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When Virginia Woolf stated that, “the angel in the house is dead and no longer lives in the imaginations of either women or men” she was referring to the poem “The Angel in the House.” This poem essentially represented the ideal Victorian woman. During a talk given in 1931, she describes her battle against this “phantom,” better known as the Angel in the House. This phantom hindered her writing taking her heart out of her words for the cause of being sympathetic.
To better understand Woolf’s reason for her action you must first understand the phantom. The phantom, as she calls it is the mindset in which women of that time were to think. It was a mindset of staying below the radar, being selfless, inferior to men, or better yet, staying in the kitchen. During that period of time women had few professional options, and by the social standard the typical “ideal” image of a woman was of one who stayed home, cared for the children, cooked the meals and cleaned the house. The thoughts, ideas and opinions of a writing woman would have been unheard of, thus making it essential for Woolf to slay this voice in the back of her head constantly questioning whether it would be socially acceptable to say what she was writing.
I believe in today’s society the image of women has positively changed. On a general scale the majority of society has accepted the fact that women are just as capable of the duties a man undertakes. Returning to Woolf’s assertion, “the angel in the house is dead and no longer lives in the imaginations of either women or men” I find it safe to say this has been achieved. Women have fought and earned their rightful position of equality, whether it may be in the social or professional world. Though some might argue, I would refute by saying it was the remark of an individual plagued with shallow-minded ignorance. Of course stereotypes precede their owners but the proof is in the historical change. The change in which hard fought female rights have allowed a woman to out rank said shallow-minded individuals from a professional point of view.
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