I am a firm believer that, more often than not, children
give the most honest and comprehensive description of people they know. Thus, I
find that the best way to truly delve into the fabric of a character lies in
dissecting how the children surrounding the character in question indirectly
characterize him or her. However, I have found that in looking for his true
character through his children and through Lilly, Mr. Ramsay becomes not
clearer as a character, but more muddled and confused, such are the
contradictory statements which his children give about him.
These contradictory opinions and views become especially
clear in the end of the novel, when Mrs. Ramsay is no longer the focus of
attention, and isn’t there to buffer the children’s opinions. In the boat on
the way to the lighthouse, James thinks that he “kept dreading the moment when
he [Mr. Ramsay] would look up and speak sharply to him about something or other”
(Woolf 187). The dialectic use of the word “sharp” reinforces the stern nature
of Mr. Ramsay; “sharp” in this context could mean that Mr. Ramsay either
reproaches James intelligently, with a measure of intellect and high achievement
mentally, or with a mean tone, in a way designed to make James feel badly for whatever
infraction he made. However, an interesting point about James’s outlook on the
possibility of Mr. Ramsay saying something on James’s conduct is that James
doesn’t actually do anything to
warrant a negative comment. Mr. Ramsay constantly seems to blame James for the slow
going of the boat, but, in reality, the wind is to blame for that issue. It seems,
that from James’s point of view, Mr. Ramsay is unreasonable and overly critical
of situations often outside human control.
On a completely different side of the spectrum, we find Cam’s
opinion of Mr. Ramsay. In fact, “she thought... he was not vain, nor a tyrant, and
did not wish to make you pity him” (193). This idea directly contradicts most
of the opinions of the rest of the novel concerning Mr. Ramsay, and indeed
makes a bold statement. Cam, as one of Mr. Ramsay’s youngest children, has only
known him as a parent; Mrs. Ramsay died when Cam was not yet seven, so she knew
her mother very little. Cam’s statement suggests that Mr. Ramsay, contrary to
the stern and military-esque persona James perceives, is rather intellectual
and soft as a human. That Mr. Ramsay acts this way to two of his children –
both within a year of age – indicates that he must have some secondary feelings
towards each of them which would cause him to act differently to each of them.
One very plausible explanation for the distinct disconnect
in characterization between James’s and Cam’s ideas of Mr. Ramsay could be
explained in their actions towards him, and his reciprocations in action. When
James was a young boy, Mr. Ramsay famously said no, they cannot go to the
Lighthouse today. In keeping with the norm of the human mind, it became James
to only remember the negative of Mr. Ramsay’s actions. Mr. Ramsay didn’t like
it when Mrs. Ramsay spoke her mind, Mr. Ramsay didn’t like it when something
was done in a fashion he didn’t agree with, and Mr. Ramsay dashed James’s hopes
and wouldn’t take them to the Lighthouse. James has a predisposition to only
remember the negatives, because so many of his experiences with his father have
been rather negative. On the other hand, Cam only remembers good things of her
childhood with Mr. Ramsay. She talks extensively about her experiences sitting
in the reading room with Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Carmichael, while Mr Carmichael
would read The Times and Mr. Ramsay
would write in his journal, or read a book. She fondly remembers the sound of the
paper turning its page, and when one would make a comment to the other and would
start some sort of discussion. Her positive remembrances directly influence the
positivity in which she sheds Mr. Ramsay.
In conclusion, it would be wise to say that Mr. Ramsay never
actually has his character really fleshed
out and discovered, because none of the accounts of his character are from
people who can separate their personal interactions with Mr. Ramsay from the
man himself. His character is extremely subjective, dependent upon how the
other characters feel about certain moments in time, where he happened to
factor in. His children’s opinions, then, are of the most importance, because in
each child’s different opinion, we see not necessarily how Mr. Ramsay acts as a
character, but who the child is as a character.
James is the sad and lonely boy who lost his loving mother,
and was left with a bitter, mean man to care for him in her place. Cam is
loving, girlish, probably the utmost stereotype of the man-pleasing woman. She remembers
her father’s intelligence, how he used to make her feel at peace, and so even
when she wants to see something bad, see Mr. Ramsay form James’s point of view,
she can’t because the positivity of her own life makes the negativity in James’s
viewpoint alien to her. The children’s judgments of Mr. Ramsay are of more use
in telling who the child is than who the man behind the judgments is.
This was a very interesting post Jordy! So much of our class discussions I feel centered around the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, and whether or not they were in love, who had power over whom, and lots of other things that young people tend to get fixated on (myself definitely included), so I really liked how you decided to focus on the children. Thinking about it, it's kind of unusual how the children were portrayed in this novel - I feel like in most literature the viewpoint of the children isn't really emphasized, or given much credibility if it is, but so much of the character development in this novel relied heavily on the children's perspectives. I definitely agree with you that varying perspectives of each child only made the characters, especially Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, more confusing because of how often these perspectives contradicted each other - and Cam and James' view of their father is a perfect example of this. I think that that was maybe the point that Woolf was trying to make by choosing to create her characters this way, through the eyes of others. It reminded me of the article we had to present about on Friday, that was about how important it is to try to view Woolf's writing in many different ways instead of just accepting the initial interpretation we get from it. Much of what we are initially led to believe about the characters in the beginning of the novel, based on the children's accounts of them, is contradicted or at least made much more complex as the novel progresses and we get more people's perspectives. Just more of that good ole parataxis, showing how fragmented our perceptions are, with the formation of a cohesive whole not always happening - yay, modernism! I liked this post a lot though, good job for putting a new spin on things!
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