The+Potential+of+Women

Two maybe semi-random thoughts about Chapter 10. ..

What is Woolf saying in this chapter? what is her purpose? "As for the beauty of women, it is like the light on the sea, never constant to a single wave. They all have it; they all lose it" (90) "...for there is something, Fanny thought, about books which if I had been educated I could have liked . . . . [she goes on to contadict herself until >>] And what is the point of fancy-dress dances? thought Fanny. You meet the same people; you wear the same clothes . . ." (95-6). I thought that Woolf is possibly saying that women have more potential than simply to be beautiful, a.k.a. "sit pretty." After all, in the time she wrote I understand that she was encouraging women to branch out, resist the norm, become more individualistic and educated. Does this make sense? What does everyone else think?

Part 2: "Fanny's eyes seemed to question, to commiserate, to be, for a second, love itself . . . . [but] when the kettle boiled, up she scrambled, more like a colt or a puppy than a loving woman" (90). Yet here Woolf takes a different angle, allusioning that not all love is real. Why is this: Is she saying that women of her time did not let themselves be taken seriously? that they had the potential but did not embrace it //but// merely ended up summitting to societal expectations of how they were supposed to act? thoughts?1201130359

My thoughts on the first instance: I think that the meaning of the passage you mentioned is sort of like what you said. I interpreted it this way: Women are valued in society, for they are the loyal companions of the men. But they lose their value because they are not allowed to vote or run for office, and are seen as physically and mentally inferior as well. Your second instance is different. I think that yes, it alludes that not all love is real. This stems from the fact that Woolf had marital problems. But I also think that it means that women are acting fickle as well. They try hard to impress the men, and in doing so, act relatively foolish. Woolf is basically telling women to relax and be themselves, and not live simply to make men favor them. She is implying that women need to live up to their full potential.1201140949

My initial thought was of Fanny and that book that she checked out because Jacob said he liked it: //Tom Jones//. All she wants is for Jacob to like her, and she doesn't know how to make him. But that's the thing about her; she is fauning over him while he is just sort of indifferent to her. She fancies that he is thinking of her too. But he's not. He likes Clara. But yet she wishes, and she is actually sad to realize that he will go to Greece and forget her. Someone slap her; she's infatuated, but it is thought to be love. "For never was there a more irrational passion. And Jacob was aftraid of her for a moment--so violent, so dangerous is it when young women stand rigid; grasp the barrier; fall in love." (92) How could you take someone like that seriously?

Fanny muses on the beauty of men, which might give us a different angle on the issue of beauty: "And for ever the beauty of young men seems to be set in smoke...Possibly they look into the eyes of faraway heroes, and take their station among us half contamptuously, she thought (vibrating like a fiddle-string, to be played on and snapped)." (91) The ideas about women's beauty come from the narrator, and the idea about men's beauty comes from Fanny. This entire situation (considering in reality Jacob is awkward and not beautiful) is to show Fanny's sillyness. She is going to be played on and snapped because she is so blinded by Jacob. Women, as both of you sort of mentioned, should be themselves. They should not base their values upon the men who are interested in them. This was just my interpretation. Thoughts? 1201142798