A Plotinian Reading of Virginia Woolf’s to the Lighthouse

Virginia woolf is one of the precursors of modernist english fiction and a master of the technique of stream-of-consciousness. one of her masterpieces, to the lighthouse, basically reflects her literary technique and her vision of life as a female writer at the beginning of the 20th century. woolf’s portrayal of the three major characters in the novel, mrs. ramsay, mr. ramsay and lily briscoe, offers the reader an understanding of fulfillment of desires on personal, aesthetic and intellectual levels. mrs. ramsay’s search for harmony in nature and the household, her role as a mediator between god’s creations can be associated with plotinus’s philosophy of reaching the god through contemplation on godly creations. thus, in this article, the character of mrs. ramsay in woolf’s to the lighthouse will be analyzed in the light of plotinian philosophy in question.