isolation

societal/cultural

TTL

class

mrs mcnab

vw context

race

education

tansley

isolated in his intelligence

mr ramsay

isolated from his wife by his intelligence

creative output stops when he gets married

mrs ramsay

uneducated, means she can’t connect to her husband

her children have no education so she connects to them

disdainful of academic jargon- reacting in a society-approved way to the cause of distance between herself and her husband

lily b

art is the only form of expression she is allowed, which is more than the other women

if you could say it in words there would be no need to paint

lily is prevented by her gender from verbalising the emotions she carries and becoming a successful poet like carmichael, able to share her emotions with the world, so has to settle for keeping her painting to herself because she’s a woman and that isolation is her destiny

literally her voice is taken from her and she can only express her thoughts in abstract art so she doesn’t break the mould too much

gender

mr/mrs ramsay

lily’s potential

male

mr ramsay

mr ramsay is very very male and he’s isolated because of the privileges associated with this- education provides him with an outlet for his intellectual ability, so not isolated there, but focuses so much on his work that he’s isolated himself from the idea that he can achieve happiness through other aspects of human communication

bankes

privilege of being isolated but with nothing odd about it- unlike lily, who is called a spinster for not being married, a derogatory term, bankes is called a bachelor, and he is alone and seems to be the only character at peace

he dismisses the uneducated mrs ramsay then loves her again- she fulfills his emotional needs but not the intellectual- vw showing that humans are not made of one thing- we have different needs at different times, we are different people at different times, and making attachments to other people, dropping anchor at their island is futile because the ship will sail and the chains will break anyway

tansley

education has become his life- his male privilege allows the chance to distinguish himself in this non-isolation- he is desperate to become part of a group- does not yet know himself well enough to be comfortable with being alone and certain in the knowledge that whatever he thinks has some value- immaturity, needs the approval of those he considers mentors

james

whilst mrs ramsay envisages her daughters having families, giving birth, she imagines james in positions of power, which is isolating- no colleagues, just him at the top- she wants the isolation for her child, which suggests she believes that a wife can ease the isolation, that it’s her job

female

lily

she’s androgynous in the 1920s sense of the word- she embodies both stereotypically male and female characteristics, ‘male’ independence, love for mrs ramsay, isolated in that she doesn’t have anyone of her exact gender- link to orlando

her gender holds her back- has to look after her father, men isolating her

mrs r

prue

minta

harrison

class

race

education

gender

PT

class

race

education

gender

physical/geographical

ttl

physical/human

locational/geography

lighthouse

off the brompton road

harrods there in the 1910s- she’s away from the glitz and glamour and superficialities of life, she’s isolated from life by her father- men isolating women, oppressing them

where a photographer studio was- her father made her get her picture taken- submitting to men

isolation of the island

‘freedom from external distractions such as friends, family and security laid him open to discovering what it means to live in a relationship with god’ kierkegaard- peter vardy, published by triumph, 1996

‘As people… lost the wider face-to-face ties that build social trust, they become more dependent on romantic relationships for intimacy and deep communication and more vulnerable to isolation if a relationship breaks down’ stephanie koontz, new york times

mrs ramsay isolated herself from confidantes, only people who confide in her-she relies on her husband as the one she can lean on, but he devotes 70 to work 30 to emotion and she sees the 30 as 100- isolation is a result of an intellectually unbalanced marriage, vw commenting on inequality?

harrison

physical/human

locational/geography

pt

physical/human

locational/geography

emotional

ttl

familial

romantic

outsider

harrison

familial

romantic

outsider

pt

familial

romantic

outsider

the effects of isolation

ttl

effects

positive or negative

death

as a result of men oppressing women into isolation- a forced isolation

mrs ramsay dies, possibly a metaphorical symptom of illness in society- the old dying off to be replaced with the new

a sign of rebirth- new ideas after mrs ramsay is sacrificed

the section in which mrs ramsay dies was the first part written- suggests that she was a sacrificial victim

elegiac structure

context- vw trying to let go of her parents, forced to be isolated without them by her death- trying to come to terms with their deaths and her isolation and producing literature in the process, much like harrison

creative growth

harrison

pt

CONCLUSION: death as final isolation

ttl

harrison