On the “Duration” of Psychological Time in To the Lighthouse

Abstract

Employing Henry Bergson’s theory of “duration” in the analysis of “psychological time” in To the Lighthouse, this article seeks to reveal the temporal scheme of the novel, in which embodied the distinctive aesthetic of “psychological time”, the motif of the essence of life, and the secret of Woolf’s creation of art. In the novel, Mrs. Ramsay found solace and hope for the future when she was immersed in her flowing of consciousness featured by heterogeneous and continuous “duration” of psychological time, while Lily Briscoe, as Woolf’s “artist alter ego,” struggled against the anguish in her duration of psychological time, transforming memory into the art of eternity. With the virtuoso representation of “stream of consciousness,” Woolf amplifies psychological-time narration within the structure of the external “clock time”, uncovering the truth of human consciousness, revealing the connection between the spiritual and the objective world, and exploring the essence of life.