Ap Language & Composition Virginia Woolf Analysis

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For Virginia Woolf, the differences between a men’s university and a women’s university were very distinct. Rather than compare statistics and classrooms, Woolf uses the meals that are served at each university and the atmosphere in which they are served in order to illustrate the differences between the universities. Using juxtaposition and metaphors, as well as diction and imagery when comparing the meals, Woolf addresses her underlying position- women’s place in society. Woolf discusses the meal at the men’s university first, her favorite of the two. With her flavorful diction, it’s clear why she favors this meal. She describes her meal as “…the lunch on this occasion began with soles, sunk in a deep dish, over which the college cook had spread a counterpane of the whitest cream…”. Wolf continues to dreamily dictate her meal with her creative descriptors and senses, “sharp and sweet”, “thin…but not hard”, “succulent”, “flushed yellow and flushed crimson”. The way she describes her meal, this is only her lunch, shows the pleasure she has, as if a 5 star chef had made it. However, she does not speak the same of the meal she “enjoyed” at the women’s university- to say the least. In comparison to the soles served in a deep dish, Woolf was served a soup: more specifically “a plain gravy soup”. Is this the same person writing? Along with the soup, there were “…sprouts curled and yellowed at the edge”. As she describes this meal she uses none of the flavorful diction as she did with the men’s meal, but writes of it as if it is necessary to eat it just to live. Her “plain English” approach to the meal at the women’s university juxtaposes her previous meal. The differences are not only seen in her descriptions, but in the way she writes. As opposed to her long flowing sentences, full of adjectives, she utilizes quite short, to the point phrases rather than

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