Conclusions, Feminism, and Martyrs

One thing which struck me while finishing To the Lighthouse was the relatively unconventional ending. I remember one conversation which I had with Lily about the trope of feminist figures either commiting suicide or dying by the end of narratives. Lily mentioned that she was sick of feminist figures suffereing premature deaths largely because it seemed to signify the inability of femenists to exist in society. I wonder if this Lily's continued life, and completed painting, signify a divergence from that tradition and if that divergence might be due to its post-Edwardian setting? 

It stikes me that Lily not only becomes increasingly prominent in the narrative and the perspective of the novel, but that this happens, mostly, after the death of Mrs. Ramsay. Perhaps Woolf is attempting to make some sort of a statement about the need for a new kind of female figure, one who finds her strength and agency not within the private sphere, but withing herself. I read Mr. Ramsay as seeming to hit on Lily a little bit when they reunited at the house, and so Lily's continued resistence to marriage is in a sense saying that the Ramsay family needs to remain broken and largely disfunctional. Perhaps this was not Woolf's intention, but I cannot help but feel that she is consciously trying to defy conventional expectations for gender relations and closure by having Lily remain at a distance from the family.