On Virginia Woolf's Feminist Ideas In To The Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf (1882—1941), the most prominent representative of the First Wave of feminism, has provided us great legacy in literature. Woolf has extracted her feminist idea from her own experiences and from the social environment at her time, which makes her writings appear to be more convincing and vivid to us. Her unique feminist ideas have run through her literary works. She has been regarded as the mother of the contemporary debate on feminism, who has attributed in raising many issues that her followers have focused on.The thesis is designed to explore the feminist ideas of Woolf in her novel To the Lighthouse. Through the methodology of a combination of literature review, and text analysis, the author seeks to interpret the feminist ideas that Woolf has endowed in To the Lighthouse. The author has found cases in our life resemble to situations illustrated in the novel To the Lighthouse, which means we can draw lessons from the novel and apply them to better our life. From three different perspectives of feminism, the author explores the deep meaning of female consciousness, androgynous vision, and ecofeminist ideas in To the Lighthouse. The thesis comes to the conclusion that feminist ideology is beneficial to our society no matter which aspect is examined. The thesis deals with the realistic significance that feminist ideas have presented in the novel.