Lily and Mrs. Ramsay present strong female characters that represent two different motivating factors. Lily wants to be an artist and channels her creativity through painting, and Mrs. Ramsay is a good wife, she tends her children, soothes her husband, and hosts many guests. Lily forges ahead in her painting as she attempts a lifestyle that challenges traditional gender roles. As she observes her surroundings, Lily both admires and resents the woman that Mrs. Ramsay is, her poise and beauty, and the relationship that she has with her husband and children. However Mrs. Ramsay reaches beyond the role that Lily assigns. In her domestication, Mrs. Ramsay finds her own outlets for Artistry. Perhaps even a more sophisticated artistry. She envelopes chaos and beauty, pain and dissension, and masters the aspects of her home to create unified, balanced beauty. This is evident in the dinner seen and in her relationships. A particular poignant example on Page 81, demonstrates not only creativity in motherhood, but a confidence and comfortableness as she invites others to participate in her artistry.
"But she let them take their time to choose: she let Rose, particularly, take up this and then that, and hold her jewels against the black dress, for this little ceremony of choosing jewels, which was gone through every night, was what Rose liked best, she knew. She had some hidden reason of her own for attaching great importance to this choosing what her mother was to wear. What was the reason, Mrs. Ramsay wondered, standing still to let her clasp the necklace she had chosen, divining, through her own past, some deep, some buried, some quite speechless feeling that one had for one's mother at Rose's age."
Rose potentially attributes significance to adorning her mother with jewels because she has seen the great care that Mrs. Ramsay puts into presentation. She deems this moment as an honor, and reveres her mother's splendor. Mrs. Ramsay patiently allows Rose to examine all of her 'tools' giving her guided authority in this little project. Not only is she including Rose in her art, she is raising Rose to be balanced beauty herself.
Yeah, I think you're right, Katie -- Mrs. Ramsay ultimately seems to be a supreme artist, and ends up being (in my judgment) as luminous, complicated, and transcendent a character (while still being so grounded and so human) as there is to be found in literature ... Despite her ambivalence about Mrs. Ramsay, maybe we suspect that Lily is aware of (and respects) Mrs. R's artistry, too, right?
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