To the Lighthouse:
To the Lighthouse opens with James having murderous thoughts against his father as a child, filled with rage at his father for his stern, masculine perspective. This scene gives the reader immediate insight into the familial dynamic of the Ramsay's. As the novel progresses, we see the children grow, specifically James, getting insight into his growth and maturity, "Only now, as he grew older, and sat staring at his father in an impotent rage, it was not him, that old man reading, whom he wanted to kill, but it was the thing that descended on him - without his knowing it perhaps..." (To the Lighthouse 184). This personal growth of recognizing that it his not his father who hurt him, rather a deeply pained, evil aspect of his father shows James' maturity. He is able to recognize his father's flaws, while understanding that his stern aggression stems from his father's personal pain.
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Both James in To the Lighthouse and Orlando in Orlando have internal closure in the end of their story. Through James coming to terms with his father and Orlando embracing her multiple dimensions, they find peace. James' peace is represented by his trip to The Lighthouse, and Orlando's is represented in her finishing of her poem "The Oak Tree", then deciding to leave it unburied beneath a tree.
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