Hinderance to Expression, Landres

Landres March 7, 2021

Hinderance to Expression

Mrs. Ramsay and Lily are each impeded from telling Mr. Ramsay what he wants to hear, though they clearly discern what he wants them to say to him. In each case he wishes for their sympathy: for Mrs. Ramsay to tell him she loves him, for Lily to say anything regarding him. Neither woman could speak, yet each did feel along with him.

Mrs. Ramsay feels love and sympathy, but does not see the possibility of translating her feelings into verbal expression, for which Mr. Ramsay longs. Lily feels Mr. Ramsay’s sorrow and discomfort (a kind of sympathy), but is disabled from comforting him. She feels the suffocating weight of his need and demand of her, and she resents him for this imposition. Yet she resolves that it would be simpler to say to him what he wants, in order to satisfy him and relieve herself of the unrelenting burden. Despite this resolution, “she could say nothing; the whole horizon seemed swept bare of objects to talk about; could only feel, amazedly, as Mr. Ramsay stood there, how his gaze seemed to fall dolefully over the sunny grass and discolor it…” (To the Lighthouse, 152). Even later in the scene, when she feels a deep sympathy for him and his boots, she is unable to express it.

Despite the differences between the cases, neither woman could seize upon an object of verbal expression for Mr. Ramsay. Part of the cause of this disability, which is later repeated in James and Cam under Mr. Ramsay’s effects, is the tyrannical weight and strain that Mr. Ramsay imposes on others—his unbending desires and expectations to receive from others a particular form of expression about a particular object. This intensity causes others to shrink nervously from him and to turn their attention upon themselves in self-reflection. Perhaps this inevitable reaction causes Mrs. Ramsay to be unable bear the insufficiency of the three words and Lily to be practically unable to transgress her principles.

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshMarch 20, 2021 at 10:45 PM

    That's a powerful correlation between the two women. Is the refusal to yield to Mr. Ramsay's implicit demand an act of rebellion against tyranny, caring too much about something to want to follow the script? Or a kind of disgust at being sucked into the self-pity drama -- which is an expression of dignity and nobility, perhaps even conferring dignity on Mr. R by not letting him continue the game?

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