Beyond Binary Opposition ——

This paper includes four parts,with the first and the fourth parts as introduction and conclusion,and the second and third as the main body.The first part intends to introduce the background of the novel. The idea of the binary opposition is an inherently structurally based concept based on the Western tendency to group into hierarchy. This notion derived from Saussure’s work in structuralism is a tangible point of departure into the post-structural criticism that is deconstruction.To The Lighthouse is Virginia Woolf’s most widely acclaimed novel.It stands,firmly and centrally,in her work and her life,shedding light on both her past and her future.
The body of this paper will be divided into two chapters—part two and part three.In part two , the unification of art and life will be discussed from two approaches—Woolf’s life and her works;Lily and her painting. Virginia Woolf was born on January 25, 1882, a descendant of one of Victorian England’s most prestigious literary families. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, was the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and was married to the daughter of the writer William Thackeray. Woolf grew up among the most important and influential British intellectuals of her time, and received free rein to explore her father’s library. Woolf’s writing bears the mark of her literary pedigree as well as her struggle to find meaning in her own unsteady existence. After the novel’s publication, Woolf wrote of her depiction of her parents’ marriage in To the Lighthouse, “I was obsessed by them both, unhealthily; and writing of them was a necessary act.” Her own mother had died suddenly when Woolf was thirteen. Considered a model wife and mother, Julia Stephen was known to exhaust herself regularly to please her demanding husband, the writer and intellectual figure Leslie Stephen.
Like many of Virginia Woolf's main characters, Lily Briscoe is not a traditional protagonist for a novel. She is quiet,