Mrs. Ramsay and Charles Tansley

Just as Mrs. Ramsay protects her husband, builds up his self-esteem, so she feels compelled to protect Mr. Tansley, who is an odious “little atheist” (9). David Daiches, in his essay “Symbolic Pattern in To the Lighthouse,” describes Charles Tansley as an “aggressive young philosopher with an inferiority complex” (70). In introducing Tansley, Alice van Buren Kelley writes: “If Mr. Ramsay is careful to speak only the truth as he sees it, Charles Tansley is fanatical. No hyperbole for him, not even the mildness of metaphor. As an atheist rather than an agnostic, he is unshakably certain about life’s limits and is…tightly confined within his own existence by his exaggerated self-absorption” (83).  Despite these multiple reasons for disliking Tansley, Mrs. Ramsay takes it upon herself to be his protector:

Indeed, she had the whole of the other sex under her protection; for reasons she could not explain, for their chivalry and valour, for the fact that they negotiated treaties, ruled India, controlled finance; finally for an attitude towards herself which no woman could fail to feel or find agreeable, something trustful, childlike, reverential. (TtL 10)

Mitchell A, Leaska argues that Mrs. Ramsay’s dislike for Charles Tansley gets hidden or distracted by the focus of the children and their distaste for the new house guest. He explains: “As readers we know only that Mrs. Ramsay is looking at Tansley. Yet the…anger and disparagement which permeates [the children’s thoughts] identifies the lines as coming from Mrs. Ramsay, as being her impressions of the young man” (53).   He argues that the children become scapegoats, a way for the conventionally adherent mother to express her anger without fear of repercussions from the minds of the readers. After all, society’s rules would deem that she must treat Mr. Tansley with respect, even if she does not wish to. Mrs. Ramsay’s thoughts are one way she is able to express her true feelings.

Mrs. Ramsay is compelled to protect the opposite sex even though she does not understand why. She feels it could have something to do with all the hard work they do for her society and global affairs or even something as simple as the fact that she feels she can trust the opposite sex to protect her well-being. Mrs. Ramsay claims that every woman is compelled to feel the same emotions that she does, and perhaps there is some truth in this statement. After all, Clarissa in Mrs. Dalloway is compelled to bend to her husband’s will despite the fact that she feels differently about the situation. There is something inherent between men and women that compel them to act a certain way towards each other.

It is odd that Mrs. Ramsay’s relationship with Mr. Tansley is described much sooner than her relationship with her own husband. In fact, Woolf purposely highlights this relationship first because she wants to show that even though Mrs. Ramsay seriously dislikes Mr. Tansley, she bends to his will in order to make him feel more masculine, more important. Her thoughts reveal that she dislikes how he bullies the children, especially James:

“There’ll be no landing at the Lighthouse tomorrow,” said Charles Tansley, clapping his hands together as he stood at the window with her husband. Surely he had said enough. She wished they would both leave her and James alone and go on talking. (TtL 11)

Mrs. Ramsay is both ambivalent with her husband and Charles, who constantly shatter James’ hopes about visiting the lighthouse. Mrs. Ramsay is always trying to protect her son, and her thoughts vaguely hint at the annoyance the men cause in her life. However, when she is called to run an errand in town, she asks Mr. Tansley to accompany her. Despite wanting to be left alone, she invites the men into her life, to become a part of her inane activities for the day. As they try to communicate, Mrs. Ramsay admits her ignorance to the reader; she has no idea what Charles is babbling about:

Mrs. Ramsay did not quite catch the meaning, only the words, here and there…dissertation…fellowship…readership….lectureship. She could not follow the ugly academic jargon, that rattled itself off so glibly. (16)

Of course, Mrs. Ramsay does not tell Charles that she does not understand him, which, conventionally, would be rude. Instead, she patiently listens to him talk and fakes interest. Likewise, Tansley does not care if Mrs. Ramsay agrees with him or not. He is more concerned about making himself sound smart, regardless of how it perpetuates Mrs. Ramsay as the uneducated one. The image of the lighthouse, solid and alone in the sea, signifies Mrs. Ramsay:

For the great plateful of blue water was before her, the hoary Lighthouse, distant, austere, in the midst; and on the right, as far as the eye could see, fading and falling, in soft low pleats, the green sand dunes with the wild flowing grasses on them, which always seemed to be running away into some moon country, uninhabited of men. (16)

Mrs. Ramsay’s mention of a “moon country” is a feminine reference that hints of the moon deity, a female. She does not say this imaginary dune country lacks human influences. Instead, she asserts that it is a country of women for women, not influenced by man’s neediness. Here, in this imaginary world, Mrs. Ramsay can let go of her motherly responsibilities and, again, be a woman.

Charles Tansley, on the other hand, gains a new sense of self from Mrs. Ramsay’s silence. He does not realize how confused and lethargic Mrs. Ramsey is about his choice of conversation. She is bored by his self-centeredness. However, by the end of their walk, Mrs. Tansley’s importance is reaffirmed:

While for the first time in his life Charles Tansley felt an extraordinary pride; a man digging in a drain stopped digging and looked at her, let his arm fall down and looked at her; for the first time in his life Charles Tansley felt an extraordinary pride; felt the wind and the cyclamen and the violets for he was walking with a beautiful woman. He had hold of her bag. (18)

He is not proud because he has an intelligent woman interested in what he has to say. Instead, he feels his masculinity has been nicely complemented by the beautiful woman walking next to him. He feels important because he is proud that common workers stop to look at Mrs. Ramsay, who is letting him hold her bag. He is the chivalrous gentleman walking with a beautiful lady.

The irony of their relationship lies in the miscommunication of it. Tansley feels that he has reached a special level of understanding with Mrs. Ramsay, heightened by their walk to town. In actuality, Mrs. Ramsay cannot stand his pompous attitude. Again, after their walk, she reasserts how he is an “odious little man” (18).

Works Cited

Kelley, Alice van Buren.  To the Lighthouse: The Marriage of Life and Art. Boston: Twayne, 1987.

Latham, Jacqueline E.M. ed. Critics on Virginia Woolf. Coral Gables, FL: U of Miami P, 1970.

Leaska, Mitchell A. Virginia Woolf’s Lighthouse: A Study in Critical Method. New York: Columbia UP, 1970.

Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. Orlando: Harcourt, 2005.