It Is Finished by Anjelo Reyes

In Chapter XI of Part One, Mrs. Ramsey thought to herself, "It will end it will end...It will come it will come...We are in the hands of the Lord. But instantly she was annoyed with herself for saying that. Who had said it? Not she; she had been trapped into saying something she did not mean." (63) In this passage, one understands where Mrs. Ramsey stands in her beliefs: she is atheist. Yet, there is an impulse in her to think of God; to hope, perhaps, that all "are in the hands of the Lord." What is happening here? What is this middle ground between faith and disbelief? 

In the last two chapters of the book, one finds a strange juxtaposition of sentiments that seem similar to this middle-ground faith. In Chapter XII, Woolf writes that "[Mr. Ramsey] rose and stood 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'" (207). Thus, James also has an atheistic sentiment that seems to go along with Mrs. Ramsey's own disbelief that all are in the hands of the Lord.

Soon after, in Chapter XIII, Lily says, "He has landed...It is finished." I was very interested in the language of "It is finished." Not only is it emphatic in the last chapter, but seems allusive to Jesus' own last words when he died on the cross: "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." (John 19:30)

Why, then, does Lily use religious language? What do we make of such language in light of the atheistic sentiments revealed throughout the story, and what kind of claim is Woolf seeking to make in saying that there is no God, and soon after, using Jesus' own words? 

One possible answer I have to these questions can be found in James' thoughts in the very end of the book. When he finally sees the lighthouse for what it is, he acknowledges that it falls short of the picturesque image he had as a kid. It was simply a lighthouse, washed by the sea and nothing more. "So that was the Lighthouse, was it?" he even said. 

Despite seeing the Lighthouse for what it was, James nevertheless remembers the Lighthouse he imagined as a child, and admits of its reality. In other words, that Lighthouse was real too. It was as true as the one he saw in front of him now. 

What is the nature of this realization? To me, this seems to be an instance of faith--of believing in that which one cannot see. James did not see the picturesque image of the Lighthouse he had always imagined in childhood, yet he believed that the ideality was still real. Him seeing the Lighthouse now did not invalidate the reality of the Lighthouse of his childhood. He had faith in its trueness, despite not seeing. 

Perhaps through this instance, one understands a certain claim that Woolf seeks to make in terms of religion. There may be no God, yet one is able to have faith. One is able to reach for a Lighthouse, so to speak, and find hope in something. 

And when one reaches that hope--is reconciled with it--that is their salvation. That is when one is able to say, "it is finished." 

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshMarch 27, 2021 at 12:13 PM

    Really interesting. I had never thought of the John connection, but I think you're right. What is the "it" in the Gospel passage, and what sense "finished"? -- done/ended, or brought to completion? In both books we see a narrative of suffering being transmuted into something sacred? By the way, the subject of the "rose and stood" sentence above is Mr. Ramsay, not James.

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