Mr. Ramsay is described as brutally honest, in light of the “uncompromising” nature of reality and “lean as a knife.” James, the Ramsays’ young son, who appears to be fully in the grips of his Oedipal complex, believes his mother is “ten thousand times better in every way” than his father and he fantasizes about killing him.
To the Lighthouse – 1
To the Lighthouse – 3
A young, overly-serious man named Mr. Tansley longs for Mrs. Ramsay’s recognition. Woolf writes, “He would like her to see him, gowned and hooded, walking in a procession.” This desire for recognition seems comparable to James’s devotion to his mother. Mrs. Ramsay is literally a mother and the archetypal mother figure.
To the Lighthouse – 5
Freud’s family drama is on full display between James and his mother and father. Woolf writes of Mr. Ramsay, “But his son hated him. He hated him for coming up to them, for stopping and looking down on them; he hated him for interrupting them” and by ignoring Mr. Ramsay, James “hoped to recall his mother’s attention.”