Woolf V. Mead

Virginia Woolf:

1. It is useful to point out that this essay was originally delivered to women students at two Oxford colleges. Ask your students to identify what evidence there is to suggest Woolf was aware of the nature of her audience.

I think that the sensitivity shown towards obstacles women would and have faced shows clearly that she was aware of here female audience. Also you can sense a change of tone when it comes to addressing opinions of males.

2. What do the chapter headings from Trevelyan’s History of England (para. 6) reveal about historians’ concerns?

The chapter headings portray that women had little assistance in great movements and that their primary duties were to marry and bear children.

3. What would Woolf propose as the most important changes in society that would alter the situation most talented women find themselves in? Why does talent make a woman’s situation especially difficult?

 Woolf proposes that  women should be encouraged to use their gifts in society. It was especially difficult to be talented due to the notion that women could do no such thing and they were purposed to be child bearers and to take care of home.

M. Mead:

1. What are the temperamental traits of women? Of men?

Women were said to be weak and submissive while males were expected to be strong, dominate, and indubitable.

2. What price does a society pay for restricting the opportunities of one sex or the other?

Such society experiences unbalance, sacrifices distinction, caps the growth of many fields, as well as cause some to perish because society does or did not have a sufficient role for them.

3. Given that our culture has standardized temperamental expectations for each sex, what price does the opposite sex pay for that standardization?

The individual can become overwhelmed by personal frustrations, prone to violent outburst, and  for the opposite sex it can causes resentfulness towards them.