A close reading of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse reveals that the novel explores a shift in gender roles. The purpose of this essay is to examine how this issue is raised trough the depiction of characters and in the imagery. In the novel Woolf uses a narrative strategy called stream of consciousness, which means that there are several focalizers instead of an external narrator. Therefore, it is possible to detect how the characters think of others and thereby of other gender roles. My focus has been on the main characters Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, Lily, Cam and Minta. Mr. Ramsay epitomizes the Victorian man, who stands for the traditional values and the four women embody different ways of looking at the woman’s role. By comparing and contrasting the characters, I have found evidence for a questioning of the woman role. This is shown, primarily, through the attitudes the characters show towards the characters who represent the traditional values, namely Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay. Finally, it has been my intention in this essay to empathizes the difference between men’s and women’s way of apprehending and defining their gender roles.