Virginia Woolf Professions For Women

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There was a time in history where women had but an ounce of freedom. Women had to be extra cautious of what to say, how to act, how to dress, or do any work if it didn’t involve house duty. Women have had to constantly fight for their rights as individuals. Up to this day in our modern society, women are still fighting for equal pay and even more now so since Trump is in office. Due to this recognition of the constant struggle women have and are still facing, Novelist, Virginia Woolf demonstrates the uphill battle that women had to face in order to be successful in their occupations, in her argumentative essay “Professions for Women”. Woolf speaks through her own perspective as she relates back to her own personal life. She creates an effective …show more content…

“It was she who bothered me, and wasted my time and so tormented me that last I killed her.” (Woolf 377). This represents Woolf’s feelings of disgust as she was felt pressured to live up to a man’s expectations of women. The use of the words “tormented” and “killed” signify that she was being held up against her own free will. Woolf symbolically destroys the Angel. “Had I not have killed her she would have killed me.” (Woolf 378). This leaves an image of Woolf being ripped away from her pencil every time she has an idea of her own. Woolf uses an image of an angel to mask the true intentions of bringing the women down. Down to a level that is under a man’s authority. An angel is thought to be protective. Only in this sense, the angel is merely protecting the ego of a man. The Angel in the House purpose is to destroy a women’s individualism and ambition. The angle whispered, “Never let anyone guess that you have a mind of your own”. (Woolf 378). Society tells women to sit there in silence and kill the professionalism that’s inside them. To let the men make all of the decisions and actions. Woolf has formulated this symbolic representation of manipulation and brainwashing society has dawned upon