During the Victorian period, women were “strongly encouraged to adopt attributes of purity, domesticity, and submission” (Bland, Jr. 120). These values ​​and ideals have been projected into the writing of many different forms of literature directed by women. Harriet Jacobs' "The Life of a Slave" is an example of a slave narrative intended to evoke readers' sympathy while at the same time keeping them at a comfortable distance from the brutalities described in the text. Another example of this dichotomy is found in Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own," a feminist essay that challenges conventional anti-feminist sentiments prevalent during the Victorian age. Despite their differences, Jacobs and Woolf's works are both aimed at white female audiences. The predominant difference between their works is that Jacobs's writing conforms to her readers' expectations by extolling the attributes of purity, domesticity and submission, while Woolf breaks with convention and mocks these characteristics through the use of irony and of sarcasm. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay A careful reading of "Life of a Slave" and "A Room of One's Own" reveals that both authors appeal to a predominantly female audience. This fact is almost startlingly obvious in Jacobs's tale, which addresses a female reader directly: "But, O ye happy women, whose purity has been protected from childhood" (Jacobs 54). This passage demonstrates that Jacobs is directing her narrative voice toward a female audience and, more specifically, that she hopes to address the "white, Northern, feminine" (Fox-Genovese 7). The fact that he is trying to reach this group of people is exemplified by his writing style: he uses literary English and places quotation marks around grammatically "incorrect" slave dialogue. An interesting point to note is that when Jacobs herself is engaged in dialogue, she puts quotes around her own words, but instead of using ungrammatical dialogue as she does when transcribing the words of other slaves, she uses correct grammar. The following passage illustrates this point: "Don't run away Linda. Your grandmother is all prostrate with trouble now." sell them to anyone as long as he has me in his power." (Jacobs 96)The first two lines are spoken by a slave and are characterized by a lack of grammar and incorrect spelling. Subsequently the protagonist, Linda Brent, speaks using the grammar correct. This shows that Jacobs wants the reader to make a distinction between her and the slaves, she hopes to identify with the "white, northern female" and wants to portray herself on the same level as them incorporates many of the "attitudes and assumptions of the Anglo-American literate establishment" (Garfield 63) This is because Jacobs seeks to appeal to his target audience by amplifying the values ​​that are prominent in mainstream society and at the same time creating a sympathetic relationship with the reader by incorporating these values ​​into her narrative. The intention behind writing a slave narrative while conforming to the attitudes of white society is, as Frances Smith Foster notes, to "encourage Northern women to resist slavery" (63). Jacobs' abolitionist message may not have had as great an impact if he had written his slave narrative using exclusively "incorrect" grammar and following the speech patterns of slave dialogue. Jacobs's anti-slavery message was not directed at the slaves themselves, but rather at the women of the North. Examining Virginia Woolf's essay "Unaroom of one's own", it is clear that she also hopes to attract a female audience. The phrase "What had our mothers done then that they had no riches to leave us?" (Wolf 21). refers to daughters, so it is evident that Woolf's text is directed at women. Jane Marcus states that Woolf uses a "fictional narrative technique that requires open sisterhood as the reader's position" (Beja 158). , in which Woolf engages the reader and asks a question that she herself does not answer. This serves the dual purpose of forcing the reader to interact with the narrator and promoting critical thinking. Furthermore, this is an example of Woolf's willingness to challenge the "prevailing fashion among the intelligentsia": her writing breaks with the conventions of the Victorian age and produces a feminist text when feminism was out of fashion (156) While both Jacobs and Woolf aim for a white female audience, they do so with very different intentions. Jacobs tries to relate to the white Northern woman by extolling her values ​​and writing in traditional ("literary") English. She presents an abolitionist view of slave life while evoking sympathy from her audience. He urges his readers to resist slavery and to have compassion towards those who still suffer in bondage. Woolf, on the other hand, mocks the very values ​​that Jacobs venerates (purity, domesticity, and submission) through sarcasm and irony. Woolf points out that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she wants to write fiction" (Woolf 4)2E This illustrates Woolf's belief that women are economically oppressed and that their creativity is curtailed by this rampant oppression. the ideals and values ​​of the Victorian age are exemplified in "Life of a Slave Girl" because Jacobs incorporates many of these attributes into her writing. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese argues that "Jacobs never shows Linda beaten or raped, dirty or disfigured" (7) to avoid contaminating his narrative voice and his protagonist, Linda Brent. Had she done otherwise, she “would have been labeled unacceptably illicit in Victorian America” (Garfield 81). Instead of explicitly depicting sexual abuse, he uses confession as a means through which to reach his audience while preserving his pure identity. P. Gabrielle Forman references the phrase "Pity me and forgive me, O virtuous reader!", stating that "this passage acts to absolve [the reader] as much as it seeks to absolve Linda" (Jacobs 55; Garfield 81). The fact that Jacobs exonerates both herself and the white reader of the blame for these horrific events demonstrates that she is conforming to the puritanical values ​​of the Victorian age by avoiding vivid descriptions of the true brutality of a situation. He does this in an attempt to convince his readers that although Linda Brent is a slave, she is still a woman, just like them (Fox-Genovese 7). Woolf does not take on the challenging task of convincing her readers that she is like them. , because this fact is already presupposed. It is understood that Woolf, like her readers, is "pure". This, in essence, gives Woolf an advantage, because her readers can identify with her life, while they may have more difficulty relating to Jacobs' life as a slave. This highlights the fact that Woolf, as an upper-class woman, already has an established relationship with her audience, while Jacobs is trying to establish a largely artificial connection. This advantage allows Woolf to use irony and sarcasm to mock the conventions of the Victorian age, while Jacobs' writing must conform to them. This disparity explains why Jacobs merely alludes to the many brutalities of slavery, rather than openly discussing them. Being a victim ofsexual assault suggests that she is an object, rather than a "woman like them". Furthermore, this explains why P. Gabrielle Forman claims that Jacobs absolves both the reader and herself. Jacobs wants to exonerate the reader from the inherent guilt of being her slaveholder and, in essence, being considered a woman. If Jacobs had described the brutality of slavery in any detail, he would have lost the connection he sought to establish with his readers, because he would have deviated from Victorian standards of purity. This would have resulted in the alienation of her target audience, and her message to northern white women, urging them to renounce slavery, would have had less meaning because readers would not have been able to relate to the author. By successfully shaping her story around the values ​​of mass society, Jacobs is able to appeal to her target audience and convey a powerful message urging upper-class women to resist slavery. As Jean Fagan Yellin notes in her introduction to Jacobs' autobiography, "a number of women in the South responded to Linda Brent's experience as a woman and mother in addition to her experiences as a black woman and mother" (Bland Jr. 126) . This illustrates Jacobs' ability to penetrate beyond his target audience but, more importantly, demonstrates that by conforming to the values ​​of the Victorian age, Jacobs is able to effectively "mask" his blackness and evoke sympathy from his readers white. Jacobs's decision to espouse the ideal of motherhood throughout her writings elicits further sympathy from her readers. She exalts the ideal of domesticity because "nineteenth-century bourgeois culture elevated [motherhood] to unprecedented levels of sentimentality" (Fox-Genovese 4). Yellin's observation is confirmed when it becomes clear that using the theme of motherhood is an effective tool for relating to the reader. Since motherhood played a vital role in the Victorian lifestyle, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese believes that "Jacobs reshaped Linda Brent's memories of her mother for narrative purposes" (8). She connects this idea to Linda's lament about motherhood: "when I am gone, my children will not be able to remember me with the same satisfaction with which I remembered my mother" (Jacobs 90). She argues that although Linda could not remember much about her mother, because she was only six years old when her mother died (Jacobs 6), such memories serve "the important mission of upholding the ideal of motherhood." This shows that Jacobs supports the values ​​and ideals of the Victorian period; in this case the domestic ideal (Fox-Genovese 8). This example suggests that Jacobs may have fictionalized his writing slightly when describing his mother. However, this little deception allows her to appeal to her target audience by incorporating contemporary ideals into her writing. Timothy Dow Adams states that deviations from hard truths in autobiographies "are not just something that happens inevitably; rather, it is a highly strategic decision" (Adams X). If this principle is applied to Jacobs's depiction of motherhood, it becomes apparent that she chooses to lie because she hopes that by emphasizing the ideal of motherhood, she will be able to establish a relationship with her audience. have the arduous task of convincing his readers that he is like them; it already has a consolidated relationship with its female audience. This gives Woolf the freedom to use sarcasm when discussing the ideals that Jacobs glorifies. Instead of extolling the ideal of domesticity, he asks his readers to question the character of their mothers: what then had our mothers done that they had no wealth to leave us? Powder your nose? Looking at shop windows?Show off in the sun in Monte Carlo? (Woolf 21) In this passage, Woolf engages her female audience by laughing at the conventions of domestic life, which place women at an extraordinary economic disadvantage. She wonders what women have done in their lives when, in the end, they have no money to show for it. Furthermore, because Woolf is able to relate to her readers, she is free to express her belief that women have been too busy focusing on their appearance and "flaunting" themselves to have earned anything on their own. This supports Woolf's main argument that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" (Woolf 4). Wolf claims that the economic oppression that hinders women's creativity will be eliminated only after women break the conventions of domestic life and gain financial independence. It is clear that Woolf rejects domestic life, while Jacobs values ​​the feminine ideal. By examining the other ideals and values ​​espoused during the Victorian age, it becomes clear that this trend can be found in each author's texts. Jacobs conforms to the idea of ​​submission by portraying herself as inferior, while Woolf makes sarcastic comments about the inferiority of women. The following passage from Jacobs' text illustrates this point: What would you be, if you were born and raised a slave, with generations of slaves as your ancestors? I admit that the black man is inferior. But what makes it so? It is the ignorance that white men force him to live in. (Jacobs 44) This passage reveals that Jacobs is conforming to the ideal of submission, because he says, “I admit that the black man is inferior” (Jacobs 44). Jacobs clearly does not believe that the black man is truly inferior; she, however, thinks he is ignorant. He is ignorant because he continues to live in slavery, like his ancestors. She calls attention to this fact because it is not the black man's fault that he is inferior; it is the institution of slavery that makes it so. Jacobs makes this statement subtly because he doesn't want to offend his target audience to the point where they are upset by his frankness. Instead, she hopes to present a kinder perspective on why the black man is inferior and evoke her audience's sympathy as she urges Northern women to blame slavery. Woolf mocks the ideal of submission through the use of sarcasm and irony, while Jacobs clearly does not. The following passage shows Woolf's willingness to mock the values ​​of the Victorian age: Women have served throughout these centuries as mirrors possessing the magical and delightful power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size. Without that power the earth would probably still be swamp and jungle. The glories of all our wars would be unknown. (Woolf 35) An analysis of this passage reveals that Woolf is mocking the convention of submission. He claims that women are just tools that men use to boost their egos. She uses the metaphor of women being "mirrors", enlarging men to twice their size. By this, Woolf means that men see themselves as superior and objectify women to ensure their inferiority. The piece has no subdued tone; he is, rather, extraordinarily biting and sarcastic. Woolf sarcastically states that the earth would not be civilized if it were not for man. He also writes that “The glories of all our wars would be unknown,” essentially arguing that history would not exist if it were not for man. It is important to note her sarcastic tone, because Woolf is arguing the opposite of what she is actually writing. He does not believe that women have not contributed to the civilization of society; on the contrary, he claims that the" (36).., 1989.