Focused on Killing the "Angel in the House"

A Look at Virginia Woolf's "Professions for Women"

After reading an actual excerpt from Coventry Patmore's "Angel in the House," one can see clearly why Woolf devoted so much time, necessarily, to "killing the Angel in the House." Even sixty-plus years after Patmore penned this tribute to his wife Emily, it is clear that Woolf saw this ideal -- written by a man -- of how a woman should conduct herself (the "Angel"), as a threat to women, and especially "professional women."

Woolf's conversational style is thoroughly enjoyable, and it is interesting that she noted "Professions for Women" was a paper she read to the Women's Service League in 1931. In this essay, presumably also a speech she presented, Woolf at length describes how the Angel frequently intervenes as she writes. The Angel tells her that as a woman writer, she must always "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. Above all, be pure."

As the Angel continues to get in the way of her attempts to write, intelligently, her own thoughts, wasting her time and provoking her, Woolf describes how she finally "caught her by the throat" and tried to kill her. Woolf explains that "Had I not killed her she would have killed me. She would have plucked the heart out of my writing." Woolf also describes how the Angel "died hard."

In order to be successful as a writer, Woolf explains that "Killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer." The Angel is still appropriate for all women of all professions, which is why she chose to spend so much time discussing her: "it is necessary also to discuss the ends and the aims for which we are fighting, for which we are doing battle with these formidable obstacles."
read the rest here: http://tinyurl.com/lpgn89