TTL #6

In this section, Lily clearly acts as Woolf through her late exploration of the feelings she feels towards Mrs. Ramsay, who symbolizes Woolf's late mother.  Lily first expresses complete distress and confusion towards the lack of Mrs. Ramsay's presence, very similar to how Woolf must have felt as a child following her parents' deaths: "What does it mean then, what can it all mean?" (Woolf 145).  Lily then attempts to put her feelings into words and finds that she is incapable of doing so: "what did she feel...?  Nothing, nothing-nothing that she could express at all" (Woolf 145).  Words are not complex enough to explain the overcoming of emotions that one feels after a loved one dies, especially when the person himself, namely a child, is not complex enough to explain his feelings.  In this way, Lily acts as a young Virginia Woolf, where the feeling of loss and the concept of death are unable to be described by the simple mind of a child.  However, Lily's remembrance of the painting and determination to complete it is also a symbol of Woolf's relationship with her late mother.  Many years later, Lily decides to finish the painting that she had started which was inspired by Mrs. Ramsay.  This act is like Woolf writing this novel so many years after her mother had passed.  Both acts are the respective artists trying to more clearly understand a loved one after her death,