To the Lighthouse: The Window, 6 Summary & Analysis

As Mr. Ramsay approaches the window on his march round and round the lawn, Mrs. Ramsay can see right away that her husband is in anguish, “all his vanity, all his satisfaction in his own splendor….shattered.” She knows not to speak to him but focuses instead on James and, looking up after a bit, sees that Mr. Ramsay has come round again with his mood “veiled; domesticity triumphed.” He stops at the window to fondly tickle a still-bitter James.

Hearing that Mrs. Ramsay is trying to finish the stocking in case they go to the Lighthouse the next day, Mr. Ramsay swells into a rage, infuriated by the irrational “folly of women’s minds.” “He had ridden through the valley of death, been shattered…and now she flew in the face of facts…told lies.” He stamps and says, “Damn you,” to his wife. Mrs. Ramsay is shocked to silence: “to pursue truth with such astonishing lack of consideration for other people’s feelings…was to her…an outrage of human decency.” Then, after a moment, Mr. Ramsay offers to go check with the Coastguards and Mrs. Ramsay feels he is the most admirable person she knows.

Mr. Ramsay strides off again, repeating his phrase, though now it sounds to him “changed” and he hums it, then drops it altogether. Mrs. Ramsay smiles, listening. The vague shape of his wife and child at the window “fortified him and consecrated his effort” to solve the problem he’s contemplating. If thought were an alphabet, his “splendid mind” had reached Q. He is trying to reach R and, thinking onwards, his thought vacillates between extremes: he is proud at having reached Q (which so few people do) and confident in his role as patriarch (who protects his wife and children), and simultaneously self-doubting and crushed by the fear of other people whispering about his failure.

The text zooms out and compares him to the leader of a polar expedition who, having resolved to freeze to death, still squares his shoulders so as to be discovered later in the posture of a hero. The text asks: “who will not secretly rejoice when the hero puts his armour off, and halts by the window and gazes at his wife and son…who will blame him if he does homage to the beauty of the world?”