Mrs. Ramsay's enduring influence

      Mrs. Ramsay's influence was the thread that held together the relationships in the beginning of "To the Ligthouse" and even though she has passed away suddenly, her significance is still apparent:  “Mr. Ramsay stumbling along a passage stretched his arms out one dark morning, but, Mrs. Ramsay having died rather suddenly the night before, he stretched his arms out, they remained empty” (141).  This is especially the case in terms of Mrs. Ramsay's relationship with Lily. She has a constant presence in Lily’s consciousness although her impression of her has changed. Initially, Lily was both in awe and discouraged by Mrs. Ramsay; impressed by her charisma but still apprehensive at the reminder of social expectations for women. However as the years pass, Lily has grown to respect the ways in which Mrs. Ramsay effected her, and Lily is finally able to complete painting  after  ten years. Mrs. Ramsay's death is sudden and goes unexplained throughout the novel, meant to be a statement of the spectrum of time and how in the span of the universe, a single death is insignificant. However Mrs. Ramsay's life is captured in Lily's painting  and is a single source of stability in the characters' ever changing lives: “nothing stays, all changes; but not words, not paint.”