Write the introduction and summary of the essay entitled

Write the introduction and summary of the essay entitled “Professions for Women”.

Ans.

Introduction

When Virginia Woolf wrote Professions for Women, she had an urge to satisfy a will to explain, and to be understood by men, and especially women. She had a message of urgent importance that she needed to transmit. Her words tell of a story behind the story. Women and writing seemed harmless enough, even in times of male dominated literature, for as Woolf put it herself: “Writing was a reputable and harmless occupation. The family peace was not broken by the scratching of a pen. No demand was made upon the family purse.”

In other words, some women succeeded as writers among other professions due to the relative cheapness associated with the work. In Professions for Women, the character realizes that before she can accept herself as a professional women, however, she must first confront her demons. She believes in the necessity of destroying what she calls, “The Angel in the House’. ‘The Angel in the House’ is an ideal. She is the woman writer’s subconscious, a subconscious brought on by generations of an oppressive Victorian society. The woman is the creation of men. She is the charming quiet, unselfish and “pure” women of the house. In other words, she did not have or want to have a mind or wish of her own, much less a room of her own.

The only way for the character to be able to write honestly about novels written by men was to kill the “Angel in the House’, to get rid of this submissive image of a woman never disputes anything, and goes along with everything. “…I took my pen in my hand to review that novel by a famous man, she slipped behind me and whispered: My dear are a young woman. You are writing about a book that has been written by a man. Be sympathetic; be tender; flatter; deceive; use all of the arts and wiles of our sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all, be pure.” The character’s only way out was the vanquishing of this mindless victorious conduct. “Killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer.” The character, much like the author: could not accept that the only way for a woman to succeed in life was to charm, conciliate, and lie her way through the maze of male dominated social structures.

The author concludes with questions future generations of women writers must inevitably ask themselves. “you have won rooms of your own in the house hitherto exclusively owned by men. You are able, though not without great labour and effort, to pay the rent. But this freedom is only a beginning, the room is your own, but it is still bare. It has to be furnished; it has to be decorated, it has to be shared. What will those women do with their freedom? Who will they want to share it with ?” For the first time in history these women will ask themselves these questions, and be free to answer them as they please.

Summary of the Essay

Introduction: In the present essay Woolf describes how it is difficult for women to overcome the age old prejudices that prevail in society and also within women themselves. Earning money through the profession of writing is what Woolf has chosen for herself. For that, in order to attain success in the profession she has to go beyond the limit imposed upon women. She cannot remain nice and modest. She has to be bold forth right and open in her depictions and criticism.

Women Service League: Virginia Woolf is addressing the women’s service league members. She tells them that in a man’s world they have all won places with great difficulty and efforts. They should discuss among themselves the problems they faced, share the knowledge and experience they have gained and solve the difficulties ahead of them.

Sharing experience: As a woman writer, she feels the need to share with them the problems she faced when she began to write. Virginia Woolf says humorously that it was easy for a woman to become a writer because they do not have to spend much on this profession as writing paper is cheap.

“The cheapness of writing paper is of course, the reason, why women have succeeded as writer, before they have succeeded in other professions.”

Angel in the house: When she began her career as a writer, she had to fight conventional notion about a women as the Angel in the house. A woman should sacrifice herself, must be pure, and must not have a mind of her own. The Victorian concept of women was most dear to men. The first thing that Woolf wrote was a review of a novel written by a famous man. The moment she put her pen on the paper she had to fight against this conventional concept.

Warning: When she began to write a review of a man’s novel, the Angel in the house whispered, “My dear, you are a young woman. You are writing about a book that has been written by a man. Be sympathetic, be tender, flatter, deceive, use all the arts and wiles of our sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own…” But she was unwilling to hear those words and killed the Angel in the house when she began to write.

Society’s expectation: Society expects women to charm. While writing about this, Woolf says. “they (women) must charm, they must…to put it bluntly…tell lies if they are to succeed…” A woman writer using the faculty of imagination is like a fisherman sitting with his fishing rod. says Woolf. The imagination wonders everywhere and touches upon everything. When the imagination talks about one’s body and its passions a woman writer faces a big obstacle. It is considered unwomanly for a woman to describe the truth about her body and its experience.

Success and failure: While describing her genuine experiences in her field, she says, “There were two of the adventures of my professional life. The first…killing the Angel in the House…I think I solved. She died. But the second, telling the truth about my own experience as a body. I do not think solved. I doubt that any woman has solved it yet.” As for fighting this obstacle, Woolf says, it is not over yet.

Conclusion: If there exist such difficulties in literature which is a free profession, she can imagine what kind of obstacles women choosing as a lawyer’s or a doctor’s profession should have to put up with. She advises the women in various professions to consolidate and fight the obstacles and overcome the prejudices.