THE JOURNEY TO MENTAL FREEDOM, CREATIVITY AND ART THROUGH VIRGINIA WOOLF’S “TO THE LIGHTHOUSE”

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf can be assumed as a journey to the mental freedom, art and creativity. As an ardent supporter of the feminist movement, Virginia Woolf rebels against the patriarchal order that undermines women’s identity and creativity. As asserted in her feminist manifestos, she constantly encourages women for having their own income and their separate rooms to create and survive individually indicating the injustice among the two sexes. Virginia Woolf highlights the difficulties for women to follow the route of creativity and mental freedom in a patriarchal order. Frustrated by the sudden deaths of her beloveds succesently, Woolf tries to grant a meaning to life. In her semibiographical novel, To the Lighthouse, art has turned a perfect medium for the convergence of life into a concrete product. The novel offers the reader two architypes of women: the traditional mother figure Mrs Ramsey and the extraordinary artist Lily Briscoe. In accordance with Woolf’s feminist struggle, traditional and all giving mother figure Mrs Ramsey reflected “the angel in the house”. As binary oppositions given with the idea of death and life, Mrs Ramsey and Lily Briscoe become indispensable for each other, as the existence of traditional Mrs Ramsey helps the extraordinary Lily Briscoe to become an artist and gain her creativity and individuality as a woman. Endowed with the feminist discourse, the reader will encounter an allegorical journey to the lighthouse as the source of illumination, creativity and mental freedom. The death of “the angel in the house” will not only pave the way for Lily’s artistic journey, but also for the reader for creativity, individuality, freedom of mind and art, defying the harsh reality of death and mortality.