“Her purity was supposed to be her chief beauty–her blushes, her great grace. In those days–the last of Queen Victoria–every house had its Angel. And when I came to write I encountered her with the very first words. The shadow of her wings fell on my page; I heard the rustling of her skirts in the room. Directly, that is to say, I took my pen in my hand to review that novel by a famous man, she slipped behind me and whispered: “My dear, you are a young woman. You are writing about a book that has been written by a man. 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.”

1. Professions for Women

2. Virginia Wolf

3. In this passage the beauty and pure ness of the angel is being explained. The angel to me is a metaphor for what women writers are expected to portray , if not outwardly at least consciously. The writer Is being manipulated by that “angel” in the room to deceive others through  her writing. If the writer listens to the angel she will not give readers the impression of her real writing style , but they will be exposed to an accepted but fabricated version of the writers work. It is definitely a contradiction for the angel to ask her to be all the things she is not, but to still be pure.

4.This passage connects to larger issues in the text because, to me it brings my attention to the fact that in any profession for women, especially writing, females have a set standard for which they are expected to look, live and behave by. This set standard really puts strain on women to alter their work, and or looks. The symbolism of the angel in the room represents the ideal woman who lives up to everyone else’s expectations. In life today it is even so. The advantage of having your own mins is conflicted by the opinions if others. This passage sheds a little light on the controversies involved with professions for women.

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