Psychological Realism in To the Lighthouse Anonymous College

Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse achieves an accurate and effective portrayal of psychological realism, which is understood for the duration of this essay as a strong emphasis on deep interior characterisation and an understanding of how these interior psychological processes influence external actions. To understand how To the Lighthouse exemplifies psychological realism, we must consider the psychology of the mind itself, drawing on theories from both philosophers and psychologists, focusing on William James, Henri Bergson, and Sigmund Freud, and their theories of the stream of thought, metaphysics and creative evolution, and dream theory, respectively. These theories, placed within the context of Woolf’s use of stream of consciousness within To the Lighthouse, illuminate her successful attempt to infuse her novel with psychological realism as she explores the complex processes of the interior mind.

James’s understanding of the consciousness is based upon a presumption of mental continuity, which he defines as “that which is without breach, crack, or division” (154). He proposes that the consciousness feels continuous, while experience two types of interruptions: time-gaps (e.g. when asleep), and “breaks in the quality, or...