Professions for Women

班级：B101301 学号：B10130109 姓名：张明慧

Virginia Woolf is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in the 20th Century as well as the pioneers of women’s liberation from patriarchy. Professions for Women is one of her famous pieces, which illustrates how should the women treat their status correctly and obtain the equal human rights by telling her own experiences. She uses a vivid metaphor “the Angel in the House” to describe the traditional requirements towards the women’s social role and their morality. She firmly believes that only women have abandoned the traditional woman’s role as a sympathizer to men can they have their own rights. Therefore, Virginia Woolf decides to kill that angel for her pursuit of the emancipation from the prejudice of the women.

This article can be divided into four parts. The first part is Paragraph 1. In the profession of literature, the author finds that there are fewer experiences peculiar to women than in other professions because many women writers before her had made the road smooth. The second part is Paragraph 2 to 4. In these paragraphs Virginia Woolf focuses on the obstacles to become a professional woman writer and her efforts to beat the traditional role of women in writing. The third part is Paragraph 5 to 6. The author was faced with the conflict between her own approach to art and the conventional approach expected of her by male critics when she was writing. She believed that sex-conscious was a great hindrance to women’s writing. That is to say, women will have many prejudices to overcome in the profession of literature and especially in new professions that women are entering. Women should try their best to get rid of them. The forth part is Paragraph 7. In this paragraph Virginia Woolf raised some important questions concerning the role of women and new relationship between the men and women.

In general, this article is well organized and clearly illustrated. She uses many figurative languages to make the article become more vivid. The two most common types are simile and metaphor. For example, the sentence “He is as strong as the lion” uses simile to indicate the man is very strong; the phrase “the angel in the house” is a

metaphor to represent the traditional requirements towards the women’s social role and their morality. When the author illustrates the point that the sex-conscious is the great hindrance to women’s writing, she compares a girl with a pen in her hand to a fisherman lying sunk in dreams on the verge of a deep lake and describes her dream, but the girl woke up quickly because the imagination dashed itself against something hard. When the girl was writing, the conflict between her own approach to art and the conventional approach expected of her by male critics was very fierce. The description of her dream seems to be illogical, but the emphasis is fully depicted by the techniques of stream of conscious. This is Virginia Woolf’s work, lively and meaningful.

 

第二篇：4-Professions for Women

Lesson Four Professions for Women

Objectives

To enable the students

1) To grasp some knowledge about literature terms including modernism, stream of consciousness, feminist writers and women’s liberation movement,

2) To appreciate the poetic and symbolic quality, the subtle style as well as their rich historical and literary reference of Woolf’s works.

3) To understand the speech by making comparison between the dominant social values and women’s conditions now and then.

Time Allotment:

The teaching plan will be carried out within 8 periods.

Background Information

About the Author:

Virginia Woolf: 1882—1941, English novelist, critic, and essayist. 1) one of the world’s greatest writers of modernism 2) woman writer for women liberation, solving women’s issues.

In the home of her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf reared/ brought up in an atmosphere of literature and learning, receiving her education in her father’s own extensive library and meeting many of the outstanding literary and intellectual figures of the day. She was keenly aware that if she had been a boy she would have gone on to Cambridge or Oxford. Later with this sense of injustice, she wrote two feminist works, A Room of One’s Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938). Her mother died when she was 13.and she had a mental breakdown. When she had a second mental breakdown she tried to commit suicide by jumping out of a window. She remained in frail health all her life. After her father’s death, Virginia and her sister, Vanessa, hosted many gatherings of artists and writers who had been friends at Cambridge University. This began what came to be known as the Bloomsbury Group. Virginia Woolf’s books draw largely on her own life experience. Her childhood provides the background for her novel To the Lighthouse. Almost all of her characters are members of her own leisured, intellectual, upper—middle class. Many of the novels are set in London, where she lived most of her life. In 1941, profoundly depressed by the war and afraid of the recurrence of a nervous breakdown, she filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse, leaving suicide note for her husband and sister. Her major works include Jacob’s room 1922; Mrs Dalloway 1925; To the Lighthouse 1927; Orlando: A Biography 1928 ; A Room of One’s Own 1929 ; and essays The Death of a Moth 1942; A Haunted House 1943. Figurative speech: metaphor e.g. angel; fisherman; room for your own

Do you like this essay? Why or why not?

Detailed Study of the Text

Part I paras 1-2 the beginning part of the whole speech, introducing the topic under discussion.

Para 1 Main idea: In the profession of literature, the author finds that there are fewer experiences peculiar to women than in other profession because many women writers before her have made the road smooth.

1.Why does the author say that in the profession of literature---that are peculiar to women? The answer is in the next sentence: The road was cut many years ago by many famous women writers as well as many more unknown and forgotten women writers who have been before her, who have made the path smooth, regulating her steps. The implied meaning is that other professions, such as science, medicine, law, are newer for women, and therefore the road is harder for them, with more experiences peculiar to them. The profession of drama is an exception. Like literature, drama also involves more women than other profession.

2. All the women mentioned above are women writers who have made special contributions to English literature in their unique way. Here the author does not want to make a long list, but intends to give the idea that early women writers like Burney and Helen had already made their way into the profession of literature as early as in the 17th century.

3. Then, when I came to write, there are few material obstacles in my way: Here ―material obstacles‖ implies that there are other obstacles in her way, probably obstacles opposed to material, that is, obstacles of spiritual, mental or psychological nature. As readers, we naturally expect a discussion of those obstacles in the following parts of the essay.

4. Family peace was not broken by the scratching of a pen. Family peace: 1) Writing can’t make noise, so, calm, quiet, tranquility; 2) no quarrel with husband and others while you’re busy writing. So, harmony, lack of worry and quarrels

5. No demand was made upon the family purse: There was no need for a writer to spend much of the family money in order to write. You just spend little money on writing, because you just need paper which is very cheap.

6.if one has a mind that way: a witty remark. The implied meaning is that though everybody can afford the money to buy paper to write all the plays of Shakespeare, who has the kind of intelligence and talent that produced those great works.

7. Pianos and models, Paris, Vienna and Berlin, masters and mistresses, are not needed by a writer: If you want to be a musician or a painter, you must own a piano or hire models, and you have to visit or even live in cultural centers like Paris, Vienna and Berlin. And you have to be taught by masters or mistresses. However, if you want to be a writer, you don’t need all these.

8. Ls The cheapness of writing paper is the reason why--- in the other professions: In the patriarchal society women have been forced into a lower financial status that men. Para2 transitional para -----easiness of writing to difficulty of writing

In this para the author responds to the host’s suggestion that she should tell the audience sth. About her own professional experiences. So she tells her own story---how she became a book reviewer when she was a girl.

1. from left to right from morning to night from beginning to end from top to

tail

2. Ls: In the lives of professional women there are usually struggles and difficulties. When they make some money, they would spend it on bread and butter, rent, shoes and stockings or butcher’s bills, all of which are basic daily necessities.

Bread and butter, rent, shoes and stockings, or butcher’s bills: synecdoche. E.g. I need ten hands (men). Give me a hand (help). foot soldier (infantry)

Para3 main idea: This is an important part of her speech. In this para the speaker focuses on the first obstacle to becoming a professional women writer. She uses a figure of speech ―killing the Angel in the House‖ in describing her determination to get rid of the conventional role of women in her writing.

1. S1 What could be easier than---. But wait a moment: 1) This is a rhetorical question, implying that writing articles and buying Persian cats with the profits were very easy. 2) ―wait a moment‖ calls for a second thought or more attention from the audience, signifying that things may not as easy as they seem to be, and that sth. important is coming up. The two sentences serve as a transitional device linking her simple story with a discussion of a more serious nature.

2. Mine was about a novel by a famous man: Note the contrast between a girl, who is writing for the first time, and a famous man. The girl’s task of writing a review about a novel by a famous man cannot be easy at all.

3. Phantom: 1) literary meaning: Something that seems to appear to the sight but has no physical existence; a ghost or a specter. 幻影；鬼怪, 幽灵. 2) figurative meaning: an apparition, a vision, sth. Feared or dreaded, sth that exists only in the mind; an illusion, any mental image 幻想, Here, Phantom appears to the sight in the form of an angel, and also it is a mental representation of the stereotyped Victorian woman.

5. The Angel in the House a poem written by Coventry Patmore, in this poem he set up the model of housewife. He believed that ideal woman is his wife, a qualified wife, an example of Victorian women.

Virtuous wife and mother（贤妻良母）-----responsible for the family, attending children and husband, doing housework, ------

6. Angel: a messenger of God and a supernatural being. The conventionalized image of an angel is one of a white-robed figure in human form with wings and a halo. When used figuratively, the word means a person, esp. women and children, regarded as beautiful, good, innocent, etc. as an angel,. Since an angel is supernatural and often female, it is appropriate for the author to call the phantom an angel.

7. It was she who used to come between me and my paper when I was writing reviews: She used to cause argument or problems between me and what I was writing. Here the paper stands for what she was writing. If something comes between two people or things, it causes an argument or problems between them.

8. Took the leg: In western culture, chicken legs are cheaper and tasteless, (in China, it is opposite, chicken breast is tasteless, and the chicken leg is delicious) so women should sacrifice themselves to eat it

9. Drought: draft. A current of air in a room. In Britain, it is wet and cold, so it is uncomfortable to sit in a draught. The most comfortable place in an English house is by the fireplace. But if there was a drought, women should sit in it another example to

prove women’s spirit of sacrifice and unselfishness.

10. She was so constituted that she had never had a mind or a wish of her own: She was made up or formed in such a way that she never had an opinion or wish of her own. The word ―constituted‖ implies that the traditional values were so deeply rooted/planted in her mind that she didn’t think of herself, and didn’t have her own mind or wish.

11. The shadow of her wings fell on my page: When writing, she has to fight against the image of this kind of women. It was hard for her to get rid of the influence of traditional writing skills.

12. Directly: conj. (Chiefly British) as soon as.一…就；刚…就 we came directly we got your telephone.

13. be sympathetic, be tender, flatter, deceive, use all the arts and wiles of our sex: These words reflect the traditional Victorian values about gender roles. As soon as the author began to write her review, she seemed to hear a voice telling her what to do. The author is urged to use tricks of the female sex because a woman has to do so in order to be successful in a man-dominated profession.

14. Have sb. Up: (usu. Used in passive voice) cause sb. To be accused of a crime, etc. in a law court. 押送（到法庭）；对某人起诉 He was had up for dangerous driving.

15. Act in self-defense: If I didn’t kill her, she would kill me; this is a life –and –death struggle.

She would have plucked the heart of my writing: there would be no meaning in my writing; I would become a meaningless writer, which would destroy my future.

16. Had I not killed her she would have killed me: If I had not done so (getting rid of these Victorian attitudes completely), these traditional ideas would have destroyed me. It is a life-and-death struggle.

17. She would have plucked the heart out of writing: metaphor of the Angel in the House. Those conventional attitudes would have taken away the most important part of her writing, that is, the essence of her writing, which is, as explained in the next sentence, having a mind of your own, expressing what you think to be the truth about human relations, morality, and sex.

18.ll these questions, according to the angel in the house, cannot be dealt with--- if they are to succeed: According to the Victorian attitudes, women are not supposed to discuss and explore these questions freely and openly. They must use their charm to gain recognition from men, they must make concessions in their arguments, and they must tell lies in order to succeed in the profession of writing.

19. Thus, whenever I felt the shadow of her wings or the radiance of her halo upon my page, I took up the inkpot and flung it at her: Thus, whenever I felt the influence of the Victorian attitudes on my writing, I fought back with all my power.

20. She died hard: She did not die easily. She had to be killed. One had to fight against the Victorian traditions bravely and resolutely in order to get rid of them. It is difficult to fight against her.

21. Her fictitious nature was of great assistance to her. It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality: The phantom or the Angel in the House is not a real person. The author is only personifying it. It does not have a physical form. In fact it is a

mental image and has an imaginary nature. So, it is more difficult to kill a phantom (for it is invisible) than to kill a reality (for it is visible) (SARS is more threatened than a war for it is invisible)

22. She was always creeping back when I thought I had dispatched her: It is hard to overcome those prejudices once and for all. When you think that you have done away with them, you will find they are back again. So the struggle takes a long time, as explained in the next sentence.

23. Though I flatter myself that I killed her in the end--- in search of adventures: Although I made myself believe that I killed her in the end, the struggle was severe and it took so much more time than had been expected that one would rather spend all that time on learning Greek grammar or traveling in the world in search of adventure. Flatter myself: If you flatter yourself that sth. Is true about your abilities or achievements you made yourself believe it is true, although it is not. So when the author says that she flatters herself that she had killed the phantom in the end, she implies that actually she had not really put an end to the existence of the phantom: it may come back again.

24. But it was a real experience--- the occupation of a woman writer: the last two sentences of this para sum up the main idea of her first experience as a woman writer: killing the Angel in the House. That is, all women writers had to make continuous efforts to fight against the strong influence of the Victorian attitudes about the traditional role of women.

Para4 main idea: After the Angel was dead, the question which remains to be answered is ―what is a woman?‖. It is a transitional link between the author’s first and second experiences.

1. She had rid herself of falsehood: She had got rid of those wrong ideas and stopped telling lies.

2. I mean, what is a woman?: I mean, what is the identity of a woman? This seemingly simple question implies that: When traditional values are criticized, it takes time for new values to be shaped and accepted. This is a long process.

3.I don’t believe that anybody can know until---open to human skill: I believe that to know what is a woman, we women have to participate in all the arts and professions open to human knowledge and understanding and to give expressions to our feelings in creative forms.

Para5 main idea: In this para the author talks about her second experience in her profession of literature. As a novelist, she wished to remain ―as unconscious as possible‖ so that nothing might disturb or disquiet the imagination. But she was faced with the conflict between her own approach to art and the conventional approach expected of her by male critics. She believed that sex-consciousness was a great hindrance to women’s writing. To illustrate this point she employs a second figure of speech, ―the image of a fisherman lying sunk in dreams on the verge of a deep lake.‖

1.I hope I am not give away professional secrets--- to be as unconscious as possible: Why does the author say that a novelist’s chief desire is to be as unconscious as possible? Because the ―unconscious‖ state would allow her to bring her imagination into the fullest play, to see and to express her reality in stream of consciousness,

fragmentation, or to develop her feminine writing.

2. He has to induce in himself a state of perpetual lethargy: He has to cause in himself a particular condition in which he will remain abnormally drowsy and sluggish for a long time.

3. He wants life to proceed with quiet and regularity---- the imagination: Why does the author want life to proceed with quiet and regularity? Why does the author want to do the same things day after day, month after month? Meeting people, reading books and doing things are some of the external factors of the author’s life, the routine, and the predictable social events. Wanting to see the same people, to read same books and to do the same things further explains her idea about life with the utmost quiet and regularity. Reducing everyday life to unchanging routines avoids having to pay much attention to the people or events. In this way writers do not have to worry about meals, children or housecleaning but only write.他希望在他写作时，他每天所的人，读的书，做的事都是相同的，这样任何事物都不会打破他生活的幻想，也不会搅乱他的四处探求以及对那令人难以琢磨的东西――想象力的突然发现。

The illusion in which he is living: the illusion refers to the fictional world a writer is creating in words and living in his imagination.

The author uses the words ―nosing‖, ―feelings around‖, ―darts‖, ―dashes‖ metaphorically, indicating that a modernist novelist has to search new and experimental ways of expressing himself and to discover his imagination, which is a shy and illusive spirit.

4. The image that comes to my mind---with a rod held out over the water : Here the author uses a fisherman as a metaphor to describe her professional experience.

5. She was letting her imagination sweep--- in the depths of our unconscious being: She was letting her imagination explore freely every corner of her inner world that lies hidden in the deepest parts of our unconscious existence.

6. Now came the experience, the experience that --- than with men:

1) What was the experience? The answer can be found in her following remarks: Her imagination could no longer work, for the consciousness of what men will say of a woman who speaks the truth about her passions had roused her from her artist’s state of unconsciousness.

2) Why does the author believe that this experience was far more common with women writers than with men? The author answers this question in the last sentence of this para. For though men sensibly allow themselves great freedom in these respects( such as speaking the truth about their passions), the author doubts that they realize or can control the extreme severity with which they condemn such freedom in women.

7. The line raced through her fingers---The girl was roused from her dream: In these sentences the author goes on with her metaphor of the fisherman. The fisherman (a fisherwoman, in this case) intended to seek the pools, the depths and the dark places where the largest fish would be. But suddenly, the line slipped through her fingers because it had hit upon sth. hard. As a result there was an explosion, foam (from the disturbed water) and confusion. Her fishing was interrupted, and she was roused from

her dream. Here the process of fishing is compared to the process of creative writing. That is, the writer’s imagination freely explored and examined the depths of the unconscious being, where hidden thoughts, feelings and impulses were to be found. Then suddenly the writer’s imagination came across a big obstacle, and she was roused from her artist’s state of unconsciousness.

8. To speak without figure---men would be shocked: Her imagination was exploring freely until she thought of sth. sth. about the body, sth. about the passions. But she realized that it was improper for her as a woman to tell the truth about the body and about the passions because men would be shocked.

To speak without figure: figure means figure of speech. To speak directly.不用修辞手段直截了当地说

9. The consciousness of what men will say of a woman--- her artist’s state of unconsciousness: She realized that men did not approve of a woman daring to tell the truth about the body and her passions. They would surely say bad things about such a woman. This realization interrupted her imagination and roused her from the state of unconsciousness, in which an artist desired to be.

10 For though men sensibly allow themselves great freedom in these respects---such freedom in women: It was a sensible thing for men to give themselves great freedom to talk about the body and their passions. But if women want to have the same freedom, men condemn such freedom in women. And I do not believe that they realize how severely they condemn such freedom in women, nor do I believe that they can control their extremely severe condemnation of such freedom in women. Doubt: question, feel distrust, be inclined to disbelieve. E.g. I doubt that any woman has solved it yet.

Suspect: to think it probably or likely, guess, suppose. E.g. I suspect that this state is the same for both men and women.

Para6 main idea: This para sums up the author’s two experiences, pointing out that the second obstacle is more difficult to overcome than the first. Women have many prejudices to overcome in the profession of literature and esp. in new professions that women are entering.

Why is the second obstacle more difficult to solve? The first has sth. To do with the conscious way of thinking, one’s education, social attitudes and traditional values, etc. The second experience has to do with one’s unconsciousness, the depths of the unconscious being. Thus it is more difficult to define, to examine and certainly harder to deal with.

1. Indeed it will be a long time still --- a rock to be dashed against: it will take a long time for women to rid themselves of false values and attitudes and to overcome the obstacle to telling the truth about their body and passions.

Para7 main idea: In this last para Woolf concludes her speech by raising some important questions concerning the new role of women and the new relationship between men and women

1. The first two sentences of this para link up the author as an individual woman with the other women as a group, making her personal experiences common to all women.

2. S3. Even when the path is nominally open--- looming in her way: Even when the

path is open to women in name only, when outwardly there is nothing to prevent a woman from being a doctor, a lawyer, a civil servant, inwardly there are still false ideas and obstacles impeding a woman’s progress.

3. You have won rooms of your own in the house hitherto exclusively owned by men: ―a room of one’s own‖ is a metaphor. A room is a space not only space for living, but is compared to The implied meaning of this sentence is that through fighting against the Angel in the House, through great labor and effort, some women have gained a position or certain freedom in a society which have been dominated by men up to now.

4. But this freedom is only a beginning; the room is your own---it has to be shared: here Woolf is continuing with her metaphor of a room of one’s own. She is saying that when women are able to pay the rent or earn 500 pounds a year, they have won financial independence to a certain extent. She thinks that this freedom is only a beginning, and that women still have a long way to go. For when the old ideas, attitudes and values have been done away with, a void (empty or open space) is left. And that void has to be filled with new ideas, attitudes and values.

5. How are you going to furnish it, how are you going to decorate it--- upon what terms? : By these questions, the author reminds the audience that women are now faced with a set of new questions such as ―what is the new role of a woman?‖ ―what should be the relationship between men and women?‖. She only raises the questions in her concluding remark of this piece, without attempting to answer them. These issues are fully explored in her famous feminist critical work ―A Room of One’s Own‖.