To the Lighthouse: The Lighthouse, 4 Summary & Analysis

Sailing off, James and Cam are silently united in stony resistance to their father’s tyranny. They had hoped the voyage would fail but the boat sails off and Mr. Ramsay is happy to be moving quickly and listens with relish to Macalister (who mans the boat) describe the great storm at Christmas. James steers and mans the sail, anticipating Mr. Ramsay’s criticism at even the slightest mistake he might make. Watching her father, Cam feels proud of him despite her and James’ pact of silent resistance. She admires his courage and adventurousness and thinks that, had he been present at the great storm, “he would have launched the lifeboat.”

Mr. Ramsay points out the summerhouse on the shore, which looks “peaceful” and “unreal” to Cam. Mr. Ramsay sees a desolate, aged image of himself pacing the terrace of the distant summerhouse. He imagines being “bereft” and being given women’s sympathy. He recites a melancholy couplet. Meanwhile, Cam inwardly feels the only reality is the boat they’re on. The reality of their life on that faraway shore is “rubbed out,” “past.” Mr. Ramsay teases Cam for looking at the wrong shore and thinks how hopelessly vague women’s minds are, though that vagueness is also their charm.

Wanting to make Cam smile, Mr. Ramsay asks about the puppy. Cam feels trapped, wanting to respond and please her father but fearful of breaking her compact with James. James inwardly fears she’ll cave into Mr. Ramsay and recalls a blurry memory of his mother turning away from him to attend to a man. Cam compromises by responding to her father, but only partially and sullenly.

Mr. Ramsay gives up on winning over Cam and takes out his book. Cam thinks how she loves and admires Mr. Ramsay above all other people for “his voice,” “his haste,” “his oddity,” “his passion,” his outspokenness. Still his imperious “dominance” remains intolerable and her painful childhood memories of it still make her wake up in the night “trembling with rage.”