What do "lanterns" represent in the book, After Sappho?

In After Sappho, the image of a lantern represents the mind of a writer. Schwartz introduces Virginia Woolf through a scene in which the young Virginia catches moths by lantern light. The narrator notes that “it was in the hands of the lantern bearer to illuminate what it all meant” (45). As Virginia ages, this becomes the central task of her writing life. Just as the lantern shone through the darkness of an English, Virginia’s writing seeks to illuminate some previously unseen element of life itself.