To the Lighthouse: The Lighthouse, 8 Summary & Analysis

On the sailboat, Cam looks at the shore and thinks “They don’t feel a thing there.” The sail suddenly loses the wind, sags, and the boat stills. Mr. Ramsay doesn’t stop reading but James dreads the moment his father will look up and criticize James’ handling of the sail. James considers his life-long desire to stab his father in the heart. He has realized as he’s aged that in fact it’s not his father but his father’s moods that he wants to kill. He compares those moods to a carriage wheel that mauls someone’s foot by running over it: the damage is done, but not done intentionally or maliciously. James feels that, whatever his profession, he will devote his life to fighting tyranny.

James thinks back to his memories of childhood, and recollects his childhood vision of the Lighthouse as something “silvery, misty-looking…with a yellow eye.” But now it is “stark and straight” and detailed with stripes and windows. Still, he thinks his past vision of the Lighthouse is true, too. “For nothing was simply one thing.”

James remembers Mr. Ramsay dashing his hopes about going to the Lighthouse as a child and Mrs. Ramsay’s attention being deflected away from James towards his father. He thinks back to his mother, whom he remembers as the only person who said “whatever came into her head” and “spoke the truth.” James exhausts his thoughts and sits miserable and motionless, resenting his father. Then all of a sudden wind bursts into the sail and the boat shoots forward. Mr. Ramsay remains completely absorbed in his book. He slaps his knee.