To the lighthouse - A bridge between the worlds To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf illustrates a bridge between the worlds of the Victorian mother and the modern and potentially independent woman. The Victorian woman must have been absorbed, like Mrs Ramsay, with the task of being a mother and wife. Its reason for existence was to complete man, rather than exist in its own right. Mrs. Ramsay certainly sees this role for herself and is troubled when she feels, for a moment, that she is better than her husband because she needs his support to feel good about himself and the life choices he has made. Yet the end of the Victorian era saw the rise of women's rights and greater freedom for women to excel without men or children. Adrienne Rich, in Of Woman Born, says that To the Lighthouse is about Virginia Woolf's need to understand her mother and to demonstrate, through the character of Lily Briscoe, that a woman can be "independent of men, in a way that Mrs. Ramsay". " (Rich, p. 228). The trauma of this transition from Victorian to modern woman is foreshadowed by Mrs. Ramsay herself, at the beginning of the story. In the first chapter, while Mrs. Ramsay defends Charles Tansley from his children's criticisms, he reflects on his desire to protect men and the "trusting, childlike, reverential" attitude his protection inspires in men. "Woe to the girl... who did not feel its value, and all that it implied, to the core of her bones!" she exclaims to herself, thinking of the way men respect and admire her. But Woolf shows us that, while Mrs. Ramsay admonishes her sons for ridiculing Charles Tansley, her daughters " they might revel in unfaithful ideas that had prepared themselves for a life different from hers… not always caring for one man or the other. "The question of change from one concept of femininity to another is not as simple as the revolt of the new generation against the older one; at the same time that Mrs. Ramsay's daughters hope to be different, they admire and venerate their mother for her beauty and power. Prue, the eldest daughter, proudly watches Mrs. Ramsay as she comes down the stairs and feels "what an extraordinary stroke of luck it was for her [Prue], to have her [Mrs..