The extract introduces Mrs Ramsay like an energetic person, as a matter of fact there are a lot of textual elements that demonstrate that: "to pour erect into the rain of energy", "a column of spray", "animated and alive as if all her energies were being fuse into force , burning and illuminating", "this fountain and spray of life". On the contrary, there are some textual references that convey the idea of Mrs Ramsay's physical tiredness: "sitting loosely", "seemed to raise herself with an effort".

Mrs Ramsay's vitality ("this delicious fecundity") is the opposite of Mr Ramsay's passivity ("the fatal sterility of the male plunged itself, like a beak of brass, barren and bare").

The fountain of life is the metaphor of Mrs Ramsay, in which her husband plunges himself, because he hasn't got energy to live and to solve problems; there are some textual elements that convey the idea of Mr Ramsey sterility: "the fatal sterility of the male", "the beak of brass", "barren", "bare".

Why does the novelist compare Mr Ramsay to "a beak of brass, barren and bare"? Because Mr Ramsay wants his wife's support and approval, he needs her attention ("he wanted sympathy", "Mr Ramsey repeated, never taking his eyes from her face", "but he must more than that. It was sympathy he wanted"). Mrs Ramsay has the function to give him peace and quiet, in order to ease the tension of his preoccupations; as a matter of fact there are some Mrs Ramsay's actions that demonstrate she is a reassure person ("bade him take his ease there, go in and out, enjoy himself").

But there is something unusual in the scene description: Mrs and Mr Ramsay's son , James realizes that all his mother's strength is absorbing by his father ("James felt all her strength flaring up to be drunk and quenched by the beak of brass, the arid scimitar of the male, which smote mercilessly, again and again, demanding sympathy"). It is unusual, because a child can't understand a complex situation, instead the novelist wants to communicate that even a child can perceive the attention that Mrs Ramsay gives to his father and his jealousy in front of it.

While Mrs Ramsay is listening to her husband, she is doing another things: she is flashing her needles, glancing round about her, out of the window, into the room, at James himself, her gaze is moving, she is able to do a lot of things at the same time.

Her capacity to surround and protect is so high, that if Mr Ramsay puts faith in her, nothing should hurt him. Mrs Ramsay is the point of reference of  the family, she worries about it on her own, as a matter of fact her husband isn't able to do anything without her.

There are a lot of textual references that convey the idea of Mr Ramsay's inability to act by himself and his negative effect to his wife: "to be drunk and quenched by the beak of brass", "the arid scimitar of the male", "which smote mercilessly again and again", "the egotistical man plunged and smote". Mr Ramsay is compared with a child ("like a child who drops off satisfied, he said at last, looking at her with humble gratitude, restored, renewed"). But if he doesn't realize the consequence of his behaviour, her wife's exhaustion, James understands it. Like a child, after he takes it out on his wife, he goes out and he doesn't worry about her wife' exhaustion, maybe he doesn't realize it.

Mrs Ramsay exhaustion is expressed through some textual elements: "she had only strength enough to move her finger", "in exquisite abandonment to exhaustion". She is tired to support, to assure, to listen to her husband, while anybody is worried about her. Even "the whole fabric" fell in exhaustion and needs to be alone, to have calm, to relax, to have privacy, to have a moment without pressure. As a matter of fact Mrs Ramsay becomes the metaphor of a flower that closes its petals, in order to protect itself ("one petal closed in another").

The novelist poses the attention to Mrs Ramsay disease: she doesn't like to feel finer than her husband, she isn't able to tell him the truth, she hides small daily things, she realizes her dissatisfaction, the loss of the complicity with her husband, the unbalance relationship ("she gave the world, in comparison with what he gave, negligible").

But why she doesn't try to tell her husband her disease, why she doesn't try to change the situation?

Probably she knows her importance in her family: she is the only point of reference and she is forced to go on, thanks to her love for her family; but you can't forget that she is a Victorian woman and in order to the tradition, the woman role is to serve the family and to be able to take care of it, even she doesn't receive collaboration, helps and respect.