artists. Most significant perhaps, unlike the vast majority of protagonists of novels, she is a woman.Her painting mirrors Woolf’s writing, which synthesizes the perceptions of her many characters to come to a balanced and truthful portrait of the world.

In second part,it will anaylze the Gender harmony. The first chapter in the novel represented the contradiction between Mrs.Ramsey and Mr.Ramsey.Mrs. Ramsey is a wife, a mother of eight children, a housewife, a woman in her sixties, and an artful hostess. She undertakes voluntarily to uphill task of creating order and beauty into the relations among her family and friends.She also is a protestor. her primary goal is to preserve her youngest son James’s sense of hope and wonder surrounding the lighthouse. Though she realizes that Mr. Ramsay is correct in declaring that foul weather will ruin the next day’s voyage, she persists in assuring James that the trip is a possibility. Mr. Ramsay is really a person who has all qualities that human beings have.She plays several roles quite wellвЂ"mother,wife and friend.She tries to make everything look harmonious to everyone. According to Mr. Ramsay, men shoulder the burden of ruling countries and managing economies. Their important work, she believes, leaves them vulnerable and in need