payment page
How, then, she had asked herself, did one know one thing or another thing about people, sealed as they were?
Lily Briscoe has these thoughts in Chapter IX of The Window as she rests her head on Mrs. Ramsay’s knee out of love and a desire to understand her. One of the most difficult challenges for all the characters is their inability to truly know each other. Lily here laments that disconnect, caused by the subjective nature of every person. These barriers of truly knowing or understanding other characters causes Lily and all the others insecurity and anxiety as they struggle to relate to each other.
But it had been seen; it had been taken from her. This man had shared with her something profoundly intimate….crediting the world with a power which she had not suspected—that one could walk away down that long gallery not alone any more but arm in arm with somebody.
Lily has these thoughts in Chapter IX of The Window after a conversation with William Banks about her painting. Throughout the novel, the negative opinions of other characters threaten Lily’s own subjectivity, her ability to present her individual vision and have confidence in it. However, this interaction with William Banks shows Lily that the subjectivity of others does not have to be antagonistic. Although William Banks does not entirely understand Lily’s painting, they have a productive conversation about it. This interaction means that she need not be alone with her thoughts, but can communicate them and not be overridden.
All of them bending themselves to listen thought, “Pray heaven that the inside of my mind may not be exposed,” for each thought, “The others are feeling this. They are outraged and indignant with the government about the fishermen. Whereas, I feel nothing at all.”
This quotation comes from Chapter XVII of The Window, during the rather awkward dinner. As with many scenes in the novel, the inability to truly know what other people are thinking combined with the awareness that everyone has their own subjectivity creates tension and fear in the characters. Here, everyone at the dinner party is drawn into having superficial conversations with conviction they do not truly feel for fear of judgment. Ironically, because everyone is too afraid to say what they feel, none of them actually enjoy the conversation.
All of them bending themselves to listen thought, “Pray heaven that the inside of my mind may not be exposed,” for each thought, “The others are feeling this. They are outraged and indignant with the government about the fishermen. Whereas, I feel nothing at all.”
This quotation comes from Chapter XVII of The Window, during the rather awkward dinner. As with many scenes in the novel, the inability to truly know what other people are thinking combined with the awareness that everyone has their own subjectivity creates tension and fear in the characters. Here, everyone at the dinner party is drawn into having superficial conversations with conviction they do not truly feel for fear of judgment. Ironically, because everyone is too afraid to say what they feel, none of them actually enjoy the conversation.
One wanted fifty pairs of eyes to see with, she reflected. Fifty pairs of eyes were not enough to get round that one woman with, she thought.
Lily has these thoughts about Mrs. Ramsay in Chapter XII of The Lighthouse, as she works on her painting. While subjectivity has previously made Lily anxious, the realization that seeing Mrs. Ramsay’s full complexity requires fifty pairs of eyes offers a liberating perspective. Everyone seeing Mrs. Ramsay a little differently allows for her multifaceted nature, lets her be loving and giving, and also stifling and overbearing. Subjectivity thus gives Lily freedom to embrace her own vision.
