Character Sketch: Mr. Ramsay (To The Lighthouse)

Name: Mr. Ramsay

Appearance: Small blue eyes, lean and narrow

Qualities: Strong presence, Disrespectful, Values truth, Harsh, Overbearing/Oppressive, Unpleasant

Relationship to others (particularly James): Bad

Through the perspective of the son, James, Mr. Ramsay is portrayed as a lean and narrow man with blue eyes. He is noted to have a strong presence, is disrespectful, values truth, is harsh and overbearing, and overall unpleasant. His strong presence is mentioned in James’s thoughts after vocalizing his thoughts about going to the lighthouse. James has an intense reaction to his father’s comment, saying, “such were the extremes of emotion that Mr. Ramsay excited in his children’s breasts by his mere presence.” (4) This implies the strong presence and influence that Mr. Ramsay has. By stating his thoughts, he evokes in his child emotions that are strong as “extremes” imply a high degree of something.

Mr. Ramsay is also seen as a disrespectful character. He is mentioned “grinning sarcastically, not only with the pleasure of disillusioning his son and ridicule upon his wife” (4). Here, Mr. Ramsay is shown taking pleasure in objecting to going to the lighthouse. By grinning sarcastically, the reader can understand Ramsay as somewhat unpleasant in his nature. The usage of “disillusioned” suggests that Mr. Ramsay has a knack of taking people out of dreams and back into reality, a sense of realism that emits from him. As he gets satisfaction in this, it can be seen that Mr. Ramsay enjoys doing this regularly and likes to dwell in someone else’s displeasure. In the same quote, Mr. Ramsay can be seen as disrespectful as he ridicules his wife, “ridicule” implying mocking, a form of disrespect and does not acknowledge his wife.

With all these qualities, an interesting one is that Mr. Ramsay values truth. He is noted to be “incapable of untruth” (4). “Incapable” defines Mr. Ramsay here, as it suggests that, even if he were to try, he does not have the ability to speak lies, or untruth. He is a factual, rather honest person that “never tamper[s] with a fact; never altered a disagreeable word to suit the pleasure of convenience of any mortal being, least of all of his own children that life is difficult” (4). Yet, as truthful as he may be, the quality also causes problems with relationships, such as the one with his son as Mr. Ramsay does not spare anyone’s feelings for the sake of truth. He does not mend his statements, even if it were to satisfy another person.

His truthful nature comes off as harsh, overbearing and almost oppressive. In the previous quote, James mentions that “life is difficult”. Other than literally meaning that life in general is difficult, this overtly states that Mr. Ramsay’s character becomes an oppressive force that makes life difficult for the children. His factual quality becomes a burden to them, so profound that James states, “the passage to that fabled land were our brightest hopes are extinguished, our fail barks founder in darkness…one that needs, above all, courage, truth, and the power to endure” (4). Here, “fabled land” suggests that hope is an ideal that cannot be achieved, a dream, while “extinguished” implies that it is snuffed out, no longer there. This means that Mr. Ramsay takes away the only way that the children can access hope and leaves nothing in the end for them, leading them into darkness.

This characterizes Mr. Ramsay as strong yet unforgiving. He takes away any hope the children may have, for instance, James’s hope of going to the lighthouse. His facts become unbearable for the children, giving the reader a sense of what type of person Mr. Ramsay is. This characterization is further supported, with James saying “power to endure” in the end. The word “power” is the ability to do something. It suggests magnitude, a strength in which is needed to overcome obstacles, in this case Mr. Ramsay. The other word “endure” gives a sense of how strong the obstacle is, a weight to whatever is imposed on the receiver. The word gives it a sense of toughness and suffering, “to endure”. By saying this, it suggests that the weight that Mr. Ramsay imposes on the children and others is significantly large, to the degree that they must continue to suffer and endure the magnitude of his oppression. This, along with other qualities such as strong presence mentioned above, gives insight into the unpleasant characterization of Mr. Ramsay.