Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)_Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street

Virginia Woolf is not only the greatest woman writer of the twentieth century but she was also a friend of many great writers such as Elliot, Joyce and butler. Although coming form from a rich family she was not giving the opportunity to go to school, she explained this consequence in a lot of the writing; she also explained that education is the key transformer of women perception in society.
In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf related the story of an old woman walking down the bond street to go buy herself some gloves. She described, the nature, the street, the people and even the queen that she encountered during her walk. While she is walking, Mrs. Dalloway Clarissa saw Hugh Whitbread who was taking a family member to the doctor. She asked him what was wrong with the person; Whitbread would not answer her clearly. That then brought memory to her very own brother who was too shy to talk to her because she was lady. “How then could women sit in parliament? How could they do thing with men?” (P2448) she wondered how is it possible for women to advance in society, have the same rank as men in parliament if it even impossible for brother and sister to talk like normal people, impossible for her friend Whitbread to tell her the truth about the disease. “To ride; to dance she had adore all that. Or going on long walks in the country, talking about books…Oh the things on had said! But one had conviction. Middle age is the devil. People like Jack’ll never know that, she thought…how did it go?” (P2449) Here just like William Blake in the Ecchoing Green, Woolf was telling us that the old lady was nostalgic of her young years when she saw them dancing. She stated that looking back who always miss what you thought was so bad before; she gave the example of the middle ages. This bring it back to a slogan that said ‘ you never know how good you had till you loose it.’ “For all the great things one must go to the past, she thought. From the contagion of the world’s slow stain…fear no more the heat o’ the sun…and now can never mourn, can never mourn, she repeated…the moderns had never written anything one wanted to read about death, she thought; and turned.” (P2450) This was just a repetition of the statement before: missing what we do not have anymore. Woolf also told us here that our past is very important, that we must understand it in order to succeed in our future. That also explained Clarissa urged to make the shop girl see the French gloves that were worn long time ago, how better they were…

T. S. Elliot (1888-1965) _The waste Land

Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, Elliot was form the most respected family in America and England. His family and himself achievements will be forever benefited to us all. I did not understand all his poems, but the few I understood were very very good and well thought. In The waste Land, he talked about regret, waste, the sadness of life, the struggle and the end of human beings. It is a deep poem, that when understood, put a lot of things in words that we all already think of and know of. It is amazing how he talked about natural stuff like rocks, water, mountains…like they had felling or regret…
A game of Chess here Elliot is relating one of his friend who is tired or sick, who had some regrets about how her life was going. “You know nothing? Do you remember nothing? …Those pearl that were his eyes…Are you alive or not? Is there nothing in your head?” (P2429) here I think Elliot friend was stressing over the turn her life took, trying to convince him to see her regrets, asking him if he forgot the facts that she was trying to tell him about. “It’s so elegant, so intelligent, what should I do now? What should I do? I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street with my hair down. What shall I do tomorrow? What shall we ever do?” (P2430) here the woman had another depression, it like she was supposed to do something but did not have the time to solve at the due date. She was asking herself a lot of questions, like she wasted her life and that time was running out on her; she was trying to satisfy a husband I think who was coming back from the army…Could Elliot be relating about Virginia Woolf?
“What the thunder said” this part of the waste land was very sad for me to read, especially since I just lost my father. Elliot wrote: “After the torchlight red on sweaty faces, after the frosty silence in the gardens, after the agony in stony places, the shouting and crying, prison and palace and reverberation, he who was living is now dead, we who were living is now dying, with little patience, here is no water but only rock, rock and no water and the sandy road.” (P2435) Here Elliot was telling us about the sadness of life because of the fact that we come to life for a trip; have the prettiest houses, gardens, struggle to survive, fight each other, cry and shout for right or wrong things but at the end we all going to dye. He was saying others are dead and some are dying with little patience. Remember all the fight of our ancestors did for us, the French Revolution, struggle in England, world war one and two…Elliot is urging us to do the right thing in order to have a good finality, in order not to waste our time in this land. We all must return the favor we were giving by our ancestors and parents…
I cannot say no more because I might go off base, but this is a deep, truthful poem that must be read and understood by all. Oh I forgot!!! It’s amazing how many languages Elliot spoke, he was an international…I am so glad I took this class…

Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)_Letter to Emily Bronte

Alone with her sisters Anne and Emily Bronte, Charlotte was a governess, which was the very few position open to middle class women back then. For Bronte it was better to be “a housemaid or kitchen girl, rather than a baited, trampled, desolate, distracted governess.” (P1895). That said it all, being a governess include being disrespected by bad behave children and mad parents. Bronte told us that she worked hard in order to be a governess, that she lived in a beautiful home “the country, the house, and the grounds are, as I have said divine” (P1895) but was not able to enjoy it at all. “As for correcting them, I soon quickly found that was entirely out of question: they are to do as they like…I have tried that plan once. It succeeded so notably that I shall try it no more.” (P1895) Her bosses forbidden her to correct the children under any circumstances, it must also be understood that they were not easy children at all ( I read some of the episode that Anne Bronte had with those kind of kids...) They go to bed thinking about what they should do, to make their governess life miserable the next day. And to say that those children were well born that they were heiress with no good behavior is very sad when we think about what they will be in the future. Charlotte said that she like the Mr. Sidgwick better than Mrs. Sidgwick “it is seldom that he speaks to me, but when he does I always feel happier and more settle for some minutes after. He never ask me to wipe the children’s smutty noses or tie their shoes or fetch their pinafore or set them a chair” (P1896) I understand where Bronte is coming from after working so hard on the kids all the day long she has all the reason no to want any more order form her bosses. Especially if she knows it is her job and that those children should know already how to tie their shoes but just did not do it, in order to infuriate their governess and give her more hard time. Poor governess…Poor Bronte's siters...

Sarah Stickney Ellis (1799-1872)_The women of England

Sarah Stickney Ellis was a firm believer that women should accept their inferiority to men and devote themselves to the happiness and moral elevation of their brothers, sons and husbands. I must say that when I first scammed Ellis work, I had no interest of reading more because I was like ‘inferiority’ what? She had no idea what she was writing about…but then I had to read her closely to see where she is coming form. I would use the word ‘superiority’ instead…Okay; gentlemen do not be mad keep reading the blog I will explain down the line..:)
For Ellis, men are born selfish, proud and sometimes with a shaking integrity, she added, “he has stood corrected before the clear eye of woman, as it looked directly to the naked truth.” (P1893) The author was trying to tell us that men need women strength in order to succeed; before I came in this country, I always heard my parents or even my teachers at say that “behind any successful man hide a woman”, I kind of understood that before but now it is confirmed. This is where to me women ‘superiority’ come from, they have the natural power to balance or manage everyone life around them, however this is not 100% always true. (Again will clear that up later) Ellis was very proud of her country England which is a great thing we all should be proud of where we are coming from in order to succeed; this is one of the strength Americans have over a lot of nation ‘believe in who you are first and you will succeed.' Ellis wrote, “The women of England, possessing the grand privilege of being better instructed than those of any other country, in the minutiae of domestic comfort, have obtained a degree of importance in society far beyond what their unobtrusive virtues would appear to claim.” (P1893) I agree Ellis; there is no reason why not, because women went to special school in order to overcome this challenge and I also agree when you said, “the influence of women in counteracting the growing evils of society is about to be more needed than ever.” (P1893) I am not sure if Ellis was clear about women being as educated as men, but I think that women needed to balance education, work and caring for their family to deserve full credit. Further more Ellis said that women needed to have a brain in order to give advise to their brother and husbands, they needed that to have a decent conversation with either (she definitely was for women education).
I agreed with all the point that Ellis made; I must also say that men are also capable of achieving what women do if they want and if they had a good education (relative to the home education that their mothers gave them.) It is just natural for women to care for others than men but form my own experience I know it is possible. It could be the other way around sometimes when a woman is less worthy than man; it all goes back to the fact that human being outcome is not 100% accurate…

Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904)_Life of Frances Power Cobbe As told by herself

This author gave us an inside scoop of the education of women which lacked of intellectual challenges because they did not believe that women’s mind was capable of serious effort. In “Life of France Power Cobbe As told by Herself” the author narrate her own life in school. She went to Brighton that was the most estimated of not even 100 schools of women. Brighton was a very expensive school and the benefit women got form it was minimal because they were only thought about how to attract gentlemen. Although profane people called this school a convent, it did not come close to being called one because there was a lot of noise going around. For instance four pianos could be heard at the same time in a small room where ladies were supposed to read and recite lessons in English, French, Germany and Italian to the governesses. Ladies of marriage age were punish like babies for having their long shoe string untied… “Those who escape the fell destiny of the corner were allowed, if they choose, to write to their parents, but our letters perforce committed at night to the schoolmistress to seal.” (P1889) Basically, while in school women were controlled to the highest level by the staff, word could not have gotten as to our bad the school was. “All the pupils were daughters of men of some standing, mostly country gentlemen, members of parliament, and offshoots of peerage.” (P1890) This confirmed what Carlyle said about rich people then not being happy; then it is only natural for them to make poor people suffered. Imagine what those ladies form big family that were treated so strictly could do to their governesses when they got out, they will seek vengeance specially if they did not have a strong character. “But all this fine material was deplorable wasted. Nobody dreamed that any of us could in later life be more or less ‘Ornament of Society.’ That a pupil in that school should ever become an artist, or authoress, would have been looked upon both Miss Runciman and Miss Roberts as a deplorable dereliction.” (P1890) The women that were head of the school did not think that the girls they educated could make anything big with their life except attract men. As the author said going to that school was a waste of time and an aggravation of women immorality then. Imagine that “At the bottom of the scale morals and religion, and the top were music and dancing; miserable poor music.” (P1890) Okay if moral and religion were believed not to be important or were thought last and less, how do expect that those women turn out good or treat someone else better. Women with moral like Cobbe had to start over after that school, because the education they got was worthless later in life.
Maybe I should be less harsh to the rich then, they really were suffering too, the whole system was bad; however I must say that all these people back then were heroes like Percy Bysshe Shelley and all these authors one way or another tried to tell us.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)_On Liberty

John Stuart Mill who advocated sexual equality, the right to divorce, and free speech became the era’s leading philosopher and political theorist and outspoken member of parliament. His father turned him into a very smart kid; who finish his education at fourteen with knowledges of a man of forty. This author proved the necessity of emancipation very early; he was arrested at the age of seventeen for distributing information about birth control. In On liberty, Mill wrote that all human beings are capable of rationalizing and that it is a benefit to all to tell the truth and learn form your mistake, take advises form other. “ He is capable of rectifying his mistakes, by discussion and experience. Not by experience alone. There must be discussion, to show how experience is to be interpreted…Very few facts are able to tell their own story, without comment to bring out their meaning.” (P1846) Here the author was trying to tell us that human being must communicate with each other, value each other opinion, bring proof to other in order to be convincing. “There are, it is alleged certain belief, so useful not to say indispensable to well being, that it is as much the duty of government to uphold those beliefs as to protect any other interest of the society. In a case of such necessity and so directly in the line of their duty…it is maintained warrant and even bind, governments to act on their own opinion confirmed by the general opinion of mankind.” (P1846) Mill held everyone accountable to tell the truth; however he pointed that sometimes government must hold the truth in order to protect the society. I think the point that Mill is trying to make is that there will be no injustice in society if everyone tell the truth and respect others’ opinion; the law will apply to all, Church would not be misleading their followers…

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)_A Review of Southey’s Colloquies

Macaulay is one of the rare authors who saw the sacrifice of humans in the industrialization process as a positive thing. He was very optimist and believed that the improvement of society is natural. In ‘A review of Southey’s Colloquies’ Macaulay tried to convince the readers that all these hungers, struggle and fight will end and that society will be much more easier to live in. Considering all the injustice that was going on then I must say that reading Macaulay could have done some good to low and middle class people because of the encouragement he gave them. “We see the wealth of nations increasing, and all the art of life approaching nearer and nearer to perfection, in spite of the grossest corruption and the wildest profusion on the part of rulers.” (P1823) I agree that, the wealth of the nation is growing, but it must be understood that only a small part of the population benefit form it then; I must also say that Macaulay was seen into the future when he said that the art of life is approaching to perfection because it is heading that way, and a lot of improvement have been done by leaders since then. Even thought this author was writing for changes, for poor people, he still could be read by rich and was reaching to society as a whole. “We believe that, in spite of all the mis-government of the rulers, she has been almost richer and richer…but the tide is evidently coming in.” (P1823) When we read about all the injustice that was going on in England, society needed an author like Macaulay to get strength and look forward to the future. It is impossible to disagree with him as he laid the changes that will happen in the world in an accurate way; almost like a psychic :)
“Our rulers will best promote the improvement of the nation by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties…by maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of law, and by observing strict economy in every department of the State. Let the Government do this: the people will assuredly do the rest.” (P1824) Unlike the other authors, Macaulay did not just denounce the injustice; he also laid the steps to follow in order to improve. I believe he agreed there was injustice but he had faith that changes could happen; he begged the government to take the first steps and assure them that the people will follow those steps and be glad they did.
All those authors have different or sometimes the same style; regardless of the style: whether denouncing or giving step; they all had a positive impact on the direction the world has taken…