To the Lighthouse - Bridge Between Worlds To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf illustrates a bridge between the worlds of the Victorian mother and the modern woman , potentially independent. The Victorian woman must have been absorbed, like Mrs. Ramsay, in the task of being a mother and wife. Her reason for existing was to complement man, rather than existing on her own. Mrs. Ramsay certainly sees this role for herself and is troubled when she feels, momentarily, that she is better than her husband because he needs her support to feel good about himself and life choices that he did. 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 own mother and to prove, through the character of Lily Briscoe, that a woman can be "independent of men, like Mrs. Ramsay is not.” " (Rich, p. 228). The trauma of this transition from the Victorian woman to the modern woman is foreshadowed by Mrs. Ramsay herself, early in the story. In the first chapter, as Mrs. Ramsay defends Charles Tansley against the criticism of her children, she reflects on her desire to protect men and the "confident, childish and reverential" attitude that her protection inspires in men "Woe to the girl... who has none. felt the value, and all that it implied, down to the marrow of her bones!" she exclaims, thinking of the way men respect and admire her. But Woolf shows us that while Mrs. Ramsay reprimands her children for ridiculing Charles Tansley, her daughters "could amuse themselves with the unfaithful ideas they had concocted about a life different from his own... without always worrying about a man or another. “The question of the transition from one conception of femininity to another is not as simple as the revolt of a new generation against the old; At the same time as Mrs. Ramsay's daughters hope to be different, they admire and revere their mother for her beauty and power. Prue, the eldest daughter, looks proudly at Mrs. Ramsay as she descends the stairs and feels "what an extraordinary stroke of fortune it was for her [Prue], to have her [Mrs..