ABC's of Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" Quiz

Answer: Lily Briscoe

Lily Briscoe was a character of "To The Lighthouse" who was extremely interested in new art forms. Woolf's friend, Roger Frye, was responsible for introducing the public to Post-Impressionist art. By the time of this novel, Picasso, Gris, and other Post-Impressionists had begun to experiment with Cubism, Vorticism, and other new forms. So, for Lily Briscoe, it was very important to know how to begin a painting and to figure out the relationship between her subject and what went on canvas.

Answer: The Letter R

Mr. Ramsay is a biographer (much like Woolf's father Leslie Stephens was). Mr. Ramsay says this to himself for at least two reasons: 1) he may be a failure and be unable to finish and 2) the linear A-Z is no longer the only way to conceive of important projects.

Answer: Mrs. McNab and Mrs. Bast

Many interesting articles deal with the reconstruction of this house and the unexpected characters that appear to help put it back in shape.

Answer: Mr. Tansley

The period of the 1920s is the time when women are getting the vote. It is also the time of the New Woman, the woman with new habits, new skills and, often, a new look with her bobbed hair and sometimes her cigarette. In spite of this social reality, women still are often criticized for attempting to be true artists.

Answer: Mrs. Ramsay and James

This painting itself is physically fascinating. It is all about perspective. The reader first sees it beginning in a section called simply "The Window." Can things be truly seen through windows, all windows? From the beginning, the novel puts forward questions about what is real and how to let that real be seen by others, how to let it be beautiful and also lifelike.

Answer: Mrs. Ramsay

Mrs. Ramsay is a woman completely dedicated to her children, to the life of people who need help in the town, to her sometimes troubled husband. She does not get much time by herself, and, when she does, she revels in that moment. She enjoys the darkness of not being seen and the ability to hear and become one with the strokes of the lighthouse.

Answer: Mr Ramsay

The many deaths coincide with the grief and loss experienced in World War I, one of the first wars which used mustard gas and tank warfare.

Answer: Mr. Ramsay

The point of the physical journey was to bring supplies to the lighthouse keeper. It also was for Mr. Ramsay a moment of concluding the promise. Across the water, Lily Briscoe finishes her painting almost exactly at the moment Mr. Ramsay puts his foot on shore.

Answer: Ten years

Virginia Woolf realized that the section "Time Passes" was unique in terms of subject matter and manner of presentation. She was afraid that people would condemn it.

Answer: Tell her husband that she loves him

This scene is particularly interesting. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay are individually reading one night. They are so much in tune with each other that Mrs. Ramsay feels her husband's every movement, as he does hers. When he gives her a look which she knows means "Do you love me," she knows that she does not have to answer because she knows that he is completely aware that she does.

This scene is one of the most lovely love scenes of a married couple.