Father and Son by Qiaofeng Zhong

 I am interested in how the relationship between James and his father evolved from the very beginning of the novel to the very end of the novel. The locations of this description seem to be already saying that it is important.

 

At first glance, one might say that there's almost no change at all: James had always held a negative and hostile attitude towards his father Mr. Ramsay. It is just this anger and negative attitude turned from something extreme and aggressive ("had there been an axe handy, a poker, or any weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father's breast and killed him, there and then, James would have seized it. Such were the extremes of emotion that Mr. Ramsay excited in his children's breast by his mere presence") to something milder (it was said that James still had the image of killing his father in mind, but he changed his opinion in thinking that it was perhaps not the father that he was trying to kill but something that lived inside his father). 


However, in chapter 12 it was revealed to the readers that it was not muder James wanted, but a simple compliment from his father. That "well done" along sufficed his desire, "this was what James had been waiting, and [Cam] knew that now he had got it he was so pleaased that he would not look at her or at his father or at any one." To me, this compliment not only brought reconciliation between the father and the son, but revealed that the attitude James had towards his father might not be a rejective and negative one, but a deep revere, affection, and attachment. He had long since childhood been the victim of Mr. Ramsay's patriarchal tyranny.


The lighthouse, to me, also changed in the same way. It had turned from Mrs. Ramsay and James' lighthouse to Mr. Ramsay's lighthouse. The trip to the former was rejected by Mr. Ramsay, while the trip to the latter was brought up and carried out by Mr. Ramsay. One could perhaps read that as a change of Mr. Ramsay's attitude towards his wife and children, but I can't help but see it as a fortification and intensification of his patriarchal power and figure. The conversation he had with Lily before the departure, the same desire he had towards Cam on the sea, the "Well done" he said to James, the final profanely powerful or godlike ("[Mr. Ramsay] rose and sttod in the bow of the boat, very straight and tall, for all the world, James thought, as if he were saying, 'there is no god') stature and leap to the lighthouse, and the obedience and following of Cam and James, all seemed to be suggesting that the lighthouse and this trip to the lighthouse was the final fortification and touch to his grand patriarchal power.

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshMarch 27, 2021 at 11:27 AM

    Interesting, Ms. Trinh. In this interpretation, is there then no solution, no healing? -- so in the end it is deeply pessimistic, since this confirmation of tyranny is no good for anybody, especially Mr. Ramsay himself, who thereby becomes even more isolated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Krishnan VenkateshMarch 27, 2021 at 11:38 AM

      Sorry, Mr. Zhong, not Ms. Trinh. I couldn't edit once I had posted.

      Delete

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