1. By: Srinithi, Claire, and Tia
Mr. Tansley
By: Srinithi, Claire, and Tia

2. Who is he? Mr. Ramsey’s student He wants to be a philosopher
He is a guest of the Ramsays
Egotistic and despicable
Family background:
“It was a large family, nine brothers and sisters, and his father was a working man” (12).

3. Age Not explicitly stated-Twenties
According to Mrs. Ramsay: “she could not bear incivility to her guests, to young men in particular, who were poor as church mice” (6).

4. Relations to Characters- Mrs. Ramsay
“she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen” (14).
“for the first time in his life Charles Tansley felt an extraordinary pride...He had hold of her bag” (14).
“He liked her; he admired her...but he felt it necessary to assert himself” (86).
To Mr. Tansley, Mrs. Ramsay represents a goddess or queen-like figure who restores confidence within him and makes him feel recognized.

5. Relations to Characters- Mr. Ramsay
“He’d disinherit her if [Prue] married him, said Mr. Ramsay...There was no harm in him...he was the only young man in England who admired his-- when he choked it back” (66)
“Charles Tansley thought [Mr. Ramsay] the greatest metaphysician of the time” (37)
Tansley serves the purpose of reminding Mr. Ramsay his intellect and accomplishments, and reinforces the feeling of his own worth.

6. Relations to Characters- The Children
“the little atheist” (5).
“He was a miserable specimen, the children said, all humps and hollows” (7).
The children: “what they complained of about Charles Tansley was that until he had turned the whole thing round and made it somehow reflect himself and disparage them--he was not satisfied” (8).
Tansley shows no interest in the children and is courteous only to Mr. Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay.

7. Relations to Characters- Lily Briscoe
“He was really the most uncharming human being she had ever met” (86).
“She was laughing at him” when she asked him to take her to the lighthouse (86).
Lily doesn’t like Mr. Tansley and she is annoyed because he said that women can’t paint and write.

8. Profession, likes, and dislikes
Student of philosophy
“If only he could be alone in his room working...among his books. That was where he felt at his ease”
“He was proud that he was Charles Tansley- a fact that nobody there seems to realize; but one of these days every single person would know it . . .He could almost pity these mild cultivated people” (91-92)
He likes himself, but he wants people to realize this
He also concerns himself in the affairs and status of others
He dislikes the “mild cultivated people”
resembles Mr. Ramsay for his wish of recognition

9. Dislikes
He doesn’t like women and sees them as an obstruction to the path of higher achievements
“He was not going to be condescended to by these silly women They did nothing but talk, talk, talk, eat, eat, eat. It was the women’s fault. Women made civilisation impossible with all their “charm,” all their silliness” (85).

10. Motivations Lack of confidence and urgency in asserting himself
With Mrs. Ramsay: “He himself had paid his own way since he was thirteen. Often he went without a greatcoat in winter...He worked hard-seven hours a day” (12).
At the dinner: “He felt extremely, even physically, uncomfortable. He wanted somebody to give him a chance of asserting himself Why did no one ask him his opinion?” (90)
“Still, he wished he had known how to answer Miss Biscoe properly...show her (Mrs. Ramsay) he was not just a dry prig” (87).

11. What Mr. Tansley thinks of other characters
He thinks highly of Mr. Ramsay and calls him brilliant
Mrs. Ramsay : “stood...for a moment against a picture of Queen Victoria...when all at once he realized that it was this: it was this:--she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen” (14).
His opinion on women: “Women can’t paint, women can’t write” (48)
After Lily starts to be amiable toward him: “And as he was grateful, and as he liked her, and as he was beginning to enjoy himself” (93).

12. Images and Symbols
Hammer and Gunpowder: “Mr. Tansley raised a hammer: swung it high in the air... He could almost pity these mild cultivated people, who would be blown sky high, like bales of wool and barrels of apples, one of these days by the gunpowder that was in him” (91-92)
Atheism: The children mocked him by calling him “the little atheist” (5)