Authors
This author is praised for writing “without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest.”
Jane Austen
Women’s writing was shaped by this overarching societal system that restricted their opportunities and devalued their perspectives.
Patriarchy
Woolf uses this strategy to compare Charlotte Brontë to Jane Austen.
Juxtaposition
“Here was a woman about the year 1800 writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest.” This describes which author?
Jane Austen
This quality, which Woolf sees as essential for great writers, is defined as staying true to one’s artistic vision despite external pressures.
Integrity
This author’s anger is said to interfere with her ability to fully express her genius.
Charlotte Brontë
Woolf critiques this cultural value, which she claims dominated literary criticism and prioritized male experiences.
Masculine values
Woolf uses this method of development when she describes Charlotte Brontë’s constrained life and Leo Tolstoy’s freedom.
Compare/contrast
“Charlotte Brontë… had been made to stagnate in a parsonage mending stockings when she wanted to wander free over the world.” This highlights the lack of what for women?
Freedom or opportunity
Woolf critiques societal norms that confined women to domestic spaces, limiting their access to this essential element for creative expression.
Freedom or diverse experience
Woolf compares Jane Austen’s writing style to this famous playwright.
William Shakespeare
Woolf contrasts the lack of travel and interaction for women with the freedom male writers enjoyed, which gave them access to this essential creative element.
Life experience
The phrase “down comes her book upon our heads” symbolizes societal judgment. What rhetorical device is this?
Metaphor
“Jane Austen… devised a perfectly natural, shapely sentence proper for her own use… Charlotte Brontë… stumbled and fell with that clumsy weapon in her hands.” What rhetorical strategy is being used here?
Juxtaposition
The dominance of these values in literary criticism led to women’s work being undervalued and dismissed.
Masculine values
This male author benefited from diverse life experiences, such as traveling freely and going to war, which enriched his writing.
Leo Tolstoy
According to Woolf, 19th-century women lacked this foundational advantage that male writers inherited from a long history of literary tradition.
Shared literary tradition
When Woolf describes Jane Austen hiding her manuscripts to avoid judgment, she employs this rhetorical strategy.
Description
“She had altered her values in deference to the opinion of others. But how impossible it must have been for them not to budge either to the right or to the left.” What does this alteration symbolize?
Societal judgement or external pressure
Woolf contrasts Jane Austen’s calm writing style with Charlotte Brontë’s frustration, illustrating how societal judgment impacted this aspect of their work.
Creative expression
Woolf highlights the unique resilience of these two female authors for writing as women without conforming to male-dominated literary values.
Jane Austen and Emily Brontë
Women writers in the 19th century often wrote in this shared household space, surrounded by interruptions.
Common sitting room
Woolf gives specific examples from Austen and Brontë’s lives to support her argument. What rhetorical strategy is this?
Exemplification
“Down comes her book upon our heads. There was a flaw in the centre of it.” What does the metaphor of the “flaw” represent?
Distortion of literature due to societal expectations
Woolf envisions a future where women can achieve this, unencumbered by societal expectations or material limitations.
Incandescence