The figure of Mr. Ramsay from Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse towers over his son, James.  Notice the play of light and dark here.   Mr. Ramsay, who as father and philosopher is a source of light to his son, refuses the boy a long-awaited trip to the lighthouse.  Is it because he feels threatened by this other source of light?  Or is it because, as his wife says of him, he must always say what is true (that it will rain tomorrow and ruin the journey), even at the expense of his son's feelings?  Either way, the shadow of Mr. Ramsay divides them.  James' own shadow--the result of the light given off by Mr. Ramsay himself?-- struggles to emerge.