Mrs. Ramsay By Eric Werbel, Ricky Dua, and Lorenzo Bertolo

Who is she? Mrs. Ramsey is the central character She is a loving mother and wife Portrayed in image of fertility and softness Believed in rigid gender roles She is a matchmaker and places great importance on marriage Wonderful hostess for guests at summer home on the Isle of Skye

Who is she continued... “He [Mr. Ramsay] found talking much easier than she did”, but “she felt herself very beautiful” ( ). “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 fat that they negotiate treaties, ruled India, controlled finance; finally for an attitude towards herself which no woman could fail to feel to find agreeable, something trustful, childlike, reverential; which and old woman could take from a young man without loss of dignity, and woe betide the girl - pray Heaven it was none of her daughters!””

How old is she? “When she looked in the glass and saw her hair grey, her cheek sunk, at fifty, she thought, possibly she might have managed things better--” (6). Mrs. Ramsey is 50 years old and has 8 children.

Relations to others in the novel? Mrs. Ramsay cares that her eight kids grow up to have good manners and be proper and fit the societal norm “Strife, divisions, difference of opinion, prejudices twisted into the very fibre of being, oh, that they should begin so early, Mrs. Ramsay deplored. They were so critical, her children. They talked such nonsense” (8)

Relations to others continued... Mrs. Ramsay is Mr. Ramsay’s husband and believes it is her role to be the Angel of the House When Mr. Ramsay wants sympathy, Mrs. Ramsay “at once to pour erect into the air a rain of energy, a column of spray, looking at the same time animated and alive as if all her energies were being fused into force, burning and illuminating” (37).

Profession and dislikes/likes? She is a stay at home mother Supports husband Enjoys knitting, taking care of children, looking out at the water, etc. Same quote, but separates the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey: “He [Mr. Ramsay] found talking much easier than she did”, but “she felt herself very beautiful” ( ). Intellectual vs. social roles

Motivations? “They all sat separate. And the whole of the effort of merging and flowing and creating rested on her.” (83)

What she thinks of others? “William Bankes--poor man! who had no wife, and no children and dined alone in lodgings except for tonight; and in pity for him, life being now strong enough to bear her on again, she began all this business,” (83) Feels obligated to help and guide others because...

Images and Symbols Symbol of water: “...and the whole bay spread before them and Mrs. Ramsay could not help exclaiming, "Oh how beautiful!" For the great plateful of blue water was before her; the hoary Lighthouse, distant, austere, in the midst…” (12) Woolf uses symbol of water to show how Mrs. Ramsay is amazed by the beautiful water which portrays the ideal housewife standards of the era.

Images and Symbols Symbol of needles: “Smiling, for it was an admirable idea, that had flashed upon her this very second--William and Lily should marry--she took the heather-mixture stocking, with its criss-cross of steel needles at the mouth of it, and measured it against James's leg” (26). “He was a failure, he said. Mrs. Ramsay flashed her needles. Mr. Ramsay repeated, never taking his eyes from her face, that he was a failure” (38).

Images and Symbols Analysis: Needles represent the ideal women of the era. Mrs. Ramsay is a perfect wife, therefore she knits while watching her 8 children.