Diana - Woolf Ch 2

The ease with which Woolf foreshadows her thoughts, thus lending readers the feeling that they are merely bringing to the forefront their own knowledge and thoughts, stunned me.

Early in chapter two, she tells us, "an answer [to her questions about women and fiction] was only to be had by consulting the learned and the unprejudiced, who have removed themselves above the strife of tongue and the confusion of body. . ." (p. 25) However, we already know her feelings about men, and the tone in chapter one leads us to believe "the learned and the unprejudiced" mentioned here, if they are learned, are certainly not unprejudiced, because they are men.

Her essay is so simplistic that from the first page of the chapter, we expect the conclusion she draws at the end, "I had been foolish to ask my professor to furnish me with 'indisputable proofs' of this or that in his argument about women." Interestingly, although she still has no answer to her original questions about women and fiction, she succeeds in raising questions and illuminating new thoughts within the reader's mind.

I found enlightening the idea that men seek to emphasize women's inferiority in order to boost their own feeling of superiority and self-confidence.

I'd be interested to know if anyone in our group experienced something similar with this chapter. If so, what questions were raised in your mind? What illuminations did you experience?