| In Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway, female characters struggle with the difficulty of dethroning the persona (social masks), a Jungian construct, which inhibits their ability to attain an authentic private identity and attain selfhood. Early twentieth-century British patriarchal society's expectations for women were particularly limiting, since they subjugated women into the ideal role of the housewife. This thesis examines three characters---Clarissa Dalloway of Mrs. Dalloway and Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe of To the Lighthouse---through their struggle to dethrone their social masks and create authentic private identities. The thesis contends that Clarissa Dalloway's inability to dethrone her social persona has inhibited her ability to forge an authentic identity, while Mrs. Ramsay cherishes her role as housewife and mother, but her mask has constricted her development of her self, and Lily Briscoe discards her social mask to follow her path as an artist. |
