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How Does Virginia Woolf Use Metaphors In Professions For Women

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Virginia Woolf was an essayist and writer who also was a woman’s activist. She was even able to speak before a branch of the National Society for Women’s Service on January 21, 1931. In her speech “Professions for Women,” Virginia Woolf uses metaphors and short sentence structure to instruct women on how to take control of their lives. Initially, Woolf uses these metaphors and short sentences to emphasize the simplicity of women taking control of their life. Specifically, she uses the metaphor of the Angel. The Angel represents the “positive” stereotypes that women have to live up to. The word “angel” employs a positive connotation of purity and flawlessness and overall goodness, which is ironic because she represents the negative stereotypes …show more content…

This gives her audience a reason to kill their “angel” just as Woolf does, and she explains “Whenever I felt the shadow of her wing or the radiance of her halo upon my page, I took up the inkpot and flung it at her. She died hard. Her fictitious nature was of great assistance to her. It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality”(Woolf 2). The sentence “She died hard” serves to demonstrate how simple it is to kill the angel. It only provides the subject “she,”the verb “died,” and the adjective “hard.” Her longer sentences provide a more elaborate predicate that only serves to introduce the angel, asserting the idea that the angel is “all bark and no bite.” In contrast, Woolf conveys the actual murder in a single sentence, showing how easy it was to kill her. In addition, she acknowledges multiple examples of women who killed their “angels,” or in other words, “ cut the road many years ago--by Fanny Burney, by Aphra Behn, by Harriet Martineau, by Jane Austen, by George Eliot--many famous women”(Woolf 1). Woolf proves that anyone can do what she did when she recognizes the famous women who accomplished great …show more content…

I must have a motor car. And it was thus that I became a novelist-- for it is a very strange thing that people will give you a motor car if you will tell them a story”(Woolf 2). The short sentence “I must have a motor car” conveys her ambition for luxury. The word “must,” in this case, matches the denotation of a word such as “need,” demonstrating the desperation she has for luxury (in this case, the “motor car.”) She warrants this desperation with the fact that she has killed the Angel that inhibited her previously. The word “motor car” matches a more manly connotation, making the claim that she can work for everything a man has because she terminated the stereotypes that haunted her. Her short sentence entitles her to target this large, manly desire without elaboration, which, in turn, elaborates on the potential women have after getting rid of their “angels.” Woolf, towards her conclusion, accentuates that women who have repressed the stereotypes from their minds “won rooms in the house hitherto exclusively owned by men...How are you going to furnish it, how are you going to decorate it?”(Woolf 3). The metaphor of the room represent the jobs women have, and the house represents the workforce that men predominantly run. The words

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